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1999 Jordan River Drainage Project Damages Gesher Benot Ya'aqov: a Preliminary study of the archaeological and geological implications

Authors:
Gonen Sharon at Tel-Hai
Gonen Sharon
  • Tel-Hai
C.S. Feibel
C.S. Feibel
C.S. Feibel
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S. Belitzky
S. Belitzky
S. Belitzky
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Marder Ofer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Marder Ofer
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Erratum
1. Author names – for “Hamudi M. Khalaily” read “Hamudi Khalaily”.
2. Introduction Summary line 5 – for “an previously” read “a previously”.
3. Figure 6 – title should be “Piles of discarded sediments at the Epi-Paleolithic
site at GBY”.
4. Figure 9 – Scale is incorrect.
5. Figure 7 – for “Loess conglomerate” read “Loose conglomerate”
6. Table 1 – for “Acheulin” read “Acheulian”.
7. Figure 12 – Scale is correct only for # 3 and 4.
8. Figure 14 – a. The pairs of numbers 1&2, 3&4 and 5&6 are two faces of the
same tools.
b. Scale is incorrect.
9. Note 1 line 1 – for “Antiquity Authoriy” read “ Antiquity Authority”.
... Additional preliminary results highlighted excellent preservation of botanical remains and a rich faunal assemblage including an unusually rich mollusk community. The lithic assemblage evidenced at least two archaeological entities, attributed to the Early and Middle EP (Marder et al. 2015;Sharon et al. 2002a;. Since the site's discovery, five seasons of excavation have been completed. ...
... JRD was discovered during an archaeological survey preceding a massive drainage operation of the Jordan River in December 1999 (Sharon et al. 2002a;. The site was discovered on the east bank of the Jordan River some 1300m north of the Benot Ya´aqov Bridge (Figure 2). ...
... In the summer of 2002, a survey and 1m x 1m test excavation was conducted to evaluate the damage of the drainage operation. Full accounts of the survey and test excavation have been published by Marder et al. (2015) and Sharon et al. (2002a;. The archaeological layers are comprised of a sequence of lacustrine sediments deposited as water levels fluctuated in Paleolake Hula. ...
Jordan River Dureijat: 10,000 Years of Intermittent Epipaleolithic Activity on the Shore of Paleolake Hula
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2020
For more than 10,000 years between the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum and the beginning of the Holocene, people repeatedly returned to the same spot on the southern edge of Paleolake Hula in the Upper Jordan Valley to fish, hunt and exploit other aquatic or semi-aquatic resources at the Epipaleolithic site of Jordan River Dureijat. Preliminary data from the site reveal intermittent occupation of this locale by small groups of hunter-gatherers who engaged in short-term, task-specific activities when lake levels dropped and exposed the site. The unique waterlogged conditions at Jordan River Dureijat capture an unusually well-preserved record of human subsistence and other activities, as well as local environmental conditions across much of the Epipaleolithic. Here we report the results of the first four seasons of excavation and interpret the understudied logistical activities of Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers who we know better from their more sedentary camps.
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... Large-scale drainage operations carried out during the 1950s drained most of the lake, leaving only a small nature reserve. Evidence from JRD indicates that during the end of the Pleistocene-early Holocene, Paleolake Hula extended more than 2 km south of its historically documented boundaries ( Fig. 2; Sharon et al., 1999). ...
... The JRD site, located 60e70 m asl, was discovered during an archaeological survey preceding a massive drainage operation of the Jordan River in December 1999. The archaeological materialbearing horizons of JRD stretch over 50 m on the east bank of the artificial Jordan River trench south of the outlet of the small Dureijat Stream (Sharon et al., 1999;Marder et al., 2015). ...
Climate and environmental reconstruction of the Epipaleolithic Mediterranean Levant (22.0–11.9 ka cal. BP)
Article
  • Oct 2021
  • QUATERNARY SCI REV
This study presents, for the first time, an environmental reconstruction of a sequence spanning nearly the entire Mediterranean Epipaleolithic (∼22.0–11.9 ka cal. BP). The study is based on a well-dated, high-resolution pollen record recovered from the waterlogged archaeological site Jordan River Dureijat (JRD), located on the banks of Paleolake Hula. JRD's continuous sequence enabled us to build a pollen-based paleoclimate model providing a solid background for the dramatic cultural changes that occurred in the region during this period. Taxonomic identification of the waterlogged wood assemblage collected from JRD was used to fine-tune the paleoenvironmental reconstruction. The chronological framework is based on radiocarbon dating and the typology of archaeological findings. The LGM (∼22–19 ka cal. BP) was found to be the coldest period of the sequence, marked by a distinct decrease in the reconstructed January temperatures of up to 5°C lower than today, while mean annual precipitation was only slightly lower than the present-day average (∼450 vs. 515 mm, respectively). The wettest and warmest period of the record was identified between ∼14.9 and 13.0 ka cal. BP, with maximum values of 545 mm mean annual precipitation reached at ∼14.5 ka cal. BP. This time interval is synchronized with the global warm and moist Bølling-Allerød interstadial as well as with the onset of the Natufian culture and the emergence of sedentism in the Levant. The Younger Dryas began around 12.9 ka cal. BP and was identified as an exceptional period by the JRD sequence with low temperatures and minimal climatic seasonality contrast: an increase in rain contribution during spring, summer, and autumn was documented concurrently with a significant decrease in winter precipitation. The detailed vegetation and climatological reconstruction presented in this study serves as backdrop to seminal events in human history: the transition from small nomadic groups of hunter-gatherers to the sedentary villages of the Natufian, eventually transitioning to the agricultural, complex communities of the Neolithic.
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... In additional excavations, primarily north of the Benot Ya'aqov Bridge (Gilead 1968;Sharon et al. 2010;Stekelis 1960), flint handaxes were found in very low numbers within the excavated layers (Sharon 2007), but hundreds of flint handaxes, usually well crafted, were collected from the different Acheulian localities in the vicinity of these sites. Detailed ICP-MS geochemical analysis of ten flint handaxes collected at the locality known as North of Bridge Acheulian (NBA, Grosman et al. 2011;Sharon et al. 2002Sharon et al. , 2010 situated 600 m north of GBY, showed that nine of the ten were made of Eocene flint, similar to the high-quality flint found in the Dishon E&R complex, while the tenth was from either an Eocene or a Cenomanian source. This analysis, combined with geological surveys of rock exposures and streambeds of multiple streams flowing into the Hula Valley from possible primary flint sources, demonstrated that suitable flint for the production of the GBY handaxes was either collected from a limited secondary Eocene source at the Dishon streambed located eight km Figure 2. Geography, geology, archaeological sites, and E&R localities in the Dishon E&R complex area (geological map: Levitte and Sneh. ...
Quarries as Places of Significance in the Lower Paleolithic Holy Triad of Elephants, Water, and Stone
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2024
Human dependency on stone has its origins in Lower Paleolithic times, and some of the most primordial elements in human-stone relationships are rooted in those early days. In this paper, we focus our attention on extensive Paleolithic stone quarries discovered and studied in the Galilee, Israel. We propose a triadic model that connects stone outcrops, elephants, and water bodies to shed light on what made stone quarries places of significance, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic, and continuing throughout the ages.
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... At other Pleistocene sites in the Levant, stone balls (items typically called polyhedrons, sub-spheroids, spheroids and bolas) tend to occur only sporadically and in small numbers, if at all. Some examples from the Levant include 12 stone balls from the Oldowan layers at Hummal [19], 14 from Latamne [36], 3 from 'Evron Landfill [37], 12 from the North of Bridge Acheulean locality of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov [20,38], 7 from Revadim [24,39] and 30 from the Amudian layers of Qesem Cave [22,23,39]. ...
The limestone spheroids of ‘Ubeidiya: intentional imposition of symmetric geometry by early hominins?
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2023
Spheroids are one of the least understood lithic items yet are one of the most enduring, spanning from the Oldowan to the Middle Palaeolithic. Why and how they were made remains highly debated. We seek to address whether spheroids represent unintentional by-products of percussive tasks or if they were intentionally knapped tools with specific manufacturing goals. We apply novel three-dimensional analysis methods, including spherical harmonics and surface curvature, to 150 limestone spheroids from ‘Ubeidiya (ca 1.4 Ma), presently the earliest Acheulean occurrence outside of Africa, to bring a new perspective to these enigmatic artefacts. We reconstruct the spheroid reduction sequence based on trends in their scar facets and geometry, finding that the spheroid makers at ‘Ubeidiya followed a premeditated reduction strategy. During their manufacture, the spheroids do not become smoother, but they become markedly more spherical. They approach an ideal sphere, a feat that likely required skilful knapping and a preconceived goal. Acheulean bifaces are currently thought to represent the earliest evidence of hominins imposing a premeditated, symmetrical shape on stone. The intentional production of sphere-like objects at ‘Ubeidiya similarly shows evidence of Acheulean hominins desiring and achieving intentional geometry and symmetry in stone.
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... Additional localities have been tested, primarily north of the Benot Ya'aqov Bridge (Gilead, 1968;Sharon et al., 2010;Stekelis, 1960). The flint handaxes sampled in the current study were collected at the northern exposure of the BYF at the locality known as North of Bridge Acheulian (NBA; Grosman et al., 2011;Sharon et al., 2002Sharon et al., , 2010. ...
Evidence for sophisticated raw material procurement strategies during the Lower Paleolithic-Hula Valley case study
Article
  • Jun 2023
  • GEOARCHAEOLOGY
The Hula Valley has two key Acheulian sites: Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY), a large flake Acheulian site with hundreds of basalt bifaces and a significant number of flint handaxes, and Ma'ayan Barukh (MB), where more than 3500 flint handaxes were collected. Over the last one million years, the valley was filled by alluvium and basalt flows, devoid of flint sources suitable for handaxe production. We conducted archaeological and geological surveys combined with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry geochemical study to determine the source(s) of flint, comparing elemental compositions of handaxes from GBY and MB with those of different flint sources using a novel statistical method. The results demonstrate that Hula Valley Acheulian flint handaxes were derived from Eocene flint. For GBY, the nearest matching source for its small number of excavated handaxes is a secondary deposit of the Dishon streambed found~8 km northwest of the site. A more likely source for both GBY and the thousands of MB handaxes is the Dishon flint extraction and reduction complex located 20 km to the west, a possibility also supported by the near absence of production waste flakes at the sites themselves. These findings support direct procurement strategy as early as the Lower Paleolithic.
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... Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO) is located on the east bank of the Upper Jordan River, at its outflow south of the Hula Valley (Fig. 1). The site was discovered in 1999 during intensive drainage works 67 and was excavated between 2007 and 2014. The geological sequence of the Upper Jordan River in the vicinity of the site is highly complex due to massive tectonics and volcanism [68][69][70] , yet the stratigraphy of NMO is relatively straightforward 71 . ...
Butchering knives and hafting at the Late Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO), Israel
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2023
Much of what is known about human behavior and subsistence strategies in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic comes from long sequences from caves and rock shelters. In this context, studies of stone tool function have traditionally focused on determining the use of Levallois points and triangular elements, either as projectiles or, more rarely, multipurpose knives. Little is known about such tool use and hafting in Middle Paleolithic open-air sites in the Levant through the systematic application of micro-wear analysis. Here we report the results of a low and high-power study performed on the lithic assemblage of the Late Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO, Israel). Most pointed items, including Levallois and non-Levallois points, were used as butchering knives, many of them while hafted; to a much lesser extent they were also used for hide, bone, and wood/plant processing activities. Blades and flakes were mostly handheld and used as butchering knives, with hide, bone, antler, and wood/plant-processing tasks being rare. Hafted artifacts include morphologies and activities for which hafting is not required, indicating that NMO inhabitants possessed varied hafting expertise. Wood/plant processing tools, some of which were hafted, attest that manufacture and maintenance tasks were planned well in advance of game procurement at the site. These results attest to early evidence of hafted butchering knives and hafted plant processing tools for a Late Middle Paleolithic open-air site in the Levant, and support previous interpretations of NMO as a short-term task-specific location focused on animal processing activities, mostly butchery.
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... JRD is located on the east bank of the Upper Jordan River where it flows south out of the Hula Valley in northern Israel (Fig 1). The site was discovered during an archaeological survey preceding a massive drainage operation of the Jordan River in 1999 [67,68]. JRD's archaeological horizons stretch across 50 m of the river bank adjacent to the outlet of the small Dureijat Stream (Fig 1). ...
Early line and hook fishing at the Epipaleolithic site of Jordan River Dureijat (Northern Israel)
Article
Full-text available
Nineteen broken and complete bone fish hooks and six grooved stones recovered from the Epipaleolithic site of Jordan River Dureijat in the Hula Valley of Israel represent the largest collection of fishing technology from the Epipaleolithic and Paleolithic periods. Although Jordan River Dureijat was occupied throughout the Epipaleolithic (~20–10 kya the fish hooks appear only at the later stage of this period (15,000–12,000 cal BP). This paper presents a multidimensional study of the hooks, grooved stones, site context, and the fish assemblage from macro and micro perspectives following technological, use wear, residue and zooarchaeological approaches. The study of the fish hooks reveals significant variability in hook size, shape and feature type and provides the first evidence that several landmark innovations in fishing technology were already in use at this early date. These include inner and outer barbs, a variety of line attachment techniques including knobs, grooves and adhesives and some of the earliest evidence for artificial lures. Wear on the grooved stones is consistent with their use as sinkers while plant fibers recovered from the grooves of one hook shank and one stone suggest the use of fishing line. This together with associations between the grooved stones and hooks in the same archaeological layers, suggests the emergence of a sophisticated line and hook technology. The complexity of this technology is highlighted by the multiple steps required to manufacture each component and combine them into an integrated system. The appearance of such technology in the Levantine Epipaleolithic record reflects a deep knowledge of fish behavior and ecology. This coincides with significant larger-scale patterns in subsistence evolution, namely broad spectrum foraging, which is an important first signal of the beginning of the transition to agriculture in this region.
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Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Jordan River Dureijat archeological site reveal subtle late Pleistocene water-level changes at Lake Hula, Jordan Valley, Israel
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2023
  • J PALEOLIMNOL
Sedimentary records of environmental conditions retrieved from archeological sites provide valuable insight into the milieux of ancient humans and context to understand societal and cultural changes. At Jordan River Dureijat, an open-air site in Israel’s Hula Valley documenting the entire Epipaleolithic period as well as the Early Neolithic, sediments exposed on the walls of the excavation pit reveal a sequence of lacustrine deposits accumulated continuously between c. 21.1 and 11.3 cal ka BP near the southeast margin of Paleolake Hula. Through sediment-grain-size, geochemical, and paleontological analyses, we describe the nature of the Paleolake Hula from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the start of the Holocene. Until c. 17.2 cal ka BP, Paleolake Hula existed as a relatively large and well-buffered waterbody. A rapid and substantial drawdown of the lake occurred at 17.2 cal ka BP, followed by more frequent changes in the position of the shoreline in a smaller and shallower lake, resulting in the deposition of alternating near-shore and deeper lacustrine facies. Since the LGM, seven beds of structureless, silty sediments preserve archeological artifacts belonging to three Epipaleolithic cultures as well as the Early Neolithic pre-pottery Neolithic A culture. These sediments were deposited during phases of low lake level during which times humans waded into the shallow part of the lake, leaving behind stone and bone tools such as bladelets, lunates and burins, fishing hooks, line weights and net sinkers. Using radiocarbon-dated charcoal and a Bayesian statistical model, we produced a chronostratigraphic model for the archeological site, which enables the comparison of proxy paleoclimate records produced from this site’s sediments with regional archives as well as with global trends and changes in the Northern Hemisphere climate. Periods of low lake stands are correlated with the end of the LGM, Heinrich Event 1, and the beginning of the Younger Dryas Stadial. High water stands occurred contemporaneously with the peak of the LGM and during the Bølling–Allerød interstadial. This new water-level record from Lake Hula confirms that lake-level changes here broadly paralleled those of the Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee during the late Pleistocene, highlighting the importance of northern water sources to the overall water balance of the lakes along the Dead Sea Transform.
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Big-game hunting during the late Middle Paleolithic in the Levant: Insights into technology and behavior from Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet, Upper Jordan River, israel
Article
  • Dec 2022
  • JASR
Examination of the complete assemblage of pointed artefacts from the short-term kill-butchering site of Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO), Upper Jordan River, enabled the first holistic reconstruction of big-game procurement during the Late Middle Paleolithic in the Levant. The detailed analysis of diagnostic impact fractures (DIF) observed on the artefacts, in conjunction with their morpho-metric characteristics, indicates a predominant use of low velocity weapons such as thrusting and throwing spears (javelins). Reconstruction of NMO hunting techniques was based upon these results in combination with the site landscape features, faunal remains, and ethnographic record. The particularities of spear use recorded for modern hunter-gatherers may explain the relatively low frequency of DIF observed on pointed artefacts from the NMO assemblage and shed light on their techno-typological diversity. The study exemplifies the advantage of combined analysis of projectile damage and morpho-metric characteristics of the points.
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