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Geoarchaeological Investigation of Site Formation and Depositional Environments at the Middle Palaeolithic Open-Air Site of ‘Ein Qashish, Israel

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Abstract

‘Ein Qashish is a Middle Palaeolithic open-air site in the southern Levant, encompassing an excavated area of several hundred square meters and a 4.5-m thick stratigraphic section. Its placement within a fluvial system, combined with the presence of Neanderthal skeletal remains and diverse material culture finds, presents possibilities for understanding human behaviour on the open landscape during the late Middle Palaeolithic. The aim of this study is to investigate the depositional and post-depositional processes at ‘Ein Qashish, based on the stratigraphic section exposed in the 2013 excavation season. We employed field observations, sedimentology, micromorphology, mineralogy, elemental and isotopic analyses. Our results indicate that the sedimentary sequence, including four archaeological occupation levels, accumulated in a generally low-energy alluvial environment with evidence for syn-depositional localised seasonal water bodies. On-going post-depositional processes related to wetting and drying cycles include shrink-swell and calcite and gypsum pedofeatures. Bone mineral is relatively well preserved. The data suggest limited fluvial and argilliturbation reworking of artefacts, indicating that spatial patterning of lithic and bone assemblages is rather well preserved in some areas. The current analyses do not indicate the presence of combustion features or fire-related residues at the site, although burned lithics occur in low frequencies. The absence of combustion features in the large excavated area and deep stratigraphy contrasts with patterns observed in Middle Palaeolithic cave occupations in the region, adding nuance to a dataset that will enable a better understanding of human activities under sheltered and open-air conditions.

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Notes

  1. The stratigraphic scheme reported in Been et al. (2017) was based on observations in the 2013 excavation and referred to layers 1–6. The scheme presented here is based on correlation done across all the excavation areas and trenches studied over the years and will be reported in detail in Ekshtain et al. (in preparation). Following this revision, we use the terminology of ‘units’ instead of ‘layers’. Layer 6 mentioned in Been et al. (2017) is thus equivalent to Unit 11 in this study. Designations of earlier stratigraphic units at the 2013 excavation area (Units 2–5), which include the MP materials, have not changed. Units 7 (late Pleistocene) and Units 9-10 (Holocene) were observed only in Area A of the 2013 excavation.

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Avner Ayalon from the Geological Survey of Israel is acknowledged for important discussions related to the stable isotope analyses. We also thank Dr. Naomi Porat from the Geological Survey of Israel for XRD and ICP-MS analyses carried out in the Geochemistry Division. Finally, we thank the staff and volunteers of the excavation team at ‘Ein Qashish. We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.

Funding

Archaeological excavations at the 2013 excavation of ‘Ein Qashish was funded by Derekh Eretz Inc. We acknowledge the support of the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, for FTIR, XRF and ICP-MS analyses carried out by N.N. and M.S. based on funds available to R.S.-G. during her professional term in the WIS (2011-2015). N.N. was supported by funds available to R.S.-G. and by scholarships from the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. E.H. thanks The National Geographic Society, The Leakey Foundation and the Irene-Levi Sala CARE Foundation for additional support for post-excavation work for both the 2009-2011 and 2013 excavations at the site. Micromorphological and pH analyses were undertaken at the Laboratory for Sedimentary Archaeology, University of Haifa. M.S. would further like to thank the Athene programme of the University of Tübingen for research support.

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Author notes

  1. M. C. Stahlschmidt

    Present address: Department of Human Evolution, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

  2. M. C. Stahlschmidt and N. Nir contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    M. C. Stahlschmidt

  2. School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    M. C. Stahlschmidt

  3. The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    N. Nir, R. Ekshtain & E. Hovers

  4. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    N. Greenbaum

  5. Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel

    T. Zilberman

  6. Archaeological Research Department, Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel

    O. Barzilai

  7. Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, Germany

    A. Malinsky-Buller

  8. Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

    E. Hovers

  9. Department of Maritime Civilizations, Recanati Institute of Maritime Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    R. Shahack-Gross

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  1. M. C. Stahlschmidt
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Stahlschmidt, M.C., Nir, N., Greenbaum, N. et al. Geoarchaeological Investigation of Site Formation and Depositional Environments at the Middle Palaeolithic Open-Air Site of ‘Ein Qashish, Israel. J Paleo Arch 1, 32–53 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-018-0005-y

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