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