Stone Age, Canaanite, Arrowheads and Blades Found in Judean Foothills

Jewish Press ^ | June 30th, 2013 | Staff

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeological excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority done prior to laying down a sewer line turned up evidence of human habitation 9,000 years ago... in the Judean foothills moshav (cooperative village) of Eshta'ol...

According to Benjamin Storchen, the excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "the ancient findings we unveiled at the site indicate that there was a flourishing agricultural settlement in this place, and it lasted for as long as 4,000 years."

The archaeological artifacts discovered in the excavation site indicate that the first settlers arrived here about 9,000 years ago. This period is called by archaeologists the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic period, which includes the earliest evidence of organized agriculture.

The site continued to flourish, and reached the peak of its development in the early Canaanite period, about 5000 years ago. This period is characterized by the consolidation of large rural communities, which were dispersed all across the country. The economy of these villages relied on field crops, on orchards and on livestock farming, which continue to characterize in today’s typical Mediterranean agriculture...

It appears that the Canaanite site being excavated at the moshav Eshta’ol was part of a large settlement bloc, which came to an end for reasons that are not sufficiently clear some 4,600 years ago.

Stortz’n explains that “these findings indicate a broad and well-developed settlement in the area of the Judean foothills, near the spot where two local rivers, the Kislon and the Ishwa, meet.”

He claims that “these two riverbeds, which today are dry, were alive with streaming water in ancient times, which provided the necessities of life for the local community and allow them to develop thriving agricultural systems alongside an economy based on hunting. The evidence to that are flint warheads, discovered in the same excavation.

[SunkenCiv]

The excavation of an early Canaanite home is taking place right next door to the moshav homes. Photo Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority

[SunkenCiv]

[DManA]

it lasted for as long as 4,000 years.

The thought of living in the same place 100 generations of your ancestors lived, living exactly the same life 100 generations lived, without even the concept of the possibility of change entering your mind - it's just so foreign to me.

[SunkenCiv]

or 200 generations, even.

[DManA]

I picked a number in the middle. And 100 generations would follow my hypothetical fellow.

[SatinDoll]

Four thousand six hundred years ago — there were a series of devastating droughts that occurred around the Mediterranean after the Ice Age ended. One brought down the Sumerian civilization and set people to migrating.

These migrations due to climate change are devastating, then as now. One of the more pleasant places to live during the Ice age was the Middle East, present day Egypt, Ethiopia, and across the northern tier of Africa. Arabia, today a desert land, at that time had abundant water in the area today known as the Persian Gulf and was dry land.

Once people start migrating due to climate changes, displacements lead to war.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1607979/posts?page=94#94

[Reeses]

The evidence to that are flint warheads, discovered in the same excavation.

There's a big clue what happened. People don't hunt inside town. If there are little warheads scattered about, it was likely tribal warfare. Will future archeologists find shell casings in downtown Detroit and conclude they had a hunting economy that mysteriously came to an end?

[SunkenCiv]

Yup. A site in what’s now Egypt had been a good-sized Neolithic town about 15,000 years ago; the entire place was burned to the ground and never rebuilt. In the ash layer were found thousands of spear- and arrowheads from the terminal events.

[SunkenCiv]

Either way, it’s a long, long time, not least considering that most people alive today never get to meet even their great-grandparents, which is only three generations ago. Most people know who at least one of their parents is, and have some idea about both; and if they can talk with at least one, they learn about their grandparents. And if they are able to talk to their grandparents, by the same-boat model, they can learn at least something about their great-great-grandparents. But the oral tradition both is and is not durable, precisely because discontinuities are so frequent, and accuracy and honesty aren’t particularly valued. :’)