Beersheba culture
The Beersheba culture is a Late Chalcolithic archaeological culture of the late 5th millennium BC (c. 4200–4000 BC), that was discovered in several sites near Beersheba, in the Beersheba Valley, in the northern Negev, in the 1950s. It is considered to be a phase of the Ghassulian culture. Its main sites are Bir Abu Matar, Bir Tzafad and Bir Safadi, but additional sites belonging to this cultural phase have been discovered in other parts of southern Israel.[1][2]
History
In the first phase of settlement, the people of the Beersheba culture lived in underground dwellings, dug in the soft loess of the Beersheba Valley. Several of these settlements were constructed in the banks of the Beersheba Creek, in areas where water could be obtained by digging wells. In the second phase, semi-subterranean houses were built on top of underground houses that had collapsed and, in the third and last phase, houses were built completely above ground on stone foundations.[1][2] The walls of the houses in the later two phases were built from pisé and the roofs consisted of branches covered in clay which lay on top of two large crossed support beams.[1][3]
The different settlements of this culture were part of an economical system - they traded with one another and with other, more distant, populations. In addition to
Subsistence
The main source of subsistence for the people of the Beersheba culture was animal husbandry. They raised
Grains of
Industry
The different settlements of the Beersheba culture tended to specialize in particular types of craft. Bir Abu Matar, for instance, specialized in smelting and casting
Other settlements, such as Bir Tzafad, specialized in ivory carving. The ivory was probably brought here from Africa.[5]
People of this culture also produced a multitude of stone (flint) tools, chief among which were fan scrapers, used mainly for working leather.[1][3][6] The source material for these tools was usually local, but sometimes imported.[3] Bone tools - such as picks, needles, combs and sickles - were also in use.
Trade
Many trading routes go through the Negev - those connecting Northern Arabia with the Mediterranean coastline and the ones connecting Egypt with the Levant. Many of these routes pass near Beersheba, and it seems that people of the Beersheba culture had taken an active part in it.[5]
The locals had to import many of the raw materials used in their industries - the ivory was brought from Africa
Ivory statuettes of this culture include motifs found in artifacts from pre-dynastic Upper Egypt (Amratian and Gerzean cultures).[1]
Abandonment
It is not known for sure why the sites of the Beersheba culture had been abandoned by their settlers. It is evident the residents intended to return - many houses were found, during excavations, with all their rooms sealed with large stone slabs and all the family's house appliances sealed neatly in one of the storage spaces. It may have been due to climate changes or because of a deterioration of security conditions in the region at the end of the 5th millennium BC. It has also been suggested that the residents of these sites had been accustomed to changing their lifestyle as circumstances dictated - from nomadic to sedentary and vice versa - and that the abandonment incidents and the subsequent re-settling incidents had been a result of such lifestyle changes, probably in response to changing circumstances.
It is possible that the population of this culture mixed with new immigrants from the north to form the regional population of the
See also
- Teleilat el Ghassul
- Archaeology of Israel
- Chalcolithic temple of Ein Gedi
References
- ^ ISBN 978-9650500504.
- ^ a b "Israel Antiquities Authority". www.antiquities.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2017-10-16.
- ^ .
- ^ "Israel Antiquities Authority". www.antiquities.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2017-10-25.
- ^ a b c d "קראו בכותר - באר שבע ואתריה". www.kotar.co.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2017-10-27.
- ISSN 2055-0472.
- ^ "Palestine | History, People, & Religion". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
Sources
- Isaac Gilead, A New Look at Chalcolithic Beer-Sheba, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol 50, No. 2. (June, 1987), pp 110–117
- Jean Perrot, The excavation at Tell Abu-Matar near Beer-Sheba (1953-1954), Journal of the Israel Exploration Society, issue 18 (1953), pp 121–128
- Steven Rozen, Itzhak Gil'ad, Peter Fabian, The Matar Ruins (Bir Matar), 1990-1991, Archaeology News, 99 (1993), pp 88–89
- Itzhak Gil'ad, Peter Fabian, Beersheba - A Budding Metropolis (edited by Yehuda Gross and Ester Meir-Galitzinstein), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Publishing, 2008.
- Jean Perrot, Beersheba, The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Israel Exploration Society, 1992.
- David Ussishkin, The Chalcolithic Period in Israel, Quadmoniot, Year 3, Books 3 & 12, 1970.
- ISBN 965-302-483-3.