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<< Other Photo Pages >> Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site - Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel

Submitted by motist on Wednesday, 26 October 2016  Page Views: 2440

Multi-periodSite Name: Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site
Country: Israel
NOTE: This site is 4.464 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Jerusalem
Latitude: 31.809013N  Longitude: 35.241160E
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
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 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.
4 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
4

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Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site
Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site submitted by motist : Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site (Vote or comment on this photo)
An unprecedented and well-preserved 7,000-year-old compound recently unearthed in northern Jerusalem from the Chalcolithic period, or Copper Age, proves there was “a thriving settlement in the Jerusalem area in ancient times,”, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists discovered the remains, dating back to the fifth millennium BCE, ahead of the laying of a road in the Shuafat neighborhood.

According to Dr. Omry Barzilai, head of the authority’s Prehistory Branch, the Chalcolithic period is known in the Negev, the Coastal Plain and the Galilee and on the Golan, but has been almost completely absent in the Judean Hills and Jerusalem.

“Although in recent years we have discovered a few traces of Chalcolithic settlements, such as those at Abu Ghosh, Motza junction and the Holyland Compound in Jerusalem, they have been extremely sparse,” he said. “Now, for the first time, we have discovered significant remains from 7,000 years ago.”

During the Chalcolithic period, man started using tools made of copper (chalcos in Greek) for the first time, while continuing to use tools made of stone (lithos), hence the name given to the period.

Barzilai said the excavation exposed two houses with intact remains, featuring floors containing various installations, as well as pottery vessels, flint tools and a basalt bowl, which were all typical of the time. The construction phases and signs of their maintenance show that the buildings were used for a considerable time, he said.

Ronit Lupo, director of excavations, said the findings prove there was “a thriving settlement in the Jerusalem area in ancient times.”

“Thousands of years later, the buildings uncovered are of a standard that would not fall short of Jerusalem’s architecture,” she said.

“This discovery represents a highly significant addition to our research of the city and the vicinity. Apart from the pottery, the fascinating flint finds attest to the livelihood of the local population in prehistoric times.”

Moreover, Lupo said that small sickle blades for harvesting cereal crops, chisels and polished axes for building, borers and awls – as well as a bead made of carnelian (a gemstone) – indicate that jewelry was either made or imported in the area.

The archaeologist added that grinding tools, mortars and pestles, including a basalt bowl, attest to technological skills, as well as to the kinds of crafts practiced in the local community.

“We also recovered a few bones of sheep/goat and possibly cattle,” she said. “These will be analyzed further in the IAA [Antiquities Authority] laboratories, permitting us to recreate the dietary habits of the people who lived here 7,000 years ago, and enhancing our understanding of the settlement’s economy.”

source : The Jerusalem Post

Note: Jerusalem even older than thought - archaeologists find 7000-year-old houses as part of road building project. Also an operation against antiquities thieves yields rare First Temple-era scroll containing the earliest mention of Jerusalem in Hebrew
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Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site
Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site submitted by motist : Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site (Vote or comment on this photo)

Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site
Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site submitted by motist (Vote or comment on this photo)

Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site
Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site submitted by motist (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Re: Shuafat road Chalcolithic period site by motist on Wednesday, 26 October 2016
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Jerusalem Even Older Than Thought: Archaeologists Find 7,000-year-old Houses
Discovery made while building a road in Shuafat, in north Jerusalem, includes earliest-known houses in Jerusalem, gemstone beads and stone tools.
Stone houses and artifacts dating back 7,000 years have been discovered in Jerusalem, demonstrating that the settlement existed even longer than had been supposed. The houses showed various stages of building, indicating that they had been in use for centuries.

The discoveries are the oldest known remains of human habitation in Jerusalem. Previous discoveries from Chalcolithic-era Jerusalem had included pottery sherds and bones, but not signs of housing.

It had had been widely assumed that the Jerusalem area had been inhabited for 4,000 or 5,000 years.

The homes and artifacts were found by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the neighborhood of Shuafat, in north Jerusalem, in the course of a "salvage excavation" ahead of building a new road.

Lurking just a meter below the surface of the ground, the archaeologists discovered walls, still standing up to a level of five stones, as well as pottery sherds, flint tools, gemstone beads and much more, dating to the early Chalcolithic era, around 5,000 BCE.

Israel has a vast array of archaeological remains going back to the dawn of mankind and before. Remnants from the Chalcolithic era, when man began to develop copper (chalcos in Greek) use to augment his stone tools (lithos in Greek), are common in this area.
Jerusalem specifically, however, at Abu Ghosh, Motza Junction, and the Holyland compound, Chalcolithic finds had been discovered, but they were sparse, probably because the city and its surroundings have been populated throughout, with constant cycles of building and destruction. Stones used in the walls of ancient homes would have been repurposed, for example - why quarry new ones if old ones will serve.

In the nearby City of David (by the Old City of Jerusalem), for instance, sherds from the Chalcolithic era had been found, but no dwellings.

Prehistoric Jerusalem simply got rolled over by history, explains Ronit Lupo, director of the Shuafat excavation for the IAA. "On completion of the excavations at Shuʻfat, it is quite evident that there was a thriving settlement in the Jerusalem area in ancient times," she said, adding that the homes had been built to high standards that wouldn't have shamed more modern builders.

The flint tool discoveries show what the prehistoric locals had been doing 7,000 years ago, Lupo says: "Small sickle blades for harvesting cereal crops, chisels and polished axes for building, borers and awls, and even a bead made of carnelian (a gemstone), indicating that jewelry was either made or imported. The grinding tools, mortars and pestles, like the basalt bowl, attest to technological skills as well as to the kinds of crafts practiced in the local community."

Mortars and pestles had been in use for millennia by the time this hamlet was erected in Shuafat. Huge ones carved out of boulders and bedrock going back more tham 11,000 years have been found all over the Levant.

The flint sickles found in Shuafat bore the kind of glazing created by use in harvesting grain, a practice developed in the region thousands of years earlier. (Even the production of olive oil was already known in that era.)

Vegetarians, the ancient Jerusalemites evidently were not. "We also recovered a few bones of sheep/goat and possibly cattle; these will be analyzed further in the Israel Antiquities Authority laboratories, permitting us to recreate the dietary habits of the people who lived here 7,000 years ago and enhancing our understanding of the settlement’s economy,” Lupo added.
see : http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/.premium-1.703852
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