Abstract
A salt deposit, covering land snail shells and rocks, was found in a space under a large boulder at Qumran near the Dead Sea at -280 m elevation and marks the level of the Dead Sea at c. 6700 yr BP. This level is some 120 m above the modern Dead Sea level and thus indicates substantially higher rainfall than at present. Archeological evidence indicates a falling sea level immediately following this time. Despite the favorable climate at the time of the high stand, the presently more arid areas of the southern Levant were nearly deserted. Only during the subsequent period of aridification did these areas become extensively settled by people of the Chalcolithic culture.
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Goodfriend, G.A., Magaritz, M. & Carmi, I. A high stand of the Dead Sea at the end of the Neolithic period: Paleoclimatic and archeological implications. Climatic Change 9, 349–356 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00139077
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00139077