Investigations at Kfar HaHoresh, a small site nestled in the Nazareth hills of lower Galilee, have revealed a stratigraphic sequence spanning the early through to the late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). Thirteen painstaking excavation seasons have demonstrated tremendous potential for exploring mortuary, ritual, subsistence and industrial activities in this region, and allow a glimpse into an exciting era in human prehistory.
PPNB (ca. 8500-6750 calBC) corresponds to the period when the first large village communities were established in the fertile areas of the Near East. At this time the sphere of cultural interaction had widened, stretching from central Anatolia to southern Sinai and included Cyprus. Rectilinear houses became commonplace, while public and ritual architecture are also found. Although hunting and gathering remained important, plants and animals were becoming increasingly domesticated. Evidence shows there was intensive ritual activity, and prestige items were exchanged over considerable distances.
It was likely that social tensions within and between communities arose from these changes, exacerbated by differences in the accumulation of material, social and ritual wealth. Yet, few studies have focused on these increased stresses that gave rise to social complexity and ranking, and the effect they may have had on mortuary and burial practices of the period. These included primary interments within settlements, often (but not always) with later skull removal, as well as multiple and secondary burials. In a few instances skulls had the facial features modelled in plaster.
From the beginning of the excavations, it became clear that the main architectural features at Kfar HaHoresh comprised terrace walls, as well as a series of mostly quadrilateral lime plaster surfaces. These surfaces, usually bounded on one or two sides by L-shaped stone wall foundations, vary in size from 3×1.5m up to a massive precinct measuring over 20x10m, which is currently in the process of being exposed. Some of the plastered surfaces are unattached to stone-built walls, and were perhaps accompanied by mud-brick walls. Although none were identified during excavation, micromorphological analyses have shown that mud-brick, or pisé, was used extensively at the site. These structures are accompanied by hearths, ovens and pits, as well as cultic features, such as stelae and platforms. Several lime kilns have also been identified on site.
Many graves occur under or in the vicinity of these walled structures. Human burials at Kfar HaHoresh (presently totalling around 70 individuals) vary from single articulated through multiple secondary burials comprising up to 15 individuals, plus intentional arrangements of human bones. Indeed, in one case the long bones of several individuals appear to have been arranged, perhaps into the profile of an animal, prior to being plastered over. Skull caches were found, including three modelled skulls. Burials at Kfar HaHoresh display an unusual demographic profile compared to other PPNB populations, with an abnormally high representation of young adult males. Grave goods comprise chipped and groundstone tools, shells, minerals and animal bones.
The numerous flint artefacts recovered at Kfar HaHoresh derive from three distinct reduction sequences: naviform, ad hoc and bifacial. Tools include sickle blades, projectile points, burins, perforators and bifacials. Groundstone tools and animal bones, mostly of hunted animals, are also abundant. In fact, the faunal assemblages from the site comprise amongst the largest numbers of identified items from PPNB contexts in the southern Levant. The species represented are comparable with other contemporary sites in the region and include mountain gazelle, wild goat, fallow deer, wild boar, wild cattle, red fox and hare, as well as rodents, birds and rare fish. Goat occurs in higher percentages than in Late Pleistocene assemblages in the area, perhaps indicating incipient domestication, similar to other PPNB sites in the region.
The material culture at Kfar HaHoresh is rich and varied. Extensive exchange networks are indicated by Mediterranean, Red Sea and freshwater sea shell ornaments. Exotic minerals include malachite from south of the Dead Sea, obsidian from central Anatolia, and a serpentine votive axe from northern Syria or Cyprus. Symbolic items include plain or incised polished pebble tokens. Neolithic fertility symbols are often associated with female imagery, but at Kfar HaHoresh only phallic figurines have been found. Also recovered at the site are stone and clay figurines depicting both human and animals. The use of clay at KHH, prior to the emergence of pottery in the succeeding period (the Pottery Neolithic 6400-4500 calBC), is currently under analysis. It appears that clay was widely used at the site, especially for the manufacture of beads, tokens and figurines. Thus far, it seems that all clay products were manufactured on site, and that various degrees of firing were used in the process.
Based on its location, together with the wide range of unusual mortuary installations and practices documented at the Kfar HaHoresh, as well as the varied nature of the material culture remains, it has been interpreted as a mortuary site, serving the populations of nearby settlements in the lowlands, such as Yiftah’el and Ayanot Zippori.
Depressions and subsidence in this large plastered surface indicate the probable presence of underlying pits
The 2007/2008 seasons focused on exposing a large plaster-surfaced structure, assigned to the earlier phases of occupation at the site. As the seasons progressed, it became clear that what was first considered to be a relatively large structure was, in fact, a massive precinct measuring over 200 square metres. Depressions and subsidence in this large plastered surface indicate the probable presence of underlying pits, akin to ones excavated in previous years. Such a pit, named ‘inhumation L1005’, also located under this structure, was excavated in former seasons. This burial, in which several wild cattle specimen were buried with the dead, was associated with evidence for feasting on a herd of wild cattle.
Two burials excavated in the 2007/8 seasons are noteworthy. L1804, within early PPNB midden deposits, is the shallow secondary pit burial of ‘half-a-man,’ a male 40-45 years old. The burial lacked anatomical associations, although the individual bones were carefully arranged with an east-west alignment for the long bones. The individual comprised part of the left side of the mandible together with some post-cranial bones. The skull was absent. The only two matching long bones, namely the right tibia and the right fibula, were placed in opposite directions. Long bones were placed above the post-cranial bones, including the mandible and lower part of the vertebral column. Although the ribs all derive from the left side of the individual,they ‘framed’ both sides of the long bones.
Adjacent to a stone platform within a midden deposit overlying the large plaster surfaced complex was a mid to late PPNB shallow grave containing the tightly-contracted primary burial of a 50-plus year-old male, with the head propped up facing northwest. Grave goods included a sickle blade, a Mediterranean Cerastoderma shell and a large lump of reddened burnt clay. A concentration of around 60 other freshwater Melanopsis shells found nearby may relate to the burial.
As these discoveries continue to shed light on PPNB mortuary rites and social structure, work at the site of Kfar HaHoresh continues. The site, with its rich material culture and its ever-surprising mortuary rituals, gives us a unique opportunity to investigate and explore this exciting era in human prehistory: a time when humans discovered a new way of life, and when society, as we know it today, began to take shape.
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