Yarmouk culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture that existed on the territory of the prehistoric Levant . It was the first of the cultures of Canaan that made ceramics (see the pre-ceramic Neolithic ), and one of the first ceramic cultures in the Levant as a whole. It replaced the Takhuni and was replaced by the Gasul culture . Some researchers attribute this culture to the Kuro-Araks [1] .
| Yarmouk culture Neolithic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Localization | Levant | |||
| Dating | VII-IV millennium BC e. | |||
| Type of farm | agriculture, hunting | |||
| Continuity | ||||
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The name comes from the Yarmouk River , flowing near the typical monument of Shaar ha-Golan , a kibbutz at the foot of the Golan Heights .
Shaar Hagolan
The first Yarmoukian settlement was excavated in Megiddo in the 1930s, but then researchers still did not understand that we were talking about a previously unknown Neolithic culture. In 1949, in Shaar Hagolan, Professor Moshe Stekelis first identified the Yarmuk culture of the ceramic Neolithic period , which occupied parts of Israel and Jordan. [2] Monument dating to about 6400-6000 BC e. according to calibrated chronology, it was located in the central part of the Jordan Valley, on the northern bank of the Yarmuk River. Its size was about 20 hectares, which made it one of the largest settlements in the world of its time. Although other monuments of the Yarmouk culture were discovered after this, Shaar ha-Golan was the largest of them, and was probably the center of this culture. [3]
The monument was excavated by two teams of archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: one led by Moshe Stekelis (1949-1952), and the second was headed by Josef Garfinkel (1989-1990, 1996-2004). Although during the early excavations no architectural objects were found, during the second excavations they discovered a large house with a yard with an area of approximately 250-700 m² (depending on the criteria for evaluating the area). The architectural concept of a “house with a courtyard" is still applied in traditional Mediterranean cultures. Monumental structures of this magnitude are unknown elsewhere in that era. The houses consisted of a central courtyard surrounded by several small rooms.
Layout
Streets ran between the houses, indicating a well-developed community layout. During the excavation, a central street about 3 meters wide was found, paved with pebbles fixed with clay, and a narrow winding alley 1 meter wide. These are the earliest streets discovered in Israel and one of the earliest man-made streets. A well 4.15 m deep, dug to local groundwater, indicates knowledge of the basics of hydraulics.
Finds
Among the exotic objects discovered during excavations are sea shells from the Mediterranean, vessels made of polished stone (alabaster or marble) and blades from Anatolian obsidian (imported from lands located more than 700 km away). [3]
Pottery
The main Neolithic technological innovation in the Shaar Ha Golen was the production of ceramics. Here it appears for the first time in the history of Israel and gives rise to the era of ceramic Neolithic . Ceramic vessels have various shapes and sizes and were used for various purposes in the household [2] . The stone and clay cylindrical objects of the Neolithic era found in the Shaar Ha-Golan region are probably the oldest matches [4] .
Art
About 300 art objects were found in the Shaar Hagolan. About 70 statuettes, (mostly) anthropomorphic, made of stone (pebbles) or burnt clay, were found in one of the houses - in no other house of the Neolithic age have so many prehistoric statuettes been found. The vast majority of statuettes depict women (in the concept of Gimbutas - “The Great Goddess ” or “ Mother Goddess ”). Ceramic figurines have hypertrophied details and a generally extravagant appearance, while pebble figures are more or less abstract and minimalistic.
Related Archaeological
In addition to the Shaar ha-Golan, Yarmouk-type products were found in 20 other places in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. [3] Among them:
- Tel Megiddo (Israel)
- Ain Ghasal (Jordan)
- Munhata (Israel)
- Tell Kishion (Israel)
- Hamadiyah (Israel)
- Ain Rahub (Jordan)
- Abu Tavwab (Jordan)
- Fayum culture
Although the Yarmoukian culture occupied only small territories in northern Israel and northern Jordan, Yarmoukian ceramics were found in other places in the region, including during excavations of Habashan Street in Tel Aviv and north in Byblos .
Literature
- E. Anati . Yarmouk culture 2 // from his book “Palestine to the Ancient Jews”.
- Stekelis M. 1972. The Yarmukian Culture . Jerusalem: Magnes Press.
- Garfinkel Y. 1993. The Yarmukian Culture in Israel . Paleorient, Vol 19, No. 1, pp. 115 - 134.
- Garfinkel Y. 1999. The Yarmukians, Neolithic Art from Sha'ar Hagolan . Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum (Exhibition Catalog).
- Garfinkel Y. and Miller M. 2002. Sha'ar Hagolan Vol 1. Neolithic Art in Context . Oxford: Oxbow.
- Garfinkel Y. 2004. The Goddess of Sha'ar Hagolan. Excavations at a Neolithic Site in Israel . Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society (Hebrew version published in 2002 as: Sha'ar Hagolan. Neolithic Art in the Jordan Valley. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society).
- Garfinkel Y. and Ben Shlomo D. In press. Sha'ar Hagolan Vol. 2 . Qedem. Jerusalem: Institute of Archeology, Hebrew University.
- Garfinkel Y., Vered A. and Bar-Yosef O. 2006. The Domestication of Water: The Neolithic Well of Sha'ar Hagolan, Jordan Valley, Israel . Antiquity 80: 686–696.
- Obaidat Daifallah 1995. "Die neolithische Keramik aus Abu Thawwab / Jordanien." Berlin, ex Oriente.
Image Gallery
Shaar Hagolan, excavation 1998
Shaar HaGolan, flint arrowhead
Shaar Hagolan, flint ax
Shaar Hagolan, ceramics
Shaar Ha Golan, well
Shaar Ha Golan, zoomorphic figurine
Shaar Hagolan, ceramic figurine
Shaar Hagolan, the premises of the house with a yard
Notes
- ↑ Zilberman Mikhail Izrailevich. "The land of Canaan"
- ↑ 1 2 Garfinkel Y. 1993.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Garfinkel, Y. 1999.
- ↑ Israeli archaeologists announce the discovery of the first matches