Around 6200 BC, the climate underwent significant changes. Global temperatures dropped, sea levels rose, and the southern Levant, which includes modern-day Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, Lebanon, southern Syria, and the Sinai desert, experienced prolonged drought.
Archaeologists previously believed that this sudden change in global climate, called the 8.2ka event, may have led to the complete abandonment of coastal settlements in the southern Levant. In a new study published in the journal ancient agesResearchers from UC San Diego, the University of Haifa, and Bar-Ilan University share new evidence that suggests at least one village previously thought to have been abandoned was not only occupied but also thrived during this period.
“BT [дослідження] “It helps fill a gap in our understanding of early settlement along the eastern Mediterranean coast,” said Thomas Levy, co-author of the paper and co-director of the Center for Cyberarchaeology and Sustainability (CCAS) at the Qualcomm Institute at the University of California, San Diego (QI).
“It’s about human resilience,” he said. “It’s about human resilience.”
Signs of life
The village of Habonim North was discovered off the coast of Carmel, Israel, in the mid-2010s and later explored by a team led by Ehud Arkin Shalev of the University of Haifa.
Prior to its excavation and analysis, there was little evidence of human settlement along the southern Levantine coast at the time of the 8.2ka event. The excavation, conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown and involving coordinated 24/7 efforts by partners at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Haifa, was the first formal excavation of the underwater site.
The international team, led by Assaf Yassour-Landau, Ph.D., director of the Leon Recanati Institute of Marine Research at the University of Haifa, and Roy Nickelsberg, Ph.D., a candidate from the University of Haifa, excavated the site using a combination of scanning and sampling, as well as photogrammetry and 3-D modeling. Team members found pottery fragments, or “chunks”; stone tools, including ceremonial weapons and weights for fishing nets; animal and plant remains; and architecture.
Using radiocarbon dating, the researchers tested the bones of wild and domesticated animals; burnt seeds of wild plants; crops such as wheat and lentils; and the weeds that often accompany these crops. Their results showed that these organic materials date back to both the invention of pottery and the Early Pottery Neolithic (EPN), which is 8.2 thousand years ago.
Pottery sherds, stone tools and architecture from Northern Habonima also date to activity at the EPN site and, surprisingly, to the Late Pottery Neolithic period, when the village is thought to have been abandoned.
As for how the village survived the worst of the climate instability, the researchers point to signs of a diverse economy that ranged from agriculture to maritime culture and trade within the framework of a distinct cultural identity. The evidence includes fishing net weights; tools made of basalt, a stone not naturally found on this part of the eastern Mediterranean coast; and a ceremonial mace tip.
“[Наше дослідження] Early Pottery Neolithic society [на півночі Хабоніма] “It showed a multi-layered resilience that allowed it to withstand the 8.2,200-kilogram crisis,” said Assaf Yasur-Landau, senior author of the paper. “I was pleasantly surprised by the wealth of finds, from pottery to organic remains.”
Thanks to 3D “digital twin” technology and a collaboration between Haifa and UC San Diego QI, researchers at Habonim North were able to virtually recreate their excavation and 3D print artifacts, paving the way for further research. The team previously received a Networking Innovations in Research Applications Award from the nonprofit organization CENIC for its “exemplary” work on high-bandwidth networking during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shifting focus to sustainability
Although scientists debate the cause of the 8.2ka event, some believe it was preceded by the final collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which shaped much of the North American landscape as it retreated from present-day Canada and the Northern States. As the ice sheet melted, it would have altered the flow of ocean currents, affecting the transport of heat and leading to the observed drop in global temperature.
According to the authors behind the study, the discovery of sustained and thriving social activity at Northern Habonim during this period of climatic instability points to a level of resilience in early Neolithic societies. Many of the activities found in the village, including the creation of culturally distinct pottery and trade, formed the basis for later urban societies.
“For me, it’s important to change the way we look at things,” Nickelsberg said. “A lot of archaeologists like to look at the collapse of civilizations. Maybe it’s time to start looking at the development of human culture, not its destruction and neglect.”
Source: Port Altele
