Previously, archaeologists thought that this abrupt change in global climate, called the 8. 2 ka event, might have led to the widespread abandonment of coastal settlements in the southern Levant. In a recent study published in the journal Antiquity, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, the University of Haifa, and Bar-Ilan University present new evidence suggesting that at least one village once considered deserted not only remained occupied, but thrived at the time.
“This [study] helped fill a gap in our initial agreement on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean,” said Thomas Levy, co-author of the paper and co-director of Qualcomm’s Center for Cyberarchaeology and Sustainability (CCAS). Institute (QI) at UC San Diego, the inaugural Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands in the Department of Anthropology, and a prominent professor in the university’s Division of Graduate Studies. “It’s about human resilience. “
Signs of Life
The village of North Habonim learned off the coast of Israel’s Carmel in the mid-2010s and then studied through a team led by Ehud Arkin Shalev of the University of Haifa.
Prior to its excavation and analysis, there was little evidence of human habitation along the southern coast of the Levant during the 8. 2 ka event. The excavations, which took place during the COVID-19 shutdown and required a week-long, 24/7 coordinated effort between partners from UC San Diego and the University of Haifa, was the first official excavation of the submerged site.
Led by Assaf Yasur-Landau, director of the Léon Recanati Institute of Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa, and Roey Nickelsberg, Ph. D. Applying for investment at the University of Haifa, the foreign team excavated the site with a mixture of dredging and sediment sampling, as well as photogrammetry and three-dimensional modeling. Team members discovered pottery shards, or “fragments”; stone tools, as well as ceremonial weapons and weights for fishing nets; animal and plant remains; and architecture.
Using radiocarbon dating, the researchers tested bones recovered from domestic and wild animals; charred seeds of wild plants; crops such as wheat and lentils; and the weeds that tend to accompany those crops. Their effects traced those biological tissues back to the Neolithic of Ancient Ceramics (EPN), which coincided with the invention of pottery and the 8. 2 ka event.
Pottery fragments, stone tools, and architecture from northern Habonim also date activity at the EPN site and, surprisingly, to the Late Ceramic Neolithic, when the idea of the village had been abandoned.
As for how the people likely withstood the worst climatic instabilities, the researchers point to symptoms of an economy that diversified from agriculture to maritime culture and industry within a distinct cultural identity. The evidence comes with the weights of fishing nets; devices made of basalt, a stone that occurs naturally in this part of the eastern coast of the Mediterranean; and a ceremonial mace head.
“[Our study] showed that the ancient Neolithic pottery society [in Habonim North] demonstrated a multi-layered resilience that allowed it to cope with the 8. 2 ka crisis,” said Assaf Yasur-Landau, leader of the paper. pleasantly surprised by the richness of the finds, from pottery to biological remains. “
Using the generation of three-dimensional “digital twins” and the Haifa-UC San Diego QI collaboration, the researchers who read Habonim North have been able to virtually recreate their excavations and artifacts 3D printed, paving the way for further study. The team in the past won an Innovation Award in Netpaintingsing for Research Applications from the nonprofit CENIC for their “exemplary” work leveraging broadband netpaintingss during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Focus on resilience
Although scientists debate the cause of the 8. 2 ka event, some speculate that it began with the ultimate collapse of the Laurentian Ice Sheet, which shaped much of the North American landscape as it retreated from Canada and the present-day northern United States.
As the ice sheet melted, it would have altered the evolution of ocean currents, affecting heat transport and causing the observed drop in global temperatures.
For the study’s authors, the discovery of sustainable and evolutionary social activity in northern Habonim in this era of climate instability indicates a point of resilience in early Neolithic societies. Many of the activities were discovered in the village, adding to the creation of pottery and culturally. A different kind of trade shaped the foundations of later urban societies.
“To me, what’s vital is replacing the way we look at things,” Nickelsberg said. “A lot of archaeologists like to practice the collapse of civilizations. Perhaps it is time to start investigating the progression of human culture beyond its destruction and abandonment. “
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Materials provided through the University of California – San Diego. Original written through Xochitl Rojas-Rocha. Note: Content is subject to replacement in terms of taste and length.
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