Neolithic Sites in Israel-Palestine: Large, Old and Underwater Sites | Middle East And North Africa

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NEOLITHIC PALESTINE AND ISRAEL (10,000 to 4,500 B.C.)

Map of Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the southern Levant

During the Neolithic period (approximately 10,000 to 4,500 B.C.), hunter-gatherer groups began farming and making permanent settlements. Settlements have been found in Israel and Palestine that have large buildings with rooms where people once lived, public facilities and places for rituals. At Motza, the largest Neolithic site in Israel, alleyways ran between buildings, showing that the settlement had an advanced layout. Some buildings even had plaster floors. [Source: Laura Geggel, Live Science, July 17, 2019]

Gerald A. Larue wrote in “Old Testament Life and Literature”: The beginning of the Neolithic period 12,000 and 10,000 years ago (10,000-8,000 B.C.) is characterized by settled communities in which man, having developed agricultural skills, was no longer dependent upon natural resources for food. Excavations at Jericho, directed by Kathleen Kenyon, produced impressive evidence of the development of village culture prior to the invention of pottery. Floors surrounded by stone and earth humps were found in the earliest levels, but solid structures soon began to appear. Circular houses, with pounded earth floors cut below the level of the surrounding terrain, had upper walls of upright poles and elongated, cigar shaped bricks sloping inward to form domed roofs. Woven reed mats covered the floors. Around this community, a wall of free-standing stone had been built, over six feet wide in some places and still standing to a height of twelve feet. A huge tower more than thirty feet high with an interior staircase was built against the inner wall. Such structures indicate the existence of fully developed, cooperative community life as early as the sixth and seventh millennium B.C. [Source:Gerald A. Larue, “Old Testament Life and Literature,” 1968, infidels.org ]

“Subsequent layers of occupation reveal new living patterns. Houses become rectilinear with plastered floors and walls. Bones of goats, pigs, sheep and cattle point to domestication of these animals. Obsidian, turquoise and cowrie shells were imported from Syria, the Sinai peninsula and the Mediterranean for manufacture of tools and ornaments. In a shrine, a piece of volcanic stone from the Dead Sea area was placed in a niche, perhaps foreshadowing the sacred standing pillars mentioned in the Bible. Clay figurines and human skulls with features skillfully modeled in fine clay reveal artistic tendencies and, perhaps, if these items are cult objects, association with worship. Later, in the Neolithic period (fifth millennium), pottery-making begins. From this period have come three almost life-sized plaster statues built on reed frames, representing a man, woman, and child. The male head, which alone was recovered intact, is a flat disc of clay about one inch thick, with shells for eyes and brown paint for hair. It is possible that a divine triad is represented.

Trevor Watkins of the University of Edinburgh wrote: ““In Israel the site of Kfar HaHoresh dates to the later aceramic Neolithic, and it shares with southern Levantine settlement sites the burial of bodies, the retrieval of skulls, and, from the typical houses, the elaborate use of lime-plaster for making floor surfaces. However, there is no sign of everyday living at the site, though there is evidence of feasting episodes; and the rectangles of lime-plaster floor are not part of roofed buildings. The site appears to have been devoted to rituals that are evidenced on settlements of the period in the region, but it is difficult to imagine why a “central place” site was needed for the exclusive performance of practices that were also practised within settlements.” [Source: Trevor Watkins, University of Edinburgh,“Household, Community and Social Landscape: Maintaining Social Memory in the Early Neolithic of Southwest Asia”, proceedings of the International Workshop, Socio-Environmental Dynamics over the Last 12,000 Years: The Creation of Landscapes II (14th –18th March 2011)” in Kiel January 2012 /+]

Jericho

Jericho — the Biblical city of Joshua, trumpets and falling walls — is regarded by some as the oldest city in the world. Established around 7,500 B.C. in an arid valley 600 feet below sea level in Palestine near the Dead Sea., ancient Jericho was home to 2000 to 3000 people that survived on plants that thrived in a fertile area around an oasis. Strains of wheat and barley and obsidian tools have been discovered that came from elsewhere. Ancient Jericho had an elaborate system of walls, towers and moats. The circular wall that surrounded the settlement had a circumference of about 200 meters and was four meters high. The wall in turn was surrounded by a 30-foot-wide, 10-foot-deep moat. The technology used to build them was virtually the same as those used in medieval castles. [Source: "History of Warfare" by John Keegan, Vintage Books]

Jericho plastered skull

Located near a permanent spring a few miles west of the Jordan River and excavated by Kathleen Kenyon, Jericho is certainly one of the world’s oldest fortified settlement but whether it qualifies as a city is a matter of some debate. There are indications of settlement after 9000 B.C.. This settlement grew to city-like status by 7000 B.C. The archaeological site is situated in the plain of the Jordan Valley two kilometers northwest of modern Jericho city. It is a large artificial mound, rising 21 meters high and covering an area of about one acre.

In 7000 B.C., Jericho encompassed of about eight to ten acres and was home to estimated two to three thousand people. It was inhabited by people who depended on collecting wild seeds for food. It is appears that they did not plant seeds, but harvested wild grains using scythes with flint edges and straight bone handles and used stone mortars with handles for grinding them. Some people lived in caves, while others occupied primitive villages with round huts made from sun-dried bricks. They buried their dead with jewelry in graves made out of rock.

The early inhabitants of Jericho dug out canals to bring water from nearby sources to where they lived and perhaps to irrigate land with wild plants they harvested for food. They constructed huge two-meter-thick walls around their villages. Inside the main fortified settlement was a circular stone tower, nine meters in diameter, and ten meters high, built for protection and requiring thousands of man hours to build. The people of ancient Jericho practiced the domestication of animals, and weaving mats, as well as animal hunting, and perhaps, agriculture. They used spears and flint-capped arrows. They also used hatchets to cut tree branches. Some inhabitants expanded from their settlements in search of new homes outside their boundaries.

See Separate Article: JERICHO factsanddetails.com

Motza —Israel's Largest Neolithic Site

Israel's largest Neolithic excavation is at Motza. Located in a suburb west of Jerusalem and mentioned in the Bible, it is about 9,000 years old and was likely a crop-farming community that also kept goats and other animals. Archaeologists Hamoudi Khalaily and Jacob Vardi are directors of the excavations at on behalf of the Antiquities Authority. A 9,000-year-old figurine found at the site depicts a human face. A stone figurine of an ox, flint knives, spears and beads made of obsidian (volcanic glass) site that came from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). [Source: Laura Geggel, Live Science, July 17, 2019]

Tel Motza was excavated extensively by the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to construction of a section of Highway 1 to Jerusalem in 1993, 2002, 2003 2012 and 2013. These efforts confirmed it was the same as the biblical Motza first mentioned in the book of Joshua and found settlements dating to Iron Age II (10th to 6th centuries B.C.). Judging by its dozens of silos and two storage buildings, the site was a royal granary supplying Jerusalem. In July 2019, when Highway 1 was being expanded again, the largest Neolithic village ever found in Israel was found at Motza. Ongoing excavations there are being carried out by directed by Shua Kisilevitz and Prof. Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University, who are mainly investigating an Iron Age temple complex found at Motza, which is intriguing because it is from the same era when the first Holy Temple in nearby Jerusalem was standing. [Source: Israel21C]

Laura Geggel wrote in Live Science: The humans who lived there during the Neolithic period were a sophisticated bunch. Many of them were likely farmers who had stored hundreds of thousands of seeds — including lentils, chickpeas and beans — in storage facilities. These ancient people also kept domesticated goats, as shown by animal remains found at the site, and they traded with neighboring regions, such as what is now Turkey, Jordan and the areas around the Red Sea. "This is the first time that such a large-scale settlement from the Neolithic period — 9,000 years ago — [has been] discovered in Israel," Hamoudi Khalaily and Jacob Vardi, archaeologists and excavation directors at the site, who work with the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement. "At least 2,000 [to] 3,000 residents lived here — an order of magnitude that parallels a present-day city." [Source: Laura Geggel, Live Science, July 17, 2019]

The team also uncovered human burials beneath and around the houses. Some of the burials also held burial goods, likely offerings that may have been given to help the deceased in the afterlife. Some of these grave goods came from far away — including obsidian beads from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and seashells from the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea — indicating that the people at this site traded with neighboring regions. The excavation also uncovered several stone and mother-of-pearl bracelets, which, given their small size, were likely worn by children or adolescents, Vardi said. He added that one burial showed that these bracelets were worn on the upper arm.

Motza

The site also has thousands of stone arrowheads for hunting, axes for felling trees, and sickle blades and knives, as well as figurines whose styles date to the Neolithic. Radiocarbon dating of the seeds found at the site indicates that people lived there between 9,000 and 8,800 years ago, Vardi said. In addition to farming crops and keeping goats, these people kept cows and pigs; they also hunted game, such as gazelle, deer, wolves and foxes, as shown by animal remains found there. "Based on the data that we have and from the fauna, we have a pretty good notion that the people at the site were farmers and they were specialists in what they did," Vardi said. After the Neolithic period ended, people continued to live there. It's clear why this spot was so desirable, Vardi said, as it's near a large spring and several smaller springs that supply fresh water. The site is now 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) from Jerusalem, on the banks of the Sorek Stream. The entire Motza site is about 0.1 square miles (30 to 40 hectares).

Figurines from Motza

Ceramic figurines were among the objects found at an Iron Age temple uncovered at the site of Tel Motza five kilometers (three miles) west Jerusalem One figure dated to the 9th century B.C. According to Archaeology magazine: Sometimes it is the smallest artifacts that surprise archaeologists the most. Inside the recently uncovered remains of a massive Iron Age building at Tel Motza in Israel, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) uncovered a cache of pottery, and this particular assemblage surprised and intrigued them. [Source: Archaeology magazine, May-June 2013]

The collection included decorated chalices and pedestals, as well as a number of tiny figurines in both animal and human form. These artifacts resembled similar objects found previously that were known to have been used in domestic rituals. But the structure at Tel Motza was clearly much too large to be a house. Instead, they believed, it was actually a temple with an east-facing entrance typical of the ancient Near East, and an altar in the courtyard, next to which they found the pottery cache.

According to the IAA archaeologists, the discovery of the temple itself was striking. “There are hardly any remains of ritual buildings in Judea from this period,” they said. But the discovery of the sacred objects inside the temple was especially surprising because there is scant evidence for ritual practices, particularly so close to Jerusalem, at this time. At some point during the later Iron Age, ritual sites outside of Jerusalem were abolished and religious practices were concentrated solely at the temple in the capital city.

Neolithic Cult Sites in Israel

About 100 prehistoric "cult sites," many with penis stone structures and artifacts with vulva shapes cut into them, have been discovered in the Eilat Mountains, an extremely arid area of the Negev Desert in Israel.Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: At the sites, which date back around 8,000 years, archaeologists discovered a variety of stone structures and artifacts, including stone circles that measure 1.5 to 2.5 meters across (roughly 5 to 8 feet) with penis-shaped installations pointing toward them. Other findings there include standing stones that reach up to 2.6 feet (80 centimeters) high, stone bowls and stone carvings that have a humanlike shape. [Source: Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 9, 2015]

The skull cult sites are often clustered together. In one area the team discovered 44 cult sites in a spot encompassing only 0.8 square kilometers (less than 200 acres). "Taking in[to] consideration the topography, environmental conditions and the small number of known Neolithic habitations in the general southern Negev, the density of cult sites in this region is phenomenal," the team wrote in an article published in the Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society.

The cult sites were found in a mountainous area that receives only 20 mm (0.79 inches) of rain per year, on average, the archaeologists said. Around 8,000 years ago it would have been somewhat wetter. "The climate of the 7th-6th millennia B.C. was a little moister than that of the present, 40 percent-20 percent more rainfall, but the desert was a desert," said Avner.

An archaeological survey in the southern Negev, Israel, uncovered hundreds of Neolithic cult sites dated to 10,000 to 8,000 years ago built on the mountains, with specific characteristics: ‘regular’ and perforated standing stones, anthropomorphic stone images and other intriguing stone features. Uzi Avner of the Dead Sea-Arava Science Center (DSASC) wrote in “A Survey of Neolithic Cult Sites in the Eilat Mountains, Israel” (January 2014): “Arava regions have yielded an abundance of sites provisionally dated to the Neolithic, based primarily on surface lithics and the lack of pottery. "Rodedian" sites are small, and most cluster above Na al Roded, five kilometers north-west of the town of Eilat. The sites are distinguished from contemporaneous habitation sites in the desert region by several unique characteristics...They are found in rugged topography, on high igneous mountain ridges. Sites are usually located just below the mountain summit, on topographic shoulders and saddles, or other relatively flat spots. Built features consist of small and low cells built of unworked fieldstones, as well as other, small stone installations or flagstones set into the ground. . [Source: “Neolithic Cult sites in the Eilat Mountains, Israel” by Avner, U., M. Shem-Tov, L. Enmar, G. Ragolski, R. Shem-Tov, O. Barzilai, Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, 2019}

Humanlike stone carvings were also found at the Neolithic Cult Sites in Israel

Many more sites in the area remain to be surveyed and described in published papers, Avner told Live Science. A "survey of a larger area yielded to date 349 cult sites," he said, adding that researchers are preparing these finds for publication. "The number of cult sites recorded to date suggests that many more still await discovery," the researchers wrote."Many more may be found on the mountains of the Negev, southern Jordan and Sinai." One "may think now of a vast phenomenon, of hundreds of mountain cult sites in the desert.

Underwater Neolithic Sites off the Coast of Israel

Underwater archaeology in Israel began in 1960 and, already then, traces of submerged settlements were discovered. The first research took place in 1969, when the Neve-Yam site was exposed by a winter storm. Subsequently, during the early 1980s, a research project aimed at locating, excavating, salvage and research of submerged prehistoric settlements was established by E. Galili. [Source: Harvard University]

Six decades of research has revealed 17 submerged prehistoric sites, containing substantial and well-preserved finds that enlighten the culture and subsistence of the prehistoric coastal populations of the region. Among them are thirteen Neolithic sites, belonging to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period, represented at the site of Atlit-Yam (dated to 9250–8000 years ago), and twelve Pottery Neolithic sites dated to between 8000 and 6500 years ago.

The first underwater Neolithic site excavated off the Israeli coast was Atlit Yam. It is located just north of the Habonim site, second underwater Neolithic site excavated off the Israeli coast. Atlit Yam dates from 8000-9000 years ago, just before the development of pottery. It features a huge stone Neolithic circle, burial sites, stone buildings and other finds. [Source: Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel, May 2, 2024]

Most of the pastoral Neolithic sites (Kfar-Samir; Hishuley Carmel; Kfar-Galim; Nahal Galim; Hahoterim; Tel-Hreiz; Megadim; Atlit north bay; Neve-Yam and Habonim) are attributed to the Wadi Rabah culture, considered as late Pottery Neolithic or early Chalcolithic, while the Neve-Yam North site belong to the Lodian culture, which predates the Wadi Rabah culture.The Pottery Neolithic sites are located close to the present shore (1–200 meters offshore) at depths of 0–5 meters, while the older Atlit-Yam site is located further offshore (200–400 meter) and in deeper water (8–12 meters below sea level).

8,200-Year-Old Site Habonim North Shows How Villagers Dealt with Extreme Drought and Climate Change

Atlit Yam, an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit, Israel, dated to the final Pre-Pottery Neolithic period between 6900 and 6300 BC; excavations have been done by the Haifa University and Antiquities Authority

An 8,200-year-old submerged Neolithic village off Israel’s northern coast shows how people at that time dealt with extreme regional drought during a during a global climatic event. Gavriel Fiske wrote in Times of Israel: First excavated only in 2020, the “Habonim North” site off the Carmel coast is an ancient village now submerged under three meters of water and seafloor. The excavation has provided “evidence for continuity of subsistence and economic strategies” as well as “the resilience of coastal communities in the face of significant climatic uncertainty,” according to a recent paper published by the University of Haifa-led team. “There was a climate change 8,200 years ago, it became colder and drier. These early pottery Neolithic sites are very rare after this event,” says Prof. Assaf Yasur-Landau, director of the University of Haifa’s Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, said. The study, “Continuity and climate change: the Neolithic coastal settlement of Habonim North, Israel,” was published in March 2024 in Antiquity, and includes the results of a collaboration between the University of Haifa, UC San Diego and Bar-Ilan University. [Source: Gavriel Fiske, Times of Israel, May 2, 2024]

The worldwide decrease in temperature occurred around 6200 B.C. and is thought to have lasted 200-400 years. Known as the “8.2ka climatic event,” it is understood to have caused environmental challenges worldwide, including drought conditions in the Levant. Archaeologists have cited this event to explain a dearth of sites in the eastern Mediterranean coastal region from the Early Pottery Neolithic period (6400-5500 B.C.) when humans had already domesticated some crops and animals and were developing pottery technology. In contrast, sites from the pre-pottery period, in the early Neolithic before the 8.2ka climatic event, are more abundant. Yasur-Landau, who led the underwater excavations at the Habonim North site, explains that the village is a “rare example” that “probably began immediately after this [climate] crisis. We are beginning to understand that people could actually cope with the changing climate, especially in areas along the coast where they had access to fresh water and marine resources.”

The archaeologists discovered multiple examples of pottery shards, some of which were non-local, indicating that trading networks were already in place. They also found organic matter, well-preserved because of the oceanic conditions, indicating the use and consumption of both domesticated and wild crops and animals. The team also discovered several stones with holes carved through them, likely used for weighing down fishing nets, and other kinds of stone tools, including a large stone bowl, left in situ under the water, likely used for grinding grain. At least two stone structures were uncovered, as well as several stone walls.

The new findings show that “early Neolithic societies were resilient and sustainable, providing the foundation for the later social and economic changes that lead to the development of urbanism,” the authors note. “It was a very unstable environment,” Yasur-Landau says. “The conditions may have caused crop failures from time to time. Changing sea levels also caused rising salinity in coastal wells, so you had to dig new wells. I think the conditions also had an impact on swamps, and where they were created.

“You have villages residing there, they were growing crops, barley, lentils, vegetables, and you also have animals such as sheep and goats.” This time in human development, Yasur-Landau stressed, was a period of “adapting to a new reality,” with the first use of pottery, iconography with human shapes, small figurines and other cultural and material changes. “We also found evidence that they also had symbols of authority,” he said. “We found a mace head made of stone, which is a ceremonial weapon. It’s not used for hunting, it’s a weapon and probably showed status as a warrior or local leader.” Other aspects of social development, such as use of flint tools — which were found in abundance at Habonim North — and grain cultivation, remained much the same as previous periods.

7,000 Years Ago People Near Haifa Unsuccessfully Built a Seawall to Block Rising Sea Levels

artist's drawing of a Atlit-Yam ritual stone structure

In December 2019, archaeologists announced in an article published in PLOS ONE that they had uncovered the oldest known manmade seawall off the coast of Haifa at the the underwater archaeological site of Tel Hreiz, a Neolithic settlement that flourish 7500-7000 years ago. According to the scientists the wall was constructed to stave off ever-rising sea water from melting glaciers and predates other ancient breakwalls by 3,000 years. “The seawall is unique for the period and is the oldest known coastal defense worldwide,” write the group of researchers from University of Haifa, Flinders University in Australia, the Israel Antiquities Authority and The Hebrew University.[Source: Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel, December 18, 2019]

Amanda Borschel-Dan wrote in the Times of Israel: The wall was first discovered in 2012. After years of study, the researchers concluded that the residents constructed the over 100-meter-long seawall from boulders of up to 1 meter in size that were taken from riverbeds some 1-2 kilometers from their village. The large boulders were from limestone or kurkar stone and weigh between 200-1000 kilograms each. The zigzagging seawall was intentionally planned and constructed with several different building styles to keep out the rising water, write the authors. “Notably, for its entire length, it is free-standing… the wall is not attached to any domestic structure in the village,” they write. Unfortunately, said Dr. Ehud Galili from the University of Haifa’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology, the extreme measure to protect the village did not pay off and the residents had to eventually abandon their homes.

In a press release, Galili explained that during the Neolithic era, people living along the Mediterranean would have experienced a sea-level rise of approximately 12-21 centimeters during a lifetime, which works out to be around 70cm in a 100 years. Ancient Tel Hreiz itself was built at “a safe elevation” of three meters above sea level — which would not have felt safe for long. But it is not only the encroaching water that would have caused havoc on the villagers and their homes. “This rate of sea-level rise means the frequency of destructive storms damaging the village would have risen significantly,” said Galili in the press release.

“The environmental changes would have been noticeable to people, during the lifetime of a settlement across several centuries,” said Galili. “Eventually the accumulating yearly sea level necessitated a human response involving the construction of a coastal protection wall similar to what we’re seeing around the world now.”

Tel Hreiz — the Site of the Seawall

Amanda Borschel-Dan wrote in the Times of Israel: Prior to the abandonment of Tel Hreiz, it appeared to be a thriving village. Since early surveys in the 1960s, underwater archaeologists have discovered paving stones, hearths, potsherds, animal bones from eight species that were presumably used for food (including pig and dog), a variety of flint tools (but no arrowheads), and basalt tools, including a mortar. The site has never been systematically excavated, but a 1997 article discusses what appears to be booming olive oil production at Tel Hreiz, as well as other similar submerged sites off the Carmel Coast. [Source: Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel, December 18, 2019]

Later excavations found stone structures such as this seawall in 2012, and upright wooden poles which archaeologists believe served as foundational support for wooden huts. In 2015, a storm removed more debris from the wall and also revealed remains of two 18-20 year old female skeletons buried in clay. “Tel Hreiz appears to represent just one of a series of small, sedentary villages that were located along the Mediterranean littoral of northern Israel, and whose inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, pastoralism, hunting as well as fishing,” write the authors.

The artifacts were covered for millennia by a protective layer of sand of a depth of approximately 1-2 meters. They were only recently exposed, by man — through building, and excavation — as well as storms. Because the sea level rose steadily, there was no occupation at the village after it was abandoned and thus the dating of the artifacts is relatively secure. “There are no known or similar built structures at any of the other submerged villages in the region, making the Tel Hreiz site a unique example of this visible evidence for human response to sea-level rise in the Neolithic,” said Flinder’s University’s Benjamin.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except first map from Researchgate and Neolithic cult objects by Uzi Avner

Text Sources: Live Science, Wikipedia, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. The Independent, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, and various books and other publications.

Last updated June 2024