Laboratory for Prehistoric Archaeology

Research Areas

Prehistory of the Jordan River

For over 10,000 years, people returned to the same spot on the southern edge of the Paleo-Hula Lake to exploit aquatic resources. They left fishhooks and fishing weights in the layers of the Epipaleolithic (EP) site of Jordan River Dureijat (JRD), evidence for evolution in fishing technology and changing lifeways.

JRD is an ephemeral, short-term encampment located on the shore of Paleolake Hula that was intermittently occupied over a span of about 10,000 years (ca. 20,000 to 10,000 cal BP) during the Levantine Epipaleolithic period.

The 14C chronology of JRD demonstrates that its upper layers accumulated during the Early Levantine Neolithic and the lowest has remains dating to ca. 20k years BP, hence including the entire Levantine EP.

This time interval saw the most significant change in human history – the shift from nomadic hunter-gatherer bands to the sedentary agricultural communities of the Neolithic. At the same time, world climate witnessed a dramatic change with the collapse of the Ice Age regime, from the last glacial maximum (LGM) to onset of the present inter-glacial, the Holocene. Sites documenting the entire EP period are rare in the Levant, and the JRD layers are also unique in their superb preservation of organic, in particular, botanic remains.

Such remains provide excellent proxies for studying the chronology and magnitude of post-LGM climatic and environmental changes in the Levant, the nature and magnitude of which are highly disputed. A primary lacuna in the debate is the factor of time. It is difficult to evaluate causes and effects of climate change absent solid comparative data for the magnitude of past climate changes over time.

Staff and Researchers

Professor Gonen Sharon - Head of the laboratory

Mail: [email protected]

Research at the Laboratory

Gesher Benot Ya´aqov - North of Bridge Acheulian

The Acheulian locality, NBA (North of Bridge Acheulian), was discovered north of the well-known Early-Middle Pleistocene site of Gesher Benot Ya´aqov (GBY) as a result of a massive drainage operation of the Jordan River in 1999. A preliminary test excavation enabled reconstruction of the stratigraphy of the site’s layers. The Ar/Ar date of 658 ± 15 ka was determined for a basalt flow located immediately below the NBA in situ archaeological horizon, and is one of the few known dates for any Acheulian site in the Levant. The site’s rich surface collection includes a lithic assemblage resembling that of the nearby GBY Acheulian site and is dominated by basalt handaxes and cleavers. However, the assemblage has some marked differences from that of GBY, enlarging our understanding of the Levantine Acheulian variability. The NBA fauna resembles that of GBY in the species represented and in its molluscs. The main contribution of the NBA assemblage comes from the confirmation of certain aspects of the GBY lithic industry and from the few but marked differences that do appear between the assemblages. These differences deepen our knowledge of the behavior and ways of life of Acheulian hominins on the shores of the Paleo-Hula Lake during the Early Middle Pleistocene.

מעבדה לארכיאולוגיה פרהיסטורית תצלומי להבים מגשר בנות יעקב

Jordan River Dureijat

For over 10,000 years, people returned to the same spot on the southern edge of the Paleo-Hula Lake to exploit aquatic resources. They left fishhooks and fishing weights in the layers of the Epipaleolithic (EP) site of Jordan River Dureijat (JRD), evidence for evolution in fishing technology and changing lifeways.

JRD is an ephemeral, short-term encampment located on the shore of Paleolake Hula that was intermittently occupied over a span of about 10,000 years (ca. 20,000 to 10,000 cal BP) during the Levantine Epipaleolithic period.

The 14C chronology of JRD demonstrates that its upper layers accumulated during the Early Levantine Neolithic and the lowest has remains dating to ca. 20k years BP, hence including the entire Levantine EP.

This time interval saw the most significant change in human history – the shift from nomadic hunter-gatherer bands to the sedentary agricultural communities of the Neolithic. At the same time, world climate witnessed a dramatic change with the collapse of the Ice Age regime, from the last glacial maximum (LGM) to onset of the present inter-glacial, the Holocene. Sites documenting the entire EP period are rare in the Levant, and the JRD layers are also unique in their superb preservation of organic, in particular, botanic remains.

Such remains provide excellent proxies for studying the chronology and magnitude of post-LGM climatic and environmental changes in the Levant, the nature and magnitude of which are highly disputed. A primary lacuna in the debate is the factor of time. It is difficult to evaluate causes and effects of climate change absent solid comparative data for the magnitude of past climate changes over time.

המעבדה לאריכאולוגיה פרהיסטורית מדרגות הירדן

Nahal Mahanyeem Outlet

Eight excavation seasons at the Mousterian site of Nahal Mahanyeem Outlet (NMO) on the banks of the Upper Jordan River offer a glimpse into the life ways of MP people during a hunting expedition in the Northern Dead Sea Rift.

This open-air site, OSL dated to ca. 60ky BP, is interpreted as recording a series of short-term hunting events. The NMO horizons, with their small number of lithic artifacts, unique typological composition and evidence for task specific hunting and butchering activity fit within Binford’s definition of a “task location”.

Many of the models suggested to describe site pattern and mobility activity, such as the foraging and logistical models, are based primarily upon theoretical consideration and ethnographic evidence. NMO gives us the opportunity to test such models based on archaeological evidence.

פהיסטוריה החפירות בשפך נחל מחניים תצלום מעובד

פרהיסטוריה תרשים החפירות בשפך נחל מחניים

Selected Publications

Sharon, G., Grosman, L., Allué, E., Barash, A., Bar-Yosef Mayer, D. E., Biton, R., Bunin, E., Langgut, D., Melamed, Y., Mischke, S., Valletta, F. and Munro, N. 2020. Jordan River Dureijat: 10,000 years of intermittent Epipaleolithic activity on the shore of Paleolake Hula. PaleoAnthropolgy, 2020:34–64.

Sharon, G. and Berger, U. 2020. Rock art in south Levantine dolmens. Asian Archaeology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41826-020-00033-3

Langgut, D., Cheddadi, R. and Sharon, G. 2021. Climate and environmental reconstruction of the Epipaleolithic Mediterranean Levant (22-12 ka). Quaternary Science Review, 270, 107170. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.QUASCIREV.2021.107170 Q1.IF4.571

Pedergnana, A., Cristiani, E., Munro, N., Valletta, F. and Sharon, G. 2021. Early line and hook fishing at the Epipaleolithic site of Jordan River Dureijat (Northern Israel). PLoS ONE, 16(10), e0257710. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0257710 Q1. IF 3.24

Sharon, G., Muller, A. and Gubenko, N. 2022. Ma’ayan Barukh - in search of an Acheulian site. Mitekufat Haeven: Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 52:6-31.

Shavit, A. and Sharon, G. 2023. ETI can clarify debates over the Neolithic revolution. Philosophical Transactions B of the Royal Society. Q1.

Martin-Viveros J. I., Oron M, Ollé A, Chacón M. G. and Sharon G. 2023. Butchering knives and hafting at the Late Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO), Israel. Scientific Reports, 13(1):112. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27321-5

Yaroshevich, A., Oron, M., & Sharon, G. (2023). Big-game hunting during the late Middle Paleolithic in the Levant: Insights into technology and behavior from Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet, Upper Jordan River, israel. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 47, 103777. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JASREP.2022.103777