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<< Other Photo Pages >> Tel Tsaf - Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel

Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 18 August 2014  Page Views: 2606

Multi-periodSite Name: Tel Tsaf Alternative Name: תל צף
Country: Israel Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Beit She'an  Nearest Village: Tirat Zvi
Latitude: 32.407000N  Longitude: 35.548000E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

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Tel Tsaf
Tel Tsaf submitted by bat400 : Site in Israel. "Tel Tsaf courtyard building". Via Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tel_Tsaf_courtyard_building.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Tel_Tsaf_courtyard_building.jpg This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Settlement in Isreal.
Tel Tsaf is located in the central Jordan Valley. It was first tested in 1978–1980 by Ram Gophna of Tel Aviv University. In 2004–2007 a large excavation project was conducted at the site by Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tel Tsaf is dated to ca. 5200–4700 BC, sometimes called the Middle Chalcolithic, a little-known period in the archaeology of the Levant.

The excavations unearthed four architectural complexes. Each consists of a closed courtyard with rounded or rectangular rooms and numerous rounded silos.

Common finds included numerous flints, pottery and animal bones. Other finds included about 150 clay sealings (bullae) and a rich assemblage of imported exotic items including artifacts of basalt and obsidian, beads, sea shells, Nilotic shell, and a few pottery sherds of the Ubaid culture of north Syria.

- Wikipedia

Note: Burial reveals complex origins of metallurgy. See comment.
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Tel Tsaf
Tel Tsaf submitted by motist : Discovery In Israel Of Oldest Metal Object In Middle East Pushes Back Historical Knowledge By Centuries Photo Credit: Yosef Garfinkel / University of Haifa (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 7.9km NE 52° Pella (Jordan) Ancient Village or Settlement
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"Tel Tsaf" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Discovery of Oldest Metal Object In Middle East Pushes Back Historical Knowledge by Andy B on Friday, 03 October 2014
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Discovery In Israel Of Oldest Metal Object In Middle East Pushes Back Historical Knowledge By Centuries, submitted by motist

A copper awl, the oldest metal object found to date in the Middle East, was discovered during the excavations at Tel Tsaf, according to a recent study published by researchers from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa.

According to the study, which appeared in the prestigious journal “PLOS One,” the awl, a long pointed spike, dates back to the late 6th millennium or the early 5th millennium BCE, moving back by several hundred years the date it was previously thought that the peoples of the region began to use metals.

see : http://nocamels.com/2014/08/discovery-in-israel-of-oldest-metal-object-in-middle-east-pushes-back-historical-knowledge-by-centuries/

Thanks to Moti ST for the link
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Burial reveals complex origins of metallurgy by bat400 on Monday, 18 August 2014
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The origin of metallurgy in the ancient Near East is well attested in the southern Levant, with rich assemblages of copper artefacts from the Nahal Mishmar cave and the unique gold rings of the Nahal Qanah cave, confirming this as the main centre during the second half of the 5th millennium CalBC. However many important questions about Chalcolithic metallurgy in the southern Levant remain unanswered, such as, where do the materials used in the processes come from, where were the final goods produced, and what were the dynamics of production? New questions continue to arise as recent discoveries force previous interpretations to be reconsidered.

New evidence has come to light in the form of a copper awl from a Middle Chalcolithic burial at Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley, Israel, suggesting that cast metal technology was introduced to the region as early as the late 6th millennium CalBC.

Tel Tsaf is an archaeological site south-east of Beit She’an, and in 2004–2007 a large excavation project was conducted by Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Tel Tsaf is dated to ca. 5100–4600 CalBC, sometimes called the Middle Chalcolithic, a little-known period in the archaeology of the Levant, post-dating the Wadi Rabah phase and pre-dating the Ghassulian Chalcolithic phase.

The complex mud-brick architectural settings include courtyard buildings combining rectilinear, rounded rooms and grain silos, as well as a large number of cooking facilities. Four burials were uncovered, two of which were found inside grain silos. The silos uncovered in courtyard structures reached a storage capacity estimated at 15–30 tons of grain, far beyond the yearly needs of a family; a clear indication of the accumulation of surpluses on a scale unprecedented in the ancient Near East.

Tel Tsaf contained a rich assemblage of over 2,500 beads made of ostrich egg-shell, obsidian items originating in Anatolia or Armenia, four Ubaid pottery shards imported from either north Syria or Mesopotamia and a Nilotic shell from Egypt. These finds exhibit connections of unexpected distance and diversity.

A paper presented in the Open Access journal PLOSone examines the chemical composition of the tiny copper awl and reviews its context for the first time.



The object was found in the grave of an articulated skeleton of an adult female who was approximately 40 years old. It is described as an elongated pin made of cast copper, with a rounded cross-section. It is 41 mm long with a maximum diameter (near the base and at the middle of its length) of 5 mm. The diameter near its tip is 1 mm. The colour of its exterior is green due to oxidization and corrosion, while the core is reddish. The narrower tip bears signs of rotational movement and remains of a wooden handle were noted on the base at the opposite end, suggesting its use as an awl. Unfortunately this artefact was completely corroded, so it was impossible to examine the structure of the metal and production technique, however, the composition was possible using Niton ED-XRF analysis.

The results indicate that it was made from a natural tin-copper and brought from a distant source, probably the Caucasus, and transported to the Jordan Valley via long-distance exchange networks, which also brought obsidian, groundstone items and other goods from Armenia, Anatolia and Syria through the Levantine Corridor. This infers a high status on the occupants of Courtyard Building I; a family or selected group within the community that quite possibly controlled local cultivation and storage of grain as well as long-distance trade.

Thanks to coldrum for the link. FOr more, see: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com
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