The environmental footprint of Holocene societies: a multi-temporal study of trails in the Judean Desert, Israel

The global distribution of footpaths and their inferred antiquity implies that they are widespread spatial and temporal anthropogenic landscape units. Arid environments are of special interest for investigating historically used footpaths, as older routes may preserve better due to minimal modern impact and slower pedogenic processes. Here we examine footpaths in the Judean Desert of the southern Levant, a human hotspot throughout the Holocene. We studied one modern and two archaeological footpaths (one attributed to the Early Bronze Age and one to the Roman period) using micromorphology, bulk samples laboratory analysis, and remote sensing. Field observations and color analysis indicate that footpaths in the studied arid limestone environment can result in brighter surface color than their non-path surroundings. Similar color changes are reflected using both laboratory analysis and high-resolution remote sensing, where the difference is also significant. Microscopically, the footpaths studied tend to be less porous and with fewer biogenic activities when compared to their non-path controls. However, the two ancient footpaths studied do exhibit minimal indicators of biogenic activities that are not detectable in the modern footpath sample. Our study shows that high-resolution remote sensing coupled with micromorphology, while using appropriate local modern analogies, can help to locate and assess both the environmental effect and the antiquity of footpaths

The environmental footprint of Holocene societies: a multi-temporal study of trails in the Judean Desert, Israel

The global distribution of footpaths and their inferred antiquity implies that they are widespread spatial and temporal anthropogenic landscape units. Arid environments are of special interest for investigating historically used footpaths, as older routes may preserve better due to minimal modern impact and slower pedogenic processes. Here we examine footpaths in the Judean Desert of the southern Levant, a human hotspot throughout the Holocene. We studied one modern and two archaeological footpaths (one attributed to the Early Bronze Age and one to the Roman period) using micromorphology, bulk samples laboratory analysis, and remote sensing. Field observations and color analysis indicate that footpaths in the studied arid limestone environment can result in brighter surface color than their non-path surroundings. Similar color changes are reflected using both laboratory analysis and high-resolution remote sensing, where the difference is also significant. Microscopically, the footpaths studied tend to be less porous and with fewer biogenic activities when compared to their non-path controls. However, the two ancient footpaths studied do exhibit minimal indicators of biogenic activities that are not detectable in the modern footpath sample. Our study shows that high-resolution remote sensing coupled with micromorphology, while using appropriate local modern analogies, can help to locate and assess both the environmental effect and the antiquity of footpaths

Givat Rabi East. a New Middle Paleolithic Knapping Site in the Lower Galilee (Israel)

Givat Rabi East is a newly-discovered flint outcrops centrally located within the Galilee in relative proximity to several Middle Paleolithic sites. In this paper we present the site and discuss the function of a dense accumulation of Middle Paleolithic flint knapping wastes excavated on its eastern edge. Our results suggest that the knapping wastes are likely the remains of a Mousterian workshop site. In comparison to the workshop site at Sede Ilan, located 15 km to the east where flint was quarried, the Givat Rabi East flint knappers collected eroded flint blocks in situ. The Lithic evidence indicates that the knapping sequences were initiated at the site. Furthermore several Levallois knapping methods had been employed. Therefore we suggest that the lithic assemblage left at Givat Rabi East represent knapping activities of several groups who exploited this location during the Middle Paleolithic period. Subsequently some of the lithic material (e. g. unfinished cores, Levallois blanks) was taken to other locations (e. g., caves) in order to continue the knapping sequence. The site location combined with the characteristics of the debitage and cores found within it, suggests that Givat Rabi East could have been one of the flint source for Qafzeh Cave and perhaps to other Mousterian cave sites.Givat Rabi Est est un affleurement de silex récemment découvert dans le centre de la Galilée, à proximité de plusieurs sites du Paléolithique moyen. Cet article présente le site et traite de l’utilisation d’un amas de déchets de taille du Paléolithique moyen, fouillée sur son bord oriental. Les résultats suggèrent que les déchets de taille sont probablement les vestiges d’un atelier moustérien. En comparaison avec le site d’atelier de Sde Ilan, situé à 15 km à l’est, où le silex à été extrait, à Givat Rabi Est les tailleurs ont acquis le silex par ramassage de blocs de silex qui ont été érodés in situ. L’assemblage lithique indique que les séquences de taille étaient initiées sur le site et que plusieurs méthodes de Levallois ont été utilisées. Par conséquent, nous suggérons que les assemblages lithiques qui ont été laissés à Givat Rabi Est représentent des activités de taille de plusieurs groupes, qui ont utilisé cet emplacement pendant le Paléolithique moyen. Une partie du matériau lithique était emportée en d’autres lieux (par exemple des grottes) pour continuer la séquence de taille. L’emplacement du site, tout comme les caractéristiques du débitage, laissent supposer que le site de Givat Rabi Est a pu être utilisé comme une source de silex pour la grotte de Qafzeh et peut-être pour d’autres grottes moustériennes.Ekshtain Ravid, Barzilai Omry, Inbar Moshe, Milevski Ianir, Ullman Micka. Givat Rabi East. a New Middle Paleolithic Knapping Site in the Lower Galilee (Israel) . In: Paléorient, 2011, vol. 37, n°2. pp. 107-122

Cave paleozoology in the Judean Desert: assembling records of Holocene wild mammal communities

Long temporal records of Holocene wild mammal communities are essential to examine the role of human impacts and climatic fluctuations in the configuration of modern ecosystems. We show that such records can be assembled through extensive radiocarbon dating of faunal remains obtained from biogenic cave deposits. We dated 110 mammalian remains from 19 different cave sites in the Judean Desert. We use the dates in combination with archaeological survey data and bone collagen/apatite δ13C values to study faunal succession in the context of Holocene climate change and human settlement history in the region. Our results suggest a change in the late Holocene, expressed in fewer observations of Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr) and gazelle (Gazella spp.), and an increase of Syrian striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena syriaca), fox (Vulpes spp.), Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) and rock hyrax (Procavia capensis); suids (Sus scrofa) appear for the first time. According to the data distribution, however, the probability of finding a bone diminishes exponentially with time, which implies that the Judean Desert cave paleozoological record is temporally biased. The weight of evidence ultimately favors an explanation of the observed patterns as the consequence of a combined anthropogenic and climatic impact on local food webs.H2020 European Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663Alexander von Humboldt‐Stiftung http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/10000515

Old and recent processes in a warm and humid desert hypogene cave: ‘A’rak Na‘asane, Israel

Recent environmental processes are studied in ʻA’rak Naʻasane Cave at the northern Judean Desert, Israel. The outer zone of the cave is heavily influenced by the outside environment through a large entrance, facilitating entry of air flow, fauna and humans, with minor cave-forming modifications. Conversely, the inner cave sustains humid and warm conditions, favoring modifications by condensation corrosion of convective air flow, associated with deposition of popcorn speleothems at the lower parts of dissolution pockets. The warm humid air of the inner cave may be associated with an underlying thermal water table. Active condensation corrosion is decreasing, possibly because of gradual change in the cave microclimate, associated with falling water table and ventilation. Increasing connection with the surface is indicated by high collapse domes, rare flood invasion, and a large Trident Leaf-nosed bat community which spends the winter within the innermost parts of the cave. Bat guano supports bedrock corrosion and a rich invertebrate fauna, but humans preferred the outer parts of the cave, particularly for refuge during the second Jewish revolt against the Romans. Rare occasions of ancient human entry into the inner cave support this scenario by the small number of artifacts compared with the outer cave. Enigmatic small cairns in the largest inner hall were probably erected during the Intermediate Bronze Age

Old and recent processes in a warm and humid desert hypogene cave: ‘A’rak Na‘asane, Israel

Recent environmental processes are studied in ʻA’rak Naʻasane Cave at the northern Judean Desert, Israel. The outer zone of the cave is heavily influenced by the outside environment through a large entrance, facilitating entry of air flow, fauna and humans, with minor cave-forming modifications. Conversely, the inner cave sustains humid and warm conditions, favoring modifications by condensation corrosion of convective air flow, associated with deposition of popcorn speleothems at the lower parts of dissolution pockets. The warm humid air of the inner cave may be associated with an underlying thermal water table. Active condensation corrosion is decreasing, possibly because of gradual change in the cave microclimate, associated with falling water table and ventilation. Increasing connection with the surface is indicated by high collapse domes, rare flood invasion, and a large Trident Leaf-nosed bat community which spends the winter within the innermost parts of the cave. Bat guano supports bedrock corrosion and a rich invertebrate fauna, but humans preferred the outer parts of the cave, particularly for refuge during the second Jewish revolt against the Romans. Rare occasions of ancient human entry into the inner cave support this scenario by the small number of artifacts compared with the outer cave. Enigmatic small cairns in the largest inner hall were probably erected during the Intermediate Bronze Age