Taur Ikhbeineh

Taur Ikhbeineh
Taur Ikhbeineh is located in State of Palestine
Taur Ikhbeineh
Shown within State of Palestine
Alternative nameTour Ikhbeineh
LocationPalestine
Coordinates31°27′13.3″N 34°24′50.8″E / 31.453694°N 34.414111°E / 31.453694; 34.414111
Areac. 1.0 hectare (2.5 acres), possibly up to 3.2 hectares (8 acres)
History
PeriodsBronze Age
Associated withEgyptians, Canaanites
Site notes
Excavation dates1977, 1987
Archaeologists
  • Ram Gophna
  • Eliezer Oren and Yekutieli Yuval

Taur Ikhbeineh was a prehistoric settlement in what is today the Gaza Strip in Palestine. It was inhabited in the 4th millennium BC. Excavations in the 20th century provided evidence of interactions between Canaanite and Egyptian people.

Location and topography

Taur Ikhbeineh is located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) inland from Gaza's Mediterranean coast. When the site was established in the prehistoric period it was likely located near an estuary of the Wadi Gaza, and the coast was closer.[1]

The extent of the site is uncertain though it is likely that it has been reduced by erosion over the millennia. Archaeological investigations identified three areas of activity (A, B, and C) within an area of 3.2 hectares (8 acres); area A was the main inhabited part and occupied an area of at least 1.0 hectare (2.5 acres) but it is unclear whether the three areas are part of the same settlement or whether areas B and C are peripheral to the main settlement.[2]

History

The history of Taur Ikhbeineh is understood from partial archaeological excavations. The investigations identified four phases of occupation dated through radiocarbon dating to the 34th century BC,[3][4] during the Early Bronze Age I (the first part of the Early Bronze Age, referred to as EBI)[note 1] The EBI period saw the development of the first urban settlements.[6]

The settlement was abandoned in the Early Bronze Age,[7] though there were later prehistoric burials at Taur Ikhbeineh. Human remains were found at the site and broadly dated to the Early Bronze Age IV or Middle Bronze Age I periods based on pottery found with the burials (corresponding to 2500/2300BC–1750BC). The bones belonged to an adult, aged 20–30 and a 3-month-old infant. The burial practice was similar to the burials found at Tell el-Ajjul, a nearby Bronze Age settlement.[8][9][10]

The earliest occupation layers at Taur Ikhbeineh included evidence of Egyptian and Canaanite cultures interacting. Along with imported Egyptian pottery, archaeologists discovered locally produced material made with Egyptian and Canaanite techniques, assimilating Egyptian processes into local techniques. They hypothesised that there were two workshops either at Taur Ikhbeineh or in the area, with different groups producing different wares.[11]

Investigations and later history

The site was investigated by Ram Gophna (Tel Aviv University) in 1977 and Eliezer Oren and Yekutieli Yuval (Ben Gurion University) in 1987, with surveys of the area and excavations conducted. Pottery discovered at Taur Ikhbeineh in the 1930s is in the Rockefeller Archeological Museum's collection.[12]

In 2004 the site was used agriculturally. Since then, construction work has taken place nearby, along with clearances and the widening of the Salah al-Din Road which passed north-west of Taur Ikhbeineh.[13] During the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip the area around Taur Ikhbeineh was affected by airstrikes. In late 2023, the Gaza Maritime Archaeology Project (GAZAMAP) used satellite imagery to identify a damaged building but the extent of the damage to the archaeological site could not be determined.[14]

See also

  • Naqada culture – culture in Egypt partly contemporary with Taur Ikhbeineh

Notes

  1. ^ Taur Ikhbeineh is sometimes referred to as a Chalcolithic site, see eg: Morhange et al. 2005. There are different naming schemes for this period, and the earliest part of EBI is sometimes considered to be Late Chalcolithic.[5]

References

  1. ^ Morhange et al. 2005.
  2. ^ Oren & Yekutieli 1992, pp. 365, 377–378.
  3. ^ Oren & Yekutieli 1992, pp. 363, 381.
  4. ^ Sharon 2014, p. 63.
  5. ^ Sharon 2013, note 16.
  6. ^ Sharon 2013, pp. 50–52.
  7. ^ Oren & Yekutieli 1992, p. 380.
  8. ^ Oren & Yekutieli 1992, p. 363.
  9. ^ Horwitz et al. 2002, p. 113.
  10. ^ Sharon 2013, p. 63.
  11. ^ Oren & Yekutieli 1992, pp. 373–375, 381.
  12. ^ Oren & Yekutieli 1992, p. 361.
  13. ^ Andreou et al. 2024, pp. 21–22, 24.
  14. ^ Andreou 2023, p. 12.

Bibliography

  • Andreou, Georgia M. (2023). Gaza Maritime Archaeology Project (PDF) (Report). Honor Frost Foundation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 June 2024. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  • Andreou, Georgia M.; Fradley, Michael; Blue, Lucy; Breen, Colin (2024). "Establishing a baseline for the study of maritime cultural heritage in the Gaza Strip" (PDF). Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 156 (1): 4–42. doi:10.1080/00310328.2022.2037923. ISSN 0031-0328.
  • Horwitz, Liora Kolska; Tchernov, Eitan; Mienis, Henk K.; Hakker-Orion, Dalia; Bar-Yosef Mayer, Daniella (2002). "The archaeozoology of three Early Bronze Age sites in Nahal Besor, northwestern Negev". In van den Brink, Edwin C. M.; Yannai, Eli (eds.). In Quest of Ancient Settlement and Landscapes: Archaeological Studies in Honour of Ram Gophna. Ramot Publishing and Tel Aviv University. pp. 107–133.
  • Morhange, Christophe; Hamdan Taha, Mohamed; Humbert, Jean-Baptiste; Marriner, Nick (2005). "Human settlement and coastal change in Gaza since the Bronze Age". Méditerranée: Revue géographique des pays méditerranéens. 104: 75–78. doi:10.4000/mediterranee.2252.
  • Oren, Eliezer D.; Yekutieli, Yuval (1992). "Taur Ikhbeineh: Earliest Evidence for Egyptian Interconnections". In van den Brink, Edwin C. M. (ed.). The Nile Delta in Transition: 4th–3rd Millennium B.C. Tel Aviv: Israel Exploration Society. pp. 361–384.
  • Sharon, Ilan (2013). "Levantine chronology". The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 44–65. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212972.013.004. ISBN 978-0-19-921297-2.