Dating the Prehistoric Site Nahal Issaron in the Southern Negev, Israel

Abstract

The prehistoric site Nahal Issaron is located on the alluvial fan of Nahal Issaron, a short wadi draining into Biqat Uvda some 50 km north of Eilat. Excavated in the early 1980s, it constitutes a major Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) layer, with continued but sporadic occupation throughout the Late Neolithic to the Chalcolithic period. In the PPNB layer, a dense agglomeration of rounded, polygonal and rectangular structures was found, with courtyards and a variety of features such as hearths and ovens. The upper layer is badly preserved, apart from the hearths and ovens. Thirty samples from the site were 14C-dated in the Rehovot laboratory and five in the Pretoria laboratory. The results enabled a fine temporal resolution between layers and a refinement of the 7th through 5th millennium BC chronology. The dates also placed the sequence of changes in architecture and lithics within a more robust temporal framework, thus making the site a key chronological anchor in the Neolithic of Southern Israel, Sinai and Jordan.