Feasting between the Revolutions

Evidence from Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf, Israel

Authors

  • David Ben-Shlomo The Hebrew University
  • Austin C. Hill University of Connecticut
  • Yosef Garfinkel The Hebrew University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v22i2.129

Keywords:

feasting, Chalcolithic, Tel Tsaf, earth ovens, pigs, Jordan Valley

Abstract

Feasting has attracted much attention in archaeological research, both within the Near East and elsewhere in the world. Recent evidence of feasting includes occurrences in the Near East at prehistoric as well as Bronze and Iron Age sites, reflecting the diversity of types and functions of feasts. This article presents new evidence for feasting related to the intermediate protohistoric period in the southern Levant, coming from Middle Chalcolithic (late 6th millennium Cal BC) Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley. The evidence for feasting includes numerous large-scale cooking facilities (earth ovens) and concentrations of faunal remains. It is suggested that if social differentiation had increased during the Chalcolithic, then the provisioning of feasting at Tel Tsaf from household pig sties may have created new arenas for the negotiation of prestige and social status.

Author Biographies

  • David Ben-Shlomo, The Hebrew University
    David Ben-Shlomo is based at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is involved in the excavation and research at the Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites of Sha‘ar Hagolan and Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley. His research also includes petrographic and chemical analysis of pottery, mostly of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the southern Levant, as well as various archaeological aspects of Iron Age material culture in southern Israel. Recently, he has spent a postdoctoral term in the computerized archaeology group in the Weizmann Institute of Science, studying computerized analysis of decoration on pottery vessels.
  • Austin C. Hill, University of Connecticut
    Austin Hill is a PhD candidate in the department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include zooarchaeology of the late Neolithic and Chalcolithic in the Near East and the development of complex societies. The subject of his dissertation is the complete analysis of the fauna from Tel Tsaf, Israel.
  • Yosef Garfinkel, The Hebrew University
    Yosef Garfinkel is the Yigael Yadin Professor for the Archaeology of Eretz Yisrael at at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and a curator in the museum of Yarmukian Culture at Kibbutz Sha‘ar Hagolan. He specializes in Near Eastern prehistory and protohistory, and has excavated numerous Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites: Gesher, Yiftahel, Neolithic Ashkelon, Sha‘ar Hagolan, Tel ‘Ali and Tel Tsaf. Since 2007 he has been conducting excavations at the fortified city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, a site dated to the early 10th century BC.

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Published

2010-01-13

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 2 (2009)

Section

Articles

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

For information regarding our Open Access policy, click here.

How to Cite

Ben-Shlomo, D., Hill, A. C., & Garfinkel, Y. (2010). Feasting between the Revolutions: Evidence from Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf, Israel. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 22(2), 129-150. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.v22i2.129