Tel Tsaf

Tel Tsaf courtyard building.

Tel Tsaf (Hebrew: תל צף‎) is an archaeological site located in the central Jordan Valley, south-east of Beit She'an. It was first tested in 1978–1980 by Ram Gophna of Tel Aviv University. In 2004–2007 a large excavation project was conducted at the site by Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Since 2013 the University of Haifa and the Zinman institute of archaeology started the renewed excavation of Tel Tsaf. Tel Tsaf is dated to ca. 5200–4700 BC, sometimes called the Middle Chalcolithic, a little-known period in the archaeology of the Levant,[1] post-dating the Wadi Rabah phase and pre-dating the Ghassulian Chalcolithic phase.

Discoveries

The excavations unearthed four architectural complexes. Each consists of a closed courtyard with rounded or rectangular rooms and numerous rounded silos. Four burials were found within or adjacent to silos. Outside the settlement a well was cut into the water table, approximately 6.5 m in depth.

Tel Tsaf clay figurine of a dog.

Common finds included numerous flints, pottery and animal bones. The terms "Tel Tsaf Decoration" or "Tsafian" were derived from an assemblage of painted pottery, consisting mainly of relatively elaborate vessels bearing geometric decoration using red and black paint on a white slip background. The decoration was executed in two steps: first, white wash was applied to the upper part of the vessel, while the lower part was covered with red wash. Second, the patterns were painted in continuous horizontal bands on the upper part of the vessel. The painting was executed with a fine brush, in some cases 0.5 mm.

Other finds included about 150 clay sealings (bullae) and a rich assemblage of imported exotic items including artifacts of basalt and obsidian, beads, sea shells, Nilotic shell, and a few pottery sherds of the Ubaid culture of north Syria. This is the first reported occurrence of Ubaid sherds in an excavation in the southern Levant.

Silos

The silos are cylindrical, barrel-shaped structures with an outer diameter between 2 and 4 m. The base is a podium, probably built to protect the cereals from rodents. It consists of several courses of bricks sealed inside with lime plaster. The silos demonstrate several universal principles guiding the construction of silos worldwide, past and present: 1. Rounded sides, giving the structure a cylindrical shape. This form better withstands the pressure exerted by the contents, which is distributed evenly onto the sides of the silo and does not create excessive stress at the base or the corners as is the case with a rectilinear shape. 2. Building of a number of silos near one another allows for greater ease of handling than one big installation. This facilitates separation of grain from different years or different crops. In the event of fire, humidity, rodent or insect infestation, some of the stored grain may be spared. 3. Organization of silos in adjacent rows facilitates their arrangement within a confined space. The stability of silo shape over considerable periods of time and large geographical regions provide an outstanding case in human architecture. [2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Price, Meredith. "At the Bottom of the Well: The Tel-Tsaf Excavation". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  2. ↑ Garfinkel, Yosef; David Ben-Shlomo; Tali Kuperman (2009). "Large-scale storage of grain surplus in the sixth millennium BC: the silos of Tel Tsaf". Antiquity 83 (320): 309–326.

Bibliography


Coordinates: 32°24′24.46″N 35°32′53.81″E / 32.4067944°N 35.5482806°E