Before History: The Golan’s Chalcolithic Heritage

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This is the story of an archaeological adventure that began over 20 years ago in the Golan. It continues even today.

In 1973, while making a series of probes along the line of a projected new highway on the Golan Heights, I came upon sherds belonging to a large storage jar decorated with concentric bands in a rope-like pattern. This kind of vessel is typical of the Chalcolithic period (dated c. 4500–3500 B.C.E.). It proved to be the first reliable evidence of a remarkable culture on the Golan that existed nearly 6,000 years ago. To appreciate the great Chalcolithic culture, we must remember that it prospered about 2,000 years before Israel began to emerge in the highlands of Canaan. Even the most rudimentary writing did not appear for another millennium, and the Semitic alphabet was not invented until two millennia following the floruit of Chalcolithic culture. We can understand the Chalcolithic people only from the 056artifacts they left behind.

The discovery of a typical storage jar—and thus of the Chalcolithic culture on the Golan—was by no means the first evidence of these people. They were already known from Teleilat el-Ghassul, located northeast of the Dead Sea; from sites in the Beersheba region and the Negev; from burial caves on Israel’s Coastal Plain; and from sites in the Judean desert area.

The caves in the Coastal Plain revealed decorated pottery ossuaries, or bone boxes, containing disarticulated bones from Chalcolithic secondary burials (see the sidebar “Chalcolithic Treasures: The Galilee”).

From an almost inaccessible cave in Nahal Mishmar in the Dead Sea region came a unique hoard of more than 400 cultic objects wrapped in a reed mat (see the sidebar “Chalcolithic Treasures: Nahal Mishmar”). The cache from the Cave of the Treasure, as this Judean desert site came to be known, included 80 copper “standards” (most of them hollow), decorated with incised geometric patterns, knobs, branches, figures of birds and animals (including ibex, deer, wild goats, eagles and a human face); 10 copper “crowns,” all but one decorated with architectural designs, birds, animals, a human face, a star, horns and various incised geometric motifs; over 240 copper maceheads, as well as 6 of hematite and 1 of limestone; 20 copper chisels and axes; 5 sickle-like objects made of hippopotamus tusk, perforated with series of holes; and sundry other copper objects.

Some scholars have suggested that this treasure hoard was the ritual paraphernalia taken from the nearby Chalcolithic shrine above the spring at Ein Gedi and placed in the cave in a time of danger.¹ Others suggest that the treasure was the stock-in-trade of an itinerant copper-working group.²

A related Chalcolithic culture has been uncovered at a number of sites on both sides of the Beersheba valley, where subterranean rooms and tunnels (possibly representing an earlier phase of occupation) lie below rectangular houses (see the sidebar “Chalcolithic Treasures: Beersheba and the Negev”). In addition to a wide range of pottery, stone and flint artifacts, these sites yielded beautifully worked ivory figurines of men and women, the former standing rigidly with their arms held close to the body. With strongly emphasized sexual organs, the statuettes are clearly connected with a fertility cult. Other ivory objects include a ceremonial sickle, a box decorated with a punctured floral design and hairpins in the form of a bird or a naked woman. Metal artifacts found in the Beersheba region include “standards” and axes similar to the collection from the Cave of the Treasure. Of special significance is evidence of local manufacture; metalworking equipment and slag were found at three different sites, among them Shiqmim.^a

While neither metal nor ivory has come to light at any of the Golan sites, the Chalcolithic people who settled there were by no means without artistic skills, as is evident from the wide range of their decorated pottery vessels and, above all, their finely sculpted basalt pillar figures.

Despite distinctive regional characteristics, a continually growing number of sites on both sides of the Jordan displays features found in the Golan: rectilinear houses; an economy based primarily on agriculture and pastoralism, yet including specialized crafts; a basically similar flint tool-kit; and fundamental cultic beliefs expressed through a variety of materials and artistic forms, all inspired by the desire to increase the fertility of humans, their flocks and the fields on which they depend for subsistence.³

While the Chalcolithic culture in the central Golan shares these characteristics with other sites, it also exhibits features specific to the region. In season after season of excavation and exploratory probes at ten different sites (more than a score were identified during surveys of the area), the story of the people who lived in these early villages has gradually unfolded.

The largest of the Golan sites is Rasm H|arbush, the only one marked by a modern name. There is little to distinguish it from the surrounding terrain save for dolmen tombs erected some 1,500 years after the Chalcolithic period, often upon the ruins of earlier 058structures. Built of unworked stone blocks, hundreds of different-sized dolmens are scattered over the slopes in this part of the Golan. (The term “dolmen” derives from the old Breton words: dol [table] and men [stone].) Many dolmens were partially or completely covered by a tumulus (or cairn) of heaped-up stones.

The untrained eye has difficulty in distinguishing the remains of Chalcolithic settlements in the Golan from the surrounding fields. One sees only a landscape that is strewn with basalt boulders and the later dolmens, though the practiced eye can easily detect the lines of ancient walls.

Some 30 to 40 houses probably stood at Rasm H|arbush, though some were destroyed by a highway that now crosses the site. Unwalled and undefended, the ancient settlement had no large “public” building. It was thus an egalitarian community. The settlement 059consisted of a series of six more-or-less parallel rows of houses built in chain formation, reflecting a social organization based on extended families. A number of isolated and peripheral structures stood nearby.

As at all the investigated sites, the houses are rectangular. The long axis is oriented more-or-less from east to west, the direction of the natural slope of the terrain. The entrance is in the long south wall. Adjacent houses in each series share a common cross-wall (sometimes with non-aligned corners). The size of the clan-related family no doubt determined the number of houses in a chain. While houses vary in size, many measure about 50 feet long by 20 feet wide. The walls, originally over 6 feet high, were built without mortar with carefully chosen, unworked, basalt blocks. Abundant in the Golan and the Galilee, basalt is an extremely hard, impermeable, black, volcanic rock. The floors were roughly paved with smaller stones, often combined with the natural bedrock surface.

In many of the houses, internal walls created small rooms and storerooms, the latter often at the western end. The houses were probably roofed with short beams laid from the outer to the internal walls. The length of the timber available for beams dictated the size of the relatively narrow rooms. In Chalcolithic times, local tree cover in central Golan consisted largely of Tabor oaks. Burnt olive pits and charred olive-wood remains indicate that the olive tree was cultivated. Both Tabor oaks and olive trees have relatively short, twisting branches that could have roofed only small areas. Several short beams joined together, however, could have spanned a 50-foot-long building, especially if the beams were supported by a series of wooden posts set on flat paving stones. In the course of time, the wooden posts would 066have disintegrated and their bases would have become indistinguishable from the rest of the floor stones. If piers made of piled-up boulders had been used to underpin the roof, they too would eventually have disintegrated and merged with the stone debris from the walls, leaving no trace of their original function.

Flat roofs were probably the rule, with occasional gables, as is the case in many peasant houses throughout the Middle East even today. Brushwood, reeds, thatch, branches, animal skins and mud would have covered the timber framework, as from time immemorial. No trace of organic materials—except in carbonized form—could have survived thousands of years of the Golan’s severe winters, hot summers and fierce east winds.

Many of the settlements were situated on the banks of either a perennial or seasonal stream, such areas being preferred for agriculture. Owing to the impermeability of the ubiquitous volcanic basalt, considerable runoff enriches the adjacent soil in winter, and the humidity continues long after the rainy season. At a time when irrigation was unknown, these tracts of water-retentive soil were no doubt highly prized for crop-growing.

Carbonized organic material retrieved from the houses indicates that crops included pea, lentil, vetch, cultivated emmer wheat and olives. Burnt olive pits were found in six different houses at Rasm H|arbush. Other cereals, pulses and fruits cultivated at this time⁴ may have been grown here, but since no charred remains have been discovered, nothing certain can be determined in this respect.

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Grazing areas abound in the vicinity of all the Golan sites, but only comparatively few faunal remains have been recovered, mostly of sheep and goats. However, the retrieval of large numbers of spindle whorls used in wool-making provides further evidence that these animals predominated. Hides were probably prepared with flint tools, including different types of scrapers, as well as a variety of perforated discoid tools found in the Golan and adjoining regions.

The pottery from the houses includes large numbers of pithoi (large storage jars) in which grain and dry goods were stored. Because of the difficulty of digging into the hard basalt rock, there were few silos. To date, we have not found a single one at Rasm H|arbush.

We also recovered several medium-sized spouted kraters, which probably held olive oil, and more than 50 broken-off spouts, indicating the extensive use of this type of vessel. More important still is the suggestion that oil was produced for domestic use.⁵

The excavations likewise uncovered a wide range of bowls of various shapes and sizes and the remains of many fenestrated-footed bowls—a cultic vessel typical of the Chalcolithic period. The ceramics also included small kraters, some jugs and juglets and hole-mouth jars, the latter almost certainly used for cooking.

All the ceramic vessels were made of local clay found in nearby wadis.^b Petrographic analysis has confirmed the high percentage of basalt particles in the matrix (often visible to the naked eye), which impart a reddish-brown color to the ware.

The widespread use of an impressed rope decoration distinguishes the larger vessels. This motif is used not only in concentric horizontal bands round the body, but also in rhomboids, zigzags and circles, especially on the shoulder. Smaller vessels are frequently ornamented below the rim with punctured and incised motifs.

Although numerous large vessels and heavy basalt artifacts were recovered, smaller pots—such as cups, jugs, juglets and cooking pots—were few and far between. Perhaps when the settlements were eventually abandoned—possibly during a sudden dry spell—the people took with them all their portable possessions and any equipment essential for daily living that could be easily transported, probably on donkeys.

The local Dalwe basalt provided an inexhaustible supply of raw material. Among the many basalt vessels, bowls of different shapes and sizes predominate. There were also basalt hoes, digging-stick weights, other agricultural implements, grooved hammers, many querns, mortars, and pounding and grinding stones. Several houses contained large fragments of trough-like basalt basins. These boat-shaped receptacles were probably used for crushing olives, the initial stage in the production of oil.

Basalt was also used to fashion what has been regarded as the hallmark of the Golan Chalcolithic culture—the circular pillar figure with a shallow offering bowl on top.⁶ These statues have been variously described as offering stands, portable altars and decorated mortars.⁷ The bowls clearly indicate a connection with cultic rites. All those found in situ are from houses and can be assumed to have been used in a domestic cult. A total of 19 pillar figures was discovered at Rasm H|arbush; they were found in 7 of the 15 houses excavated in their entirety. Many of the pillar figures were found lying adjacent to a wall, sometimes upside down, sometimes broken in two. This suggests that they had fallen from a low shelf, although others may have been set on the floor.

The pillar figures belong to two main categories: those with horns—and sometimes with a goatee and whiskers, eyes, hair or other facial features—and those with neither horns nor, with one or two exceptions, a beard. Both types, however, emphasize the nose, which 068is frequently unduly large, at times half the height of the pillar.

Obviously great importance was attached to the exaggerated nose. It is my view that it was regarded as the seat of the breath of life.⁸ As such, it symbolized life itself and, hence, fertility. Other features must be understood in relation to this basic idea. Thus the horns symbolizing sheep and goats were associated with the meaning implicit in the large nose; by placing offerings in the bowl of a horned pillar it was hoped to ensure increase among the flocks. By the same token, offerings were placed in the bowl of a non-horned pillar figure with prominent nose with hope of ensuring an increased yield from the fields and prosperity to man himself.

Horns, often attached to a handle, and a nose were likewise added to the bowl section of the fenestrated-footed bowls, also used in cultic rites. Offerings were no doubt placed in them with similar intent. Nonfunctional horn handles were also added to other types of pottery vessels, doubtless because they were believed to be imbued with a similar talismanic potency.

Believing in the efficacy of certain accepted symbols, the Chalcolithic people of the Golan also incorporated them into the shapes of everyday objects so as to impart the symbols’ inherent potency to the objects. It was in this sense that “eye and nose” handles were sometimes added to storage jars.

The houses also contained a wide range of flint tools typical of the Chalcolithic period in general—adzes, axes, fan scrapers, borers, choppers and sickle blades. There were likewise many circular and oval perforated tools, some of them finely pointed. These are found mostly in the north, at sites located on both sides of the Jordan, and were perhaps used in preparing skins and hides, while the pointed examples may have been used for carding wool.⁹

Unfortunately, no artisan’s workshop has come to light. The striking similarity of some pillar figures leaves little doubt that they were sculpted by the same hand, yet nothing certain is known of those who made them or of where they were made.

Despite the wealth of information obtained relating to the inhabitants of the Chalcolithic houses in the Golan (more than 150 structures have been investigated, probed or excavated), they remain an elusive folk. As yet, nothing has come to light indicating their origin or stock.

For pre- and proto-historic periods, burials and their contents can often serve as useful signposts, since the skeletal remains enable the anthropologist to recognize specific human types. Unfortunately, no sign of a Chalcolithic grave has been discovered in the Golan. This is difficult to explain, especially in view of the growing number of sites in the Coastal Plain where Chalcolithic ossuaries have been found, often unconnected with known settlement sites. The recent discovery of an unusually rich ossuary cave in Galilee supports the hope for the future identification of a similar cemetery site in the Golan where the people of Rasm H|arbush and the neighboring sites buried the dead.

This is the story of an archaeological adventure that began over 20 years ago in the Golan. It continues even today.