Archaeological Views: Prehistoric Dining at Tel Tsaf
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Before the emergence of Israelites and even Canaanites, other communities established complex societies in the southern Levant. Though some of these groups left behind no written record, they did produce a rich archaeological record with a wealth of material culture. This then allows archaeologists to piece together a picture of their lives, including the diet and environmental conditions long before the establishment of cities.
Located near the Jordan River and the international border between Israel and Jordan 20 miles south of the Sea of Galilee, Tel Tsaf is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Levant. It was first reported in the 1940s; excavations began in the late 1970s and were later resumed for four more seasons in 2004. During these excavations, especially the 2004–2007 seasons, approximately 800 square meters of the site were exposed, and two main strata were identified. This revealed a large village dated to c. 5300–4700 cal B.C.1
In the southern Levant, the early shift from simple, relatively egalitarian village societies to socially more complex organizations seems to have occurred during the transition from the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic period to the Late Chalcolithic period (c. 5200–4500 cal B.C.). This process accelerated during the Late Chalcolithic period and culminated in the Early Bronze Age, when the first urban centers emerged. It remains unclear what triggered the process, causing large groups of people to live in close proximity to one another and wrestle with the many problems inherent to such an arrangement.
A multidisciplinary project launched by the present authors at Tel Tsaf in 2013 seeks to shed new light on the early stages of the transition to complex societies and the origin of the Mediterranean-style diet, which seems to have played a major role in this process.2 The Tel Tsaf project investigates how and why human societies of the ancient Near East developed “simple” villages into more complex and larger settlements—and later into towns and cities. A whole set of scientific methods, such as radiocarbon dating, geomagnetic and aerial surveying, and state of the art bio-archaeological and material culture analyses, supply us with a wealth of information concerning the development of the prehistoric village at Tel Tsaf and the culinary practices there in each of the stages of the transition.
Our excavations suggest that the social and economic organization of village communities changed dramatically during the Neolithic-to-Chalcolithic transition in the Jordan Valley. New modes of economic organization appeared that included superregional trade networks and were accompanied by the introduction of high-temperature technologies, such as metallurgy. The transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic period appears to coincide with the development of the Mediterranean-style diet. In that respect, our project strives to better understand food choices by considering environmental conditions, social and economic factors, and cultural preferences of the local population.
Tel Tsaf is distinguished from most prehistoric sites in the southern Levant by its extensive and well-preserved mudbrick architecture as well as large courtyard structures with round and rectangular rooms, many silos, and cooking facilities. The configuration of structures and installations is without a parallel at any other site from the same period (c. 5300–4700 cal B.C.). A new geomagnetic survey further showed that the site is even larger and denser than previously thought.
Many of the finds from the site are rare within the southern Levant. These include clay vessels 055bearing the “Tel Tsaf decoration.” Even though intensive research has been going on in recent decades on both sides of the Jordan River, very few sites produced similar pottery—and those assemblages yield only small quantities of decorated pottery—while Tel Tsaf features the highest concentration of this decorative style in the region.
A unique clay silo model was also found at Tel Tsaf, suggesting that the extensive storage of wheat and barley at the site was probably accompanied with ideological foundations and ritual behavior.
Another notable find from Tel Tsaf is a copper awl. This small object from one of the silo burials (of a woman) reflects the earliest presence of metallurgy in the area, a few hundred years before the advanced copper industry of the Late Chalcolithic period (c. 4600–3900 cal B.C.) emerged in the region. Metal finds from such an early time had previously been known in very limited numbers only from the Balkans, southern Anatolia, and Iran. As there is no evidence for on-site metal production at Tel Tsaf, it seems that the awl came from one of these areas.
Other items that reflect the inhabitants’ participation in long-distance exchange networks include dozens of obsidian artifacts from Anatolia (such as beads, tools, and production waste), a few sherds of the ‘Ubaid style pottery (from northern Syria or Mesopotamia), and a shell from the Nile River. Short-range trade was common and is reflected in the presence of shells from the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Also recovered were stone stamp seals, dozens of clay sealings, and several stone and clay figurines, as well as many quartzite objects, including spindle whorls and a unique dagger with preserved point. Finally, thousands of beads made of ostrich eggshells (1,668 were incorporated in a belt found on the woman’s waist in the silo burial, accompanying the copper awl) and beads made of various non-local minerals were excavated. Interestingly, we also found raw materials for bead-making as well as beads that were discarded during the production. Notable amounts of local pottery, flint tools, ground stone tools—some unique to the site—and bone tools were discovered.
We also found large amounts of animal bones, most of which belong to sheep and goats; but there were also significant quantities of pig and cattle bones. Wild animals are only marginally represented among animal bones from the site, which is yet another sign of the notable changes that communities in the area underwent—now placing much of their economic wealth on controlled herding of domesticated animals. Notably, some of the wild fauna remains, such as gazelle horn cores, were found in special arrangements and concentrations.
Studies of the microfauna provide 070important information about the site’s ecology and environmental conditions. Fish and shellfish found at Tel Tsaf reflect mainly species from the Jordan River. Birds were also noted in the faunal collections, and we hope this record can tell us more about long-term changes in bird migrations through the Rift Valley.
Much of our archaeological research has focused on gathering information about the plants that grew around Tel Tsaf and were used by its prehistoric inhabitants. The Jordan Valley’s dry climate allows for the extraordinary preservation of organic remains. Already, we have extracted from vessels and tools thousands of seeds, olive pits, plant and wood remains, as well as pollen, phytolites, starch, and other organic residues. Tel Tsaf’s organic materials and rich faunal and malacological (shells and snails) remains will enable archaeologists in the near future to reconstruct the paleo-diet at the site and food-related traditions.
While the results of the recent excavations at Tel Tsaf are still provisional, it is clear that Tel Tsaf is becoming paramount for studying the transition from the Neolithic to Chalcolithic periods and the origins of social complexity in the southern Levant. Already it has supplied a wealth of information regarding the environmental, social, and economic aspects underlying the transition to a complex society in this area.
Before the emergence of Israelites and even Canaanites, other communities established complex societies in the southern Levant. Though some of these groups left behind no written record, they did produce a rich archaeological record with a wealth of material culture. This then allows archaeologists to piece together a picture of their lives, including the diet and environmental conditions long before the establishment of cities. Located near the Jordan River and the international border between Israel and Jordan 20 miles south of the Sea of Galilee, Tel Tsaf is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Levant. It […]
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Endnotes
1.
“Cal B.C.” stands for “calibrated years before Christ” and refers to dates that have been determined through radiocarbon dating and then adjusted to fit in a standard chronology.
2.
We wish to thank the Israel Science Foundation, the Irene Levi-Sala CARE Foundation, the DAI in Berlin, and the Zinman Institute of Archaeology for supporting the project. We are also grateful to all the Tel Tsaf Research Project team members, students, and volunteers for their unlimited support and enthusiasm.