Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T01:41:12.324Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Far'ah II: A Middle Palaeolithic Open-Air Site in the Northern Negev, Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Isaac Gilead
Affiliation:
Archaeological Division, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
Caroline Grigson
Affiliation:
Odontological Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England, London

Extract

The middle palaeolithic open-air site of Far'ah II was discovered and tested by the British Western Negev Expedition during the years 1972–73 (Price Williams 1973; 1975). After the British team concluded its field programme in 1976, the Archaeological Division of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem took over. For three seasons during 1976, 1977, and 1978, the site was excavated under the direction of I. Gilead.

A preliminary report of the results of the 1977 season described the basic aspects of the flint technology and typology (Gilead 1980). It is the intention of this article to discuss new data acquired during the field season of 1978 and to present a more detailed analysis of the flint artefacts and animal remains and of their spatial distribution on the archaeological surfaces.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Audouze, F., Cahen, D., Keeley, L. H. and Schmider, B., 1981. ‘Le site Magdalénien du Buisson Campin à Verberie (Oise)’, Gallia Préhistoire 24, 100–43.Google Scholar
Bate, D. M. A., 1927. ‘On the animal remains obtained from the Mugharet-el-Zuttiyeh in 1926’. In Turville-Petre, F. (ed.), Excavations in Prehistoric Galilee 1925–1926, 3552. Council of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, London.Google Scholar
Bate, D. M. A., 1937. ‘Palaeontology: the fossil fauna of the Wady el-Mughara Caves’. In Garrod, D. A. E. and Bate, D. M. A. (eds), The Stone Age of Mount Carmel 1, 139240. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R., 1981. Bones. Ancient Men and Modern Myths. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. and Binford, S. R., 1966. ‘A preliminary analysis of functional variability in the Mousterian of the Levallois facies’, Amer. Anthrop. 68, 238–95.Google Scholar
Binford, S. R., 1966. ‘Me'arat Shovakh (Magharet esh-Shubbabiq)’, Isr. Expl. J. 16, 18–32, 96103.Google Scholar
Bordes, F., 1975. ‘Sur la notion de sol d'habitat en préhistoire Paléolithique’, Bull. Soc. Préhist. Franç. 72, 139–44.Google Scholar
Bordes, F., 1980a. ‘Question de contemporanéité: l'illusion de remontage’, Bull. Soc. Préhist. Franç. 77, 132–33.Google Scholar
Bordes, F., 1980b. ‘Savez vous remonter les cailloux à la mode de chez nous?’, Bull. Soc. Préhist. Franç. 77, 230–32.Google Scholar
Bordes, F., Rigaud, J. Ph. and de Sonneville-Bordes, D., 1972. ‘Des buts, problemes et limites de l'archéologie Paléolithique’, Quaternaria 16, 1534.Google Scholar
Bosinski, G., 1976. ‘Middle Palaeolithic structural remains from western central Europe’. In Freeman, L. F. (ed.), Les Structures d'Habitat au Paléolithique Moyen, 6477. IX Congres UISPP, Nice.Google Scholar
Bouchud, J., 1974. Etude préliminaire de la faune provenant de la grotte du Djebel Qafzeh près de Nazareth (Israel)’, Paléorient 2, 87102.Google Scholar
Bruins, H.J., 1976. The Origin, Nature and Stratigraphy ofPaleosols in the Loessial Deposits of the NW-Negev (Netivot, Israel). The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (unpublished M.A. thesis).Google Scholar
Bunn, H. T., 1981. ‘Archaeological evidence for meat-eating by Plio-Pleistocene hominids from Koobi Fora and Olduvai Gorge’, Nature 291, 574–77.Google Scholar
Bunn, H. T., Harris, J. W. K., Isaac, G., Kaufulu, Z., Kroll, E., Schick, K., Toth, N. and Behrensmeyer, A. K., 1980. ‘FxJj50: an early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya’, World Archaeol. 12 (2), 109–36.Google Scholar
Cahen, D., 1980. ‘Question de contemporanéité: l'apport de remontage’, Bull. Soc. Préhist. Franç. 77, 232–34.Google Scholar
Cahen, D., Keeley, L. H. and Van Noten, F. L., 1979. ‘Stone tools, toolkits, and human behaviour in prehistory’, Current Anthropology 20, 661–82.Google Scholar
Cahen, D. and Keeley, L. H., 1980. ‘Not less than two, not more than three’, World Archaeol. 12, 166–80.Google Scholar
Carrington, R., 1972. ‘Animals in Egypt’. In Brodrick, A. H. (ed.), Animals in Archaeology, 6989. Barrie and Jenkins, London.Google Scholar
Churcher, C. S., 1972. ‘Late Pleistocene Vertebrates from archaeological sites in the plain of Kom Ombo, Upper Egypt’, Life Sci. Contr. R. Ont. Mus. 82, 172 pp.Google Scholar
Churcher, C. S., 1981. ‘Dakhleh Oasis project geology and paleontology: interim report on the 1980 field season’, J. Soc. Study Egypt. Antiq. 11 (4), 194212.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J., 1970. ‘The fossil fauna from an Upper Pleistocene site in Jordan’, J. Zool. Land. 162, 1929.Google Scholar
Collins, D. M., Lehmann, H. L., Nuttall, P., Price Williams, D., Prior, J. M., Tachell, M. and Tubb, J. N., 1973. British Western Negev Expedition. Fara, 1973. Unpublished, 21 pp.Google Scholar
Cramp, S. et al. , 1977. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic. 1. Ostrich to Ducks. University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Crew, H. L., 1976. ‘The Mousteriansite of Rosh Ein Mor’, in Marks, A. E. (ed.), Prehistory andPalaeoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 1, 75112. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Davis, S. J., 1980. ‘Late Pleistocene and Holocene equid remains from Israel’, Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 70, 289312.Google Scholar
Davis, S. J. M., 1981. ‘The effects of temperature change and domestication on the body size of Late Pleistocene to Holocene mammals of Israel’, Paleobiology 7 (1), 101–14.Google Scholar
Degerbøl, M., 1970. ‘The urus (Bos primigenius Bojanus) and Neolithic domesticated cattle (Bos taurus domesticus Linné) in Denmark’, D. Konge. Danske Videns. Selsk. Biol. Skrift. 17, 1177.Google Scholar
Dorst, J. and Dandelot, P., 1970. A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa. Collins, London.Google Scholar
Ducos, P., 1970. ‘The Oriental Institute éxcavations at Mureybit, Syria: preliminary report on the 1965 Campaign. Part IV: Les restes d'Equides’, J. Near Eastern Studies 29 (4), 273–89.Google Scholar
Ducos, P., 1975. ‘A new find of an equid metatarsal bone from Tell Mureibet in Syria and its relevance to the identification of equids from the early Holocene of the Levant’, J. Archaeol. Sci. 2, 7173.Google Scholar
Eisenmann, V., 1980. ‘Les chevaux (Equus sensu lato) fossiles et actuels: cranes et dents jugales supérieures’, Cah. Paléont. 186 pp.Google Scholar
Eisenmann, V., 1981. ‘Étude des dents jugales inferieures des Equus (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) actuels et fossiles’, Palaeovertebrata 10 (3–4), 127226.Google Scholar
Foley, R., 1983. ‘Modelling hunting strategies and inferring predator behaviour from prey attributes’. In Clutton-Brock, J. and Grigson, C. (eds), Animals and Archaeology: 1. Hunters and their Prey, 6375. BAR International Series 163, Oxford.Google Scholar
Ganor, E. and Yaalon, D., 1978. ‘Dust storms in the Negev’. In Shmueli, A. and Grados, Y. (eds), The Land of the Negev, Man and Desert, 93102. Ministry of Defence, Tel Aviv.Google Scholar
Gardner, R. A. M., 1977. ‘Evidence concerning the existance ofloess deposits at Tell Fara, northern Negev, Israel’, J. Archaeol. Sci. 4, 377–96.Google Scholar
Gautier, A., 1968. ‘Mammalian remains of the northern Sudan and southern Egypt’. In Wendorf, F. (ed.), The Prehistory of Nubia 1, 8099. Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Gautier, A., 1976a. ‘Freshwater mollusks and mammals from Upper Paleolithic sites near Idfu and Isna’. In Wendorf, F. and Schild, R. (eds), Prehistory of the Nile Valley, 349–64. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gautier, A., 1976b. ‘Animal remains from archaeological sites of terminal Paleolithic to Old Kingdom Age in the Fayum’. In Wendorf, F. and Schild, R. (eds), Prehistory ofthe Nile Valley, 369–81. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gautier, A., 1978. ‘La faune de vertebrés des sites epipaléolithiques d'Elkab’. In Vermeersch, P. M. (ed.), Elkab II, l'Elkabien, Epipaléolithique de la vallée du Nil Egyptien, 103–14. Comité des Fouilles Beiges en Egypte, Universite Pers Leuven, Brussels.Google Scholar
Gautier, A., 1980. ‘Contributions to the archaeology of Egypt’. In Wendorf, F. and Schild, R. (eds), The Prehistory of the Eastern Sahara, 317–34. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Gilead, I., 1980. ‘A Middle Palaeolithic open-air site near Tell Fara, Western Negev: preliminary report’, Isr. Explor. J. 30, 5262.Google Scholar
Goldberg, P., 1981. ‘Late Quaternary stratigraphy of Israel: an eclectic view’. In Préhistoire du Levant, 5566. Colloques internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, No. 598. Edition du CNRS, Paris.Google Scholar
Grigson, C., 1969. ‘The uses and limitations of differences in absolute size in the distinction between the bones of aurochs (Bos primigenius) and domestic cattle (Bos taurus)’. In Ucko, P.J. and Dimbleby, G. W. (eds), The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, 277–94. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Grigson, C., 1983. ‘A very large camel from the Upper Pleistocene of the Negev Desert’, J. Archaeol. Sci. 10, 311–16.Google Scholar
Groves, C. P., 1969. ‘On the smaller gazelles of the genus Gazella de Blainville, 1816’, Zeitschr. für Säugetierkunde 34, 3860.Google Scholar
Groves, C. P., 1974. Horses, Asses and Zebras in the Wild. David and Charles, Newton Abbot.Google Scholar
Haas, G., 1967. ‘Bemerkungen ueber die Fauna der Geula-Hoehle, Carmel’, Quatemaria 9, 97104.Google Scholar
Hecker, H. M., 1975. The Faunal Analysis of the Primary Food Animals from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Beidha (Jordan). University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan.Google Scholar
Heitala, H. and Marks, A. E., 1981. ‘Changes in spatial organization at the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic site of Boker Tachtit, Central Negev, Israel’. In Préhistoire du Levant, 305–18. Colloques internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, No. 598. Édition du CNRS, Paris.Google Scholar
Higgs, E. S., 1967. ‘Environment and chronology — the evidence from mammalian fauna’. In McBurney, C. B. M. (ed.), The Haua Fteah (Cyrenaica), 1644. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hill, A., 1983. ‘Hyaenas and early hominids’. In Clutton-Brock, J. and Grigson, C. (eds), Animals and Archaeology: 1. Hunters and their Prey, 8792. BAR International Series 163, Oxford.Google Scholar
Hooijer, D. A., 1961. ‘The fossil vertebrates of Ksar′ Akil, a Palaeolithic rock shelter in the Lebanon’, Zool. Verhandl. 49, 168.Google Scholar
Horowitz, A., 1976. ‘Late Quaternary environments of prehistoric settlements in the Avdat/Aqev area’. In Marks, A. E. (ed.), Prehistory and Palaeo-environments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 1, 5768, Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Horowitz, A., 1979. The Quaternary of Israel. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Inizan, M.-L., 1980. ‘Premiers résultats de fouilles préhistoriques de la Région de Khor’, Mission Archéologique Française à Qatar 1, 5197.Google Scholar
Isaac, G., 1983. ‘Bones in contention: competing explanations for the juxtaposition of Early Pleistocene artifacts and faunal remains’. In Clutton-Brock, J. and Grigson, C. (eds), Animals and Archaeology: 1. Hunters and their Prey, 319. BAR International Series 163, Oxford.Google Scholar
Jarman, M. R. 1969. ‘The prehistory of Upper Pleistocene and Recent cattle. Part 1: East Mediterranean, with reference to north-west Europe’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 35, 236–66.Google Scholar
Jelinek, A. J., 1975. ‘A preliminary report on some Lower and Middle Palaeolithic industries from the Tabun cave, Mount Carmel (Israel)’. In Wendorf, F. and Marks, A. E. (eds), Problems in Prehistory: North Africa and the Levant, 297313. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Jelinek, A. J., 1977. ‘A preliminary study offtakes from the Tabun cave, Mount Carmel’, Eretz Israel 13, 8796.Google Scholar
Jelinek, A. J. 1981. ‘The Middle Palaeolithic in the Southern Levant’. In Préhistoire du Levant, 265–80. Colloques internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, No. 598. Édition du CNRS, Paris.Google Scholar
Jelinek, A. J., 1982a. ‘The Middle Palaeolithic in the Southern Levant, with comments on the appearance on modern Homo sapiens’. In Ronen, A. (ed.), The Transition from Lower to Middle Palaeolithic and the Origin of Modem Man. BAR International Series 151, Oxford.Google Scholar
Jelinek, A. J. 1982b. ‘The Tabun cave and Palaeolithic man in the Levant’, Science 216, 1369–75.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. H., 1980. Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses: A Microwear Analysis. University of Chicago Press, London.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A. and Brezillon, M., 1972. Fouilles de Pincevent. Essai d'Analyse Ethnographique d'un Habitat Magdalénien. VIIe Supplément à Gallia Préhistoire. Éditions du CNRS, Paris.Google Scholar
Marish, S., Dan, J., Teomim, N., Koyumdijisky, H. and Alperovitch, N., 1978. The Soils of the Northern Negev. Min. Agric., ARO and Dept. of Soil Conservation and Drainage, Israel.Google Scholar
Marks, A. E., 1981a. ‘The Middle Palaeolithic of the Negev, Israel’. In Préhistoire du Levant, 287302. Colloques internationaux du Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, No. 598. Édition du CNRS, Paris.Google Scholar
Marks, A. E., 1981b. ‘The Upper Palaeolithic of the Negev’. In Préhistoire du Levant, 343–52. Colloques internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, No. 598. Édition du CNRS, Paris.Google Scholar
Marks, A. E. and Freidel, D. A., 1977. ‘Prehistoric settlement patterns in the Avdat/Aqev area’. In Marks, A. E. (ed.), Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 2, 131–58. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Masson, A., 1981. ‘Altération des silex préhistoriques: dissolution, néogenèses silicieuses, implications sédimentologiques et chronologiques’, C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris 292, 1533–37.Google Scholar
Møhl, U., 1954. ‘Første sikre spor af mennesker fra Interglacialtid i Danmark’, Aarb. Nordisk Oldkyndighed Hist. 1954, 101–26.Google Scholar
Munday, F. C., 1976. ‘Intersite variability in the Mousterian occupation ofthe Avdar/Aquev area’. In Marks, A. E. (ed.), Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 1, 113–40. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Munday, F. C., 1977. ‘Nahal Aqev (D35): a stratified, open-air Mousterian occupation in the Avdat/Aqev area’. In Marks, A. E. (ed.), Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 2, 3560. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Munday, F. C., 1979. ‘Levantine Mousterian technological variability: a perspective from the Negev’, Paléorient 5, 87104.Google Scholar
Nir, D., 1970. Geomorphology of Israel. Academon, Jerusalem (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Payne, S., 1983. ‘The animal bones from the 1974 excavations at Douara Cave’. In Hanihara, K. and Akazawa, T. (eds), Palaeolithic Site of Douara Cave and Paleogeography of Palmyra Basin in Syria, 1108. University Museum, University of Tokyo, Bulletin 21, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Payne, S. and Garrard, A., 1983. ‘ Camelus from the Upper Pleistocene of Mount Carmel, Israel’, J. Archaeol. Sci. 10, 243–47.Google Scholar
Petrie, W. M. F., 1930. Beth Pelet 1. British School of Archaeology in Egypt, London.Google Scholar
Potts, R. and Shipman, P., 1981. ‘Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania’, Nature 291,577–80.Google Scholar
Price Williams, D., 1973. ‘Preliminary report ofthe environmental archaeological survey ofthe area around Tell Fara’. In Strong, D. (ed.), Archaeological Theory and Practice, 193216. Seminar Press, London.Google Scholar
Price Williams, D., 1975. ‘The environmental background of prehistoric sites in the Fara region’, Bull. Inst. Arch. Univ. London 12, 125–43.Google Scholar
Reed, C. A. and Osborn, D. J., 1978. ‘Taxonomic transgressions in Tutankhamun's treasures’, Am. J. Archaeol. 82, 273–83.Google Scholar
Ronen, A., 1974. Tirat Carmel: a Mousterian Open-Air Site in Israel. Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Ronen, A., 1977. ‘Mousterian sites in red loam in the Coastal Plain of Mount Carmel’, Eretz-Israel 13, 183–90.Google Scholar
Rottländer, R., 1975. ‘The formation of patina on flint’, Archaeometry 17 (1), 106–10.Google Scholar
Saxon, E. C., 1974. ‘The mobile herding economy of Kebarah Cave, Mt Carmel: an economic analysis ofthe faunal remains’, J. Archaeol. Sci. 1, 2745.Google Scholar
Schick, T. and Stekelis, M., 1977. ‘Mousterian assemblages from Kebara cave, Mount Carmel’, Eretz-Israel 13, 97149.Google Scholar
Shmida, A., 1977. ‘Remarks on the palaeoclimates of Sinai based on the distribution patterns ofthe relict plants’. In Bar-Yosef, O. and Phillips, J. L. (eds), ‘Prehistoric Investigations injebel Maghara, Northern Sinai’, Qedem 7, 3641. The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Sneh, A., 1983. ‘Redeposited loess from the Quaternary Besor Basin, Israel’, Isr.J. Earth Sci. 32, 6369.Google Scholar
Tchernov, E., 1976. ‘Some later quaternary faunal remains from the Avdat/Aqev area’. In Marks, A. E. (ed.), Prehistory and Palaeoenvironments in the Central Negev, Israel, Vol. 1, 6973. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas.Google Scholar
Texier, P.-J., 1981. ‘Désilification des silex taillés’, Quaternaria Roma 23, 159–69.Google Scholar
Turnbull, P. F., 1975. ‘The mammalian fauna of Warwasi rock shelter, west-central Iran’, Fieldiana Geology 33, 141–55.Google Scholar
Turnbull, P. F. and Reed, C. A., 1974. ‘The fauna from the terminal Pleistocene of Palegawra Cave’, Fieldiana Anthropology 63, 31146.Google Scholar
Vaufrey, R., 1951. ‘Mammifères’. In Neuville, R. (ed.), Le Paléolithique et le Mésolithique du Desert de Judée, 198217. Archives de l'Institut de Pal. hum. 24.Google Scholar
Villa, P., 19751976. ‘Sols et niveaux d'habitat du Paleolithique inferieur en Europe et au Proche Orient’, Quaternaria 19, 107–34.Google Scholar
Von den Driesch, A., 1976. A Guide to the measurement of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Peabody Museum Bulletin 1, Harvard.Google Scholar
Winterhalder, B., 1981. ‘Optimal foraging strategies and hunter-gatherer research in anthropology: theories and models’. In Winterhalder, B. and Smith, E. A. (eds), Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies, 1335. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.Google Scholar
Zeuner, F. E., 1955. ‘The goats of early Jericho’, Palestine Expl. Quart. April 1955, 7086.Google Scholar