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The Chalcolithic Period
Part I: The Ghassulian
The Chalcolithic Period• Begins ca. 6500 BP (5000 BC) and ends
with the Early Bronze Age (ca. 5500 BP or 3500 BC)
• Known for:– Rise of Chiefdoms– Pastoral Nomadism and the Secondary
Products Revolution– Appearance of Metallurgy– Craft Specialisation– Formal temples and burial grounds– Spatial and social hierarchies
The Chalcolithic PeriodChalcolithic Cultures Dates (BP) Type Site
Levant:Early Chalcolithic (aka Late Neolithic)
Middle Chalcolithic
Late Chalcolithic (akaGhassulian)
ca. 6800-6200
ca. 6200-5600(No dates)ca. 5800-4600
Wadi Rabah and variants
Beth Shean, Tell ‘Ali
Teleilat al-Ghassul
Mesopotamia:HalafianUbaid
ca. 7200-6200ca.
Tell Halaf & Arpachiyah‘Oueili, Abada, others
Anatolia:Chalcolithic ca. 6000-5000 Hacilar, Can Hasan
Chalcolithic Sites in the Levant
• Sites to Know:– Teleilat al-Ghassul– ‘Ein Gedi– ‘Ain al-Hariri– Bir as-Safedi– Beer Sheba– Shiqmim– Gilat– Azor– Hadera
Chiefdoms in the Chalcolithic• Establishment of social ranking and
hierarchies• Distinctive social system defined by the
presence of centres which coordinate economic, social, and religious activities (Service 1962)
• Descriptive, not Neo-evolutionary• Redistributional societies with permanent
central agency of coordination• Ranked or ascribed status? (burial
treatment)
Chiefdoms• Characterised by:
– Institutionalised offices of leadership, such as priesthoods and a ranked society
– Greater population densities and total population– Increased size of residence groups (not nuclear)– Greater productivity and Craft Specialisation– Clearly defined territories, with boundaries/borders– Centres that coordinate activities– Redistribution (organised by a chief)– Organisation and deployment of public labour– No true government (administration, legal force)
‘Ein Gedi Temple
Chalcolithic Temples
• ‘Ein Gedi –– Isolated and inaccessible– No settlement nearby – pilgrimage location?– Temple Complex = 4 separate structures all
connected by stone fence enclosing courtyard (main gatehouse, postern or secondary gate, lateral chamber, and the sanctuary)
– Courtyard full of circular pits (ash, bone) – sacrifices – Sanctuary – broad-room, benches, alter with standing
stone• As society became more territorial, religion
became more tied to “places”
‘Ein Gedi Temple
‘Ein Gedi Temple
‘Ein Gedi Temple
Circular water (?) basin
“Priest’s House”
Temple Interior
Formal Cemeteries• Establishment of burial grounds apart from
settlement – origins on Natufian or Late Neolithic?
• Grew from more clearly defined territorial boundaries, centres that coordinate religious activities, importance of ritual coordinators (priests), and organisation and deployment of public labour to build monuments
• Burial grounds represent space owned by a corporate group who use and have rights to specific resources contained within it
Burial Practices• Four areas with cemeteries:
– lower JV/Moab Plateau, Sharon Coastal Plain, southern Sinai Peninsula, Nahal Beer-Sheba
• Necropolis in Jordan Valley – Tell ‘Adeimeh (6 km southeast Ghassul, Neuville 1929) for Ghassul– 11 circular tumuli between 3.5-7 m diameter– 168 cist graves of 1.5 m each, dolmens– Skeletal remains poorly preserved (close to surface),
but all secondary burial• Burial Caves of Coastal Plain (Hadera, Azor)
– Man-made caves in kurkar ridge filled with large ceramic ossuaries, Chalcolithic pottery, skeletal remains
– Secondary burials now commonplace at coastal sites
Hadera and Azor Ossuaries
Burial Practices• Burials of northern Negev (Shiqmim)
– 8 ha cemetery adjacent to village– 40 burial circles 1-3.5 m in size filled with secondary burials,
pottery, shell and mother-of-pearl jewellery, V-shaped bowls– 10 stone-lined pits or cists surrounded group of circular graves
on hilltop – decay pits or burial structure?– House-shaped ossuaries identical to those from Sharon plain
• Nawamis of Sinai– Stone-structures (pic) built in 4th millennium BC and used by
pastorals for burial– Rounded plan, 3-6 m diameter and 2 m high, double-walled,
local sandstone, variety burial offerings (beads, pendants, transverse arrowheads, copper point), both primary and secondary burials
– Entries directed towards sacred landscape feature or winter sunset – winter grazing areas of pastorals
Burial Structures: Shiqmim and Sinai
Shiqmim cemeteryElaboration of burial monument as mark of social status