Wadi Rabah culture

The Wadi Rabah culture is a Pottery Neolithic archaeological culture of the Southern Levant, dating to the middle of the 5th millennium BCE.[1]

Research

This period was first identified at the ancient site of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) by British archaeologists John Garstang and Kathleen Kenyon in separate excavations. Kenyon has named this period in Jericho "Pottery Neolithic B". The name "Wadi Rabah" was since used in archaeologic literature thanks to the works of Israeli archaeologist Jacob Kaplan at the site of Wadi Rabah.[2]

Settlements

This culture is known from a small amount of sites, in some of which remains of small rectangular structures were discovered. Some larger structures were found in Munhata, Wadi Rabah and Ein el-Jarba, though Israeli archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel suggests that large courtyard structures were erected in that period, like the ones found at Sha'ar HaGolan of the preceding Yarmukian culture (c. 6400–6000 BCE) and Tel Tsaf of the following Early/Middle Chalcolithic period (c. 5300–4500 BCE).[2]

Sites

See also

References

  1. ^ Levy, Thomas Evan (1998). The archaeology of society in the Holy Land (2nd ed.). Leicester University Press. pp. 211–214. ISBN 9780718501655. OCLC 40143782.
  2. ^ a b Garfinkel 2019, 105
  3. ^ Rosenberg, Danny; Assaf, Ammnon; Eyal, Ruth; Gopher, Avi (2006). "Beisamoun - The Wadi Rabah Occurrence". Mitekufat Haeven: Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society. 36. Israel Prehistoric Society: 130. JSTOR 23383630.

Further reading

  • Yosef Garfinkel (2019). "The Early Chalcolithic: Wadi Rabah Culture". In Faust, Abraham and Katz Hayah (ed.). Archaeology of the Land of Israel: From the Neolithic to Alexander the Great (in Hebrew). Vol. 1. Lamda, the Open University. pp. 105–107. ISBN 978-965-06-1594-9.