Levantine Chalcolithic

The Levantine Chalcolithic marks an archaeological period spanning around 4500–3500 BCE in the Levant. Technologically, the "chalcolithic" is defined by the appearance of copper and/or painted pottery. It was characterized by numerous small sedentary farming communities, depending on the culture of barley, wheat, lentils, and fruit trees, and the animal husbandry centered around sheep-goats, pigs, and cattle. This was a period of major cultural and technological transformation.

Background

The Neolithic period saw the transition from a nomadic lifestyle and a hunter-gatherer economy to permanent settlement in villages, and the domestication of plants and animals.

The rise of the Halafian culture of northeastern Syria, circa 5500 BCE, influenced cultural developments in the whole Levant. The period saw rapid cultural changes, due to the influence of neighboring Egypt and Mesopotamia. Various influences from Naqada culture Egypt have been recorded, especially in the production of ivory statuettes. In many instance, interactions with Northern Egypt seem to have been going in the two directions, with also many Levantine artifacts found in the Nile Delta.

Periodisation

The Chalcolithic period is divided into three primary stages, called the Early Chalcolithic, Middle Chalcolithic and Late Chalcolithic, each identified with a different material culture. The chronology of the period was refined by the Israeli prehistorian Yosef Garfinkel.

Early Chalcolithic (5,800–5,300 BC)

The identification of the Early Chalcolithic emerged alongside the first excavations at Jericho (1935–1936), where John Garstang initially classified Layer VIII for a time as Chalcolithic. Subsequent definitions were refined based on ceramic assemblages, especially those from Wadi Rabah and Munhata Layer 2b, excavated by J. Kaplan and J. Perrot. At Munhata, a large exposure (47,320 sherds) revealed a standardized repertoire of 21 pottery types, dominated by carinated bowls, holemouth jars with square rims, pithoi with thumb-ledge handles, and bow-rim jars. Decoration was mainly by red or black slip, often burnished (86.4%), with a smaller component of surface manipulation (13.5%); handles were rare and applied rope decoration absent. Comparable assemblages were identified at Jericho (Layer VIII and PNB), Wadi Rabah, Teluliyot Batash III, ‘Ein el-Jarba, and Nahal Bezet, while most forms show clear parallels in Halafian sites such as Tel Halaf, Shams ed-Din, and Tell Turlu.

Lithic industries also shift dramatically: the small Neolithic arrowheads disappear from Mediterranean-climatic zones, persisting only in desert areas, while new sickle blades and adzes become common. At Nahal Zehora I, only the transversal arrowhead remains, bifacial axes decline to about 3%, and adzes increase significantly. Obsidian artifacts appear widely and indicate a peak in long-distance exchange networks. In contrast, figurative art declines sharply compared to Yarmukian culture; the few anthropomorphic figurines are schematic and emphasize female sexual features. New elements, such as elongated slingstones, also emerge and have parallels in Halafian assemblages. Evidence from sites like Hagoshrim further points to strong northern connections, including abundant obsidian and stamped seals.

The Early Chalcolithic represents a rapid and far-reaching transformation in the material culture of the south- and central- Levant. The ceramic repertoire is largely new and closely tied to Halafian traditions of northern Syria, suggesting processes of cultural transmission rather than local development. This phase is also marked by a high degree of regional homogeneity, observable across former Yarmukian and Jericho IX zones as well as in the broader Levant, including the Beq'a, Byblos (“néolithique moyen”), and the ‘Amuq Phase C.

Early Chalcolithic pottery from Munhata
Early Chalcolithic pottery from Hazireah
Early Chalcolithic figurine from Beisamun
Early Chalcolithic seal from Hagoshrim
Early Chalcolithic sling stone from Jericho

Middle Chalcolithic (5,300–4,500 BC)

Following the analysis of the Munhata assemblage, several late sites previously classified as Wadi Rabah cultural variants where were redefined as a separate stage distinct from Early Chalcolithic horizon.

Middle Chalcolithic pottery is generally simple and standardized, characterized by a limited range of forms, including deep V-shaped bowls, holemouth jars with flat strap handles, jars with short everted necks, and “swollen-neck” jars. Handles are typically flat strap or pierced types. Middle Chalcolithic vessels are usually treated with simple red paint or red slip, occasionally accompanied by applied rope decoration. The material culture of the Middle Chalcolithic, identified at numerous sites, falls into two regional ceramic traditions.

The northern tradition, known as Beth Shean XVIII Ware (also termed Tsafian Ware), is named after its identification at Tel Beth Shean. Beth Shean XVIII Ware has been documented at Stratum Ib at Tel ‘Ali, and lower strata at Tell esh-Shunah, Tell Abu Habil, Tell es-Sa‘idiyeh et-Tahta, Tel Tsaf, and Tuleilat el-Ghassul.
The southern trditions is referred to as Qatifian Ware, called after the type-site of Tel Qatif in the Gaza Strip. Qatifian Ware is attested at sites such as Herzliya, Qatif, Nahal Besor, and Tell Wadi Feinan.

Middle Chalcolithic sites material culture include stone-lined silos, plano-convex mudbricks, basalt chalices, built cist tombs, and the use of jars for infant burials, as documented at sites such as Tel Dan, Qatif, Tel Te’o, and Kabri.

Late Chalcolithic (4,500–3,700 BC)

The Ghassulian culture was first excavated at the site of Teleilat el-Ghassul, located near the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Since then, over a hundred sites have been excavated throughout the southern Levant, in the Jordan Valley, the Beersheba Valley, the Coastal Plain, the Judaean Desert, the Galilee, and the Golan Heights. This period is considered the epitome of the Chalcolithic archaeological sequence in the Levant.

The Levant Chalcolithic was succeeded by the Bronze Age circa 3500 BCE.. During the early Bronze Age, the first cities of the Levant followed the rise of the dynastic states in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Late Chalcolithic Chalcolithic female figurine
Late Chalcolithic Pottery Vessel of Ram Carrying Cornets, Negev
Late Chalcolithic copper crown, made in the lost wax process, from Cave of the Treasures
Late Chalcolithic copper goat wand from Cave of the Treasures, Judean Desert

Contacts with Egypt

Sporadic contacts and exchanges between Egypt and the Southern Levant occurred from the time of the Early and sometimes Middle Chalcolithic period. This corresponds to the period of the Badarian culture (са. 4500-3800 BCE) in Upper Egypt. Egyptian potsherds of the period have been excavated in the southern Levant, as well as vast quantities of Nilotic shells (Chambardia acruata) valued for their mother-of-pearl surfaces used to make jewelry, and possibly flint tools and stone palettes which may have been imported or simply influence by Egypt.

During the Late Chalcolithic period (ca. 4000-3500 BCE), relations increase between the southern Levant and the Maadi-Buto culture of Lower Egypt and the Naqada I and Naqada II culture in Upper Egypt. Trade in Chambardia acruata shells inceases, and numerous other objects of Egyptian origin are found in the southern Levant, such as flint tools, mace-heads, diorite vessels. In the southern Levant statuettes are also very similar to those of Egypt at that time.

Late Chalcolithic ivory objects

Various ivory artifacts, originating from the tusks of elephants and hippopotamuses, have been found in areas of the southern Levant. These ivories were likely non-local origin, most likely coming from the Egyptian Nile Valley, and reflect contacts between the southern Levant and Predynastic Egypt. Such items were found in various sites, including Abu Matar, Bir es-Safadi, located in modern Beer Sheva, Shiqmim, Gilat, the Cave of the Treasure in Nahal Mishmar. They were most common in the south, also suggesting an Egyptian origin for the material.

The figures are all naked. Several have hole in their face, probably designed to insert elements depicting facial hair. Holes are designed in place of the eyes, in order to accommodate inlaid eyes, as found in some of the statuettes. The noses are generally long and broad with nostrils. The genitals are clearly shown.

These objects are indicative of contacts between Egypt and the southern Levant, and likely show an effort to emulate Egyptian culture. Predynastic Egypt likely had on influence on Late Chalcolithic cultic and symbolic artifacts. There is a degree of stylistic similarity between these objects and Naqada I statuettes from Egypt. Trade relations are known during this time period, increasing towards the end of the period. Examples are also known of locally-made south Levantine Late Chalcolithic style pottery at Buto in Egypt.

Genetics

Mesopotamian expansions into the Near-East are dated to the Chalcolithic (5000–3300 BCE) and subsequent Bronze age periods, with high proportions of Mesopotamian ancestry found in human samples of this period in the Anatolian and Chalcolithic Levantine regions.

Ancestry proportions of Near Eastern samples

Sources

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