Palmaḥim Quarry - The BAS Library

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INTRODUCTION

Palmaḥim Quarry is a site named for a modern quarry near Kibbutz Palmaḥim, located on a fossilized sand dune (kurkar ridge) on the south bank of Naḥal Soreq, c. 1 km from where the naḥal debouches into the Mediterranean. It was first discovered by J. Kaplan. Until recently it was covered by massive sand dunes. Their removal by quarrying bared the underlying archaeological deposits above the kurkar bedrock. Excavations were conducted on behalf of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums and the Israel Antiquities Authority. During the 1960s and 1970s, R. Gophna excavated 11 burial caves southwest of area D at the site. R. Reich conducted preliminary investigations (area C) in 1988, after quarrying caused additional damage to the site. Later, E. Braun directed five seasons of salvage excavations (areas A, B, C, and D) between 1989 and 1990.

Nothing is known of archaeological deposits in the area above the burial caves, but later work established that the remainder of the ridge, areas A–D, was covered by archaeological deposits resting atop bedrock. Work in areas A and C was abandoned when they were shown to be so severely damaged by quarrying that further effort was not worthwhile. Areas B and D were eventually excavated, but budgetary and time constraints produced only partial results for these very large tracts of the site. Unfortunately, most archaeological deposits in all areas were eventually destroyed by continued quarrying. In addition, the shearing of the top of the ridge for quarrying exposed scores of pits in the bedrock; they are of different sizes and shapes, and are in varying states of preservation. Today, only a small fraction of the ridge remains.

STRATIGRAPHY OF PALMAḤIM QUARRY	Phase	Area A	Area B	Area C	Area D
Bedrock matrix	Pits of unknown date	Pits of unknown date	Pits of unknown date	Pits of unknown date	Burial caves
Late Neolithic-Early Chalcolithic, 6th–5th millennia BCE		Scattered finds
Late Chalcolithic, Late 5th–early 4th millennia BCE	Scattered finds	Scattered finds	Destroyed prior to excavation; pits	Scattered finds	Quarried burial caves
Initial EB I, c. 3500 BCE	Destroyed prior to excavation	Settlement, stratum 3; pits	Settlement (?), severely damaged by quarrying	Settlement, stratum 3 (?)
Advanced EB I, c. 3150–3000 BCE	Destroyed prior to excavation	Settlements, strata 2, 1	Settlement, probably strata 2, 1; severely damaged by quarrying	Destroyed prior to excavation	Secondary use of caves for burial

EXCAVATION RESULTS

PITS HEWN IN BEDROCK. All of the pits, with a single exception in area B, were revealed after quarrying had removed the uppermost surface of the kurkar hillside beneath archaeological deposits. Most pits appear to have been round and less than 2 m in diameter. Only a few pits could be excavated. Their date remains obscure, as does their function. One cylindrical pit in area D was in secondary use for a primary burial in flexed position without grave goods, laid on earthen fill c. 60 cm above the pit floor. Others contained pottery, including small, straight-sided bowls (area C), and large fragments of pithoi datable to either the late Chalcolithic period or the initial Early Bronze Age I (area B). Still others contained deposits of carbonized material (area C).

THE LATE NEOLITHIC–EARLY CHALCOLITHIC PERIODS. Scattered flint artifacts and potsherds, found on or near bedrock in area B, or in fills associated with later periods in that area, suggest utilization of the summit of the ridge during the late Neolithic–early Chalcolithic periods. No other definitive information on them has been forthcoming from excavations, but a single inhumation in a secondary utilization of a pit (area D) could possibly have originated in one of these periods.

THE LATE CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD. During several decades of modern quarrying, 11 partially preserved late Chalcolithic period cave tombs were salvaged through excavation in a precinct of the site southwest of area D. The same tombs had been reused for burials in late phases of Early Bronze Age I. Late Chalcolithic period objects were also recovered either scattered or in small concentrations in crevices in the bedrock in areas A, B, and D.

THE INITIAL EARLY BRONZE AGE I. Large-scale salvage excavations unearthed more than 1,500 sq m of stratum 3 (areas B and D), an initial Early Bronze Age I occupation situated directly atop the kurkar bedrock. Dating is based on ceramics that include bowls of gray-burnished ware and pithoi types common at sites in the north (e.g., Yiftaḥ’el II), as well as a collection of small, wheel-made bowls and other pithoi, all with affinities to late Chalcolithic types, now known to be typical of an initial phase of southern Early Bronze Age I.

In area B, two relatively large, deep soundings yielded substantial, well-preserved stone foundations of two sausage-shaped houses, their ground plans completely preserved. Additional stone wall foundations indicate further structures, but these remain unexcavated. A deep, bell-shaped pit found nearby is probably to be associated with this stratum as well. As in houses at contemporary sites (e.g., Yiftaḥ’el II), these structures have stone pavements at one end and were partitioned by curving walls. Area B appears to have been abandoned sometime early in the period, probably for a considerable length of time.

Subsequent to quarrying, some severely damaged archaeological deposits in area D were excavated. They were found to be additional remains of an initial Early Bronze Age I occupation above bedrock, apparently a continuation of stratum 3 in area B. Excavation yielded only short, poorly preserved wall segments, some rectilinear and others curvilinear. The settlement could be dated by associated deposits of fragmentary ceramic vessels of types known from stratum 3.

THE ADVANCED EARLY BRONZE AGE I VILLAGE. Evidence for an occupation and utilization of the site dated to the latter part of Early Bronze Age I may have been spread out over much of this once massive, kurkar promontory, but it was directly encountered only in areas B and C and in secondary utilization of late Chalcolithic burial caves. Two successive strata (2 and 1) are a reflection of a continuous occupation of the site in area B.

The earlier level, stratum 2, is dated to a phase equivalent to that of stratum C at Tel ‘Erani. A notable find from this level was the upper portion of a large, locally made storage jar incised before firing with an Egyptian royal symbol (serekh). This object is probably to be associated with an Egyptian ruler of the Proto-Dynastic period (i.e., early in Dynasty 0) and is important for chronological correlations between the southern Levant and Egypt. A similar serekh appears on a jar with an unusual rim, also incised before firing, from Ḥorvat ‘Illin Taḥtit. The serekh-bearing jar from Palmaḥim Quarry is one of only a handful of Egyptian-type artifacts and two Egyptian imports recovered from the site, suggesting minimal contacts with Nilotic peoples or culture in this period. The settlement of stratum 2 is characterized by a residential area of large, sprawling, multi-roomed rectilinear houses with circular storage facilities. Two rooms within these houses were of the well-known broadroom type (one with internal benches), but most chambers were irregular. Stone pillar bases were commonly encountered. Access to each agglutinative-type dwelling was limited to a single entrance leading from one of several narrow lanes winding through the village.

In stratum 1 many of the houses continued in use, although they underwent slight changes in plan, either in the raising of floor levels, the rebuilding of walls, or the addition of rooms. One narrow lane was closed off; several rooms were constructed directly above it. A chamber appears to have served as a repository for foodstuffs, as small quantities of carbonized legumes were recovered in its earth fill. These legumes yielded a radiocarbon determination that dates this village from sometime in the late fourth to the early third millennium BCE, a time span consistent with generally accepted chronologies.

Pottery associated with strata 2 and 1 displays relatively little change over time, with similar vessel types and styles found in both levels. They appear to reflect regional parochialism that suggests close ties with other contemporary sites in the central littoral and Shephelah. These regional parameters are especially notable in jars slipped in white lime and painted over with narrow, vertical red stripes; jugs; bowls; profiled hole-mouths; and large vessels decorated with flat, horizontal strips of clay, depressed at regular intervals in imitation of rope. Similar types are found at contemporary occupations (e.g., Ḥorvat ‘Illin Taḥtit, Tel Lod, and Tel Gezer).

The faunal and chipped-stone and groundstone assemblages indicate that the economic basis of this community was both agricultural and pastoral. Indeed, in the immediate vicinity of the site are the fertile littoral and a plentiful water supply from the adjacent stream, as well as shallow deposits of fresh groundwater at the base of the ridge. A few fish bones, a copper fishhook, and remains of a sea-turtle shell attest to at least minimal utilization of nearby marine resources.

There is some suggestion of a major increase in population from stratum 2 to stratum 1, which may have caused overcrowding in what was an already densely built-up environment. Such a tendency is concomitant with large aggregations of population and increasingly complex societies that developed in late Early Bronze Age I. For reasons unknown, the site was abandoned, apparently peacefully, prior to the onset of Early Bronze Age II, as indicated by a complete lack of pottery types of that period.

ELIOT BRAUN

R. Gophna, IEJ 18 (1968), 132–133; id. (& S. Lifshitz), ‘Atiqot 14 (1980), 1–8; id., Egypt and the Levant, London 2002, 418–421; S. Lifshitz & E. Ayalon, ESI 1 (1982), 94–95; J. Schuldenrein, Geoarchaeology 1 (1986), 61–81; R. Reich & Y. Levy, ESI 7–8 (1988–1989), 144; A. Gopher et al., ibid. 9 (1989–1990), 144; 12 (1993), 47–48; id., Yavneh, Yavneh-Yam and Their Neighborhood: Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Judean Coastal Plain (Eretz: Geographic Research & Publications; ed. M. L. Fischer), Tel Aviv 2005, ix; E. L. Braun, Highlights of Recent Excavations, Jerusalem 1990, 9–11; id., ESI 10 (1991), 21–23; 15 (1995), 87–88; 16 (1997), 87–88; id. (& E. C. M. van den Brink), Ägypten und Levante 7 (1998), 71–94; id., BAIAS 18 (2000), 17–30; id., Ceramics and Change, Sheffield 2000, 113–128; id., Radiocarbon 43 (2001), 1202–1218; id., Settlement, Civilization and Culture (D. Alon Fest.; eds. A. M. Maeir & E. Baruch), Ramat-Gan 2001, 31*–39*; id., Studies in the Archaeology of Israel and Neighboring Lands, Chicago, IL 2001, 59–92; id., Egypt and the Levant, London 2002, 173–189; id., Yavneh, Yavneh-Yam and Their Neighborhood (op. cit.), Tel Aviv 2005, ix–x; E. Galili et al., ESI 10 (1991), 160–166; B. Brandl, The Nile Delta in Transition, Tel Aviv 1992, 441–477; A. Kasher, Cathedra 63 (1992), 190; L. Singer-Avitz & Y. Levy, ‘Atiqot 21 (1992), 174–175; 25 (1994), 187; E. Shavit, ESI 13 (1993), 123–124; E. Ben David et al., ibid. 20 (2000), 95*–96*; F. Vitto, ‘Atiqot 35 (1998), 109–134; Y. Goren & S. Zuckermann, Ceramics and Change, Sheffield 2000, 165–182; U. Hartung, Umm Qaab II (DAI, Abteilung Kairo, Archäologische Veröffentlichungen 92), Mainz am Rhein 2001.