The archaeological site of Naḥal Re‘u’el is located in the southern Negev, c. 35 km north of Eilat. It rests on the northern bank of the wadi, near its outlet into the ‘Uvda Valley, 435 m above sea level. The site was excavated in 1980 and 1981 by A. Ronen on behalf of the University of Haifa, as part of a salvage project prior to the construction of the ‘Uvda Air Field. Of an estimated total area of 400 sq m, 76 sq m were excavated.
The site contains a single archaeological layer attributed to the middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. Three 14C measurements produced very similar results, indicating an age of 8627±45 bp (7736–7499 BCE, calibrated with 2 sigma). The excavation revealed a residential complex of circular structures arranged around a courtyard, possibly the oldest structure of the central-court type in Israel. The walls were carefully built of undressed stones, 0.6–0.8 m thick, and stand 0.5–0.9 m high. A meticulously paved rectangular basin (silo?) in locus 10 is worth noting, as is a large pit in locus 11 (2 m in diameter and 0.5 m deep) filled with ash, artifacts, and stone debris.
The industry at the site was mainly centered on blade production: 75 percent of the 235 cores are naviform blade cores, and approximately 80 percent of the 810 retouched items were made on blades. Dominating the tool assemblage are arrowheads (30 percent), consisting of Jericho (53 percent), Byblos (30 percent), and Amuq points (15 percent). The point is often located off the central axis of the blank. Other major tool categories include denticulates/notches (24 percent), retouched blades (14 percent), and awls (12 percent). Sickle blades are rare and axes are absent.
A large knapping workshop was found in the northeastern corner of the excavation (locus 12). The central court was apparently the focus of domestic activities, with a hearth, numerous grinding tools, and hammerstones. A number of exceptional objects were found in room 1: an undressed pointed stone slab that may have stood upright (c. 80 by 20 by 10 cm); a large piece of local copper (51 grams); and the only shell from the Mediterranean sea (which is 175 km away) found at the site. Room 1 was perhaps the residents’ “cult room.” The living quarters were in the northern and eastern parts of the excavated area, while garbage was dumped in the west and southwest, where the majority of broken artifacts was found.
The inhabitants of the site relied heavily on hunting, as suggested by the arrowheads, though no bones were preserved and the types of animals hunted remain unknown. All the supplies used by the community were procured from sources in the immediate vicinity (local flint, sandstone and granite, Red Sea shells, and Timna‘ copper). The single Mediterranean shell indicates that distant links of this community were rather undeveloped.
AVRAHAM RONEN
U. Avner, ESI 9 (1989–1990), 175; id., BA 53 (1990), 131, 133; id., Water, Environment and Society in Times of Climatic Change (Water Science and Technology Library 31; eds. A. S. Issar & N. Braun), Oxford 1998, 147–202; A. Ronen et al., Neo-Lithics 1999/3, 15–16; id., Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 2/2 (2000), 65–76; id., Paleoenvironment, The Stone Age, 2000, 65–76; id., Quartär 51–52 (2001), 115–156.
The archaeological site of Naḥal Re‘u’el is located in the southern Negev, c. 35 km north of Eilat. It rests on the northern bank of the wadi, near its outlet into the ‘Uvda Valley, 435 m above sea level. The site was excavated in 1980 and 1981 by A. Ronen on behalf of the University of Haifa, as part of a salvage project prior to the construction of the ‘Uvda Air Field. Of an estimated total area of 400 sq m, 76 sq m were excavated.
The site contains a single archaeological layer attributed to the middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. Three 14C measurements produced very similar results, indicating an age of 8627±45 bp (7736–7499 BCE, calibrated with 2 sigma). The excavation revealed a residential complex of circular structures arranged around a courtyard, possibly the oldest structure of the central-court type in Israel. The walls were carefully built of undressed stones, 0.6–0.8 m thick, and stand 0.5–0.9 m high. A meticulously paved rectangular basin (silo?) in locus 10 is worth noting, as is a large pit in locus 11 (2 m in diameter and 0.5 m deep) filled with ash, artifacts, and stone debris.
