Excavations at Quleh and Mazor (West). Burial Practices and Iconography in Southern Levantine Chalcolithic Cemeteries

Abstract

This volume provides an overview of the excavations in two contiguous cemeteries of the Chalcolithic period, Quleh and Mazor (West), in the central coastal plain of Israel. The excavations were carried out as a salvage project on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority under the direction of Ianir Milevski, one of the editors of this volume. This volume presents in detail the excavated caves and the finds within them, including the pottery, ossuaries, lithic finds, human and faunal remains. The main issues in this volume relate to different analyses used for better understanding the site within its geographical landscape and chronological framework of the second half of the 5th millennium BC in the southern Levant. These analyses include the iconography, provenance and technological aspects of the ceramic vessels and clay ossuaries, and the distribution of the finds in the caves. In addition to being an excavation report, this volume includes synthesis studies of the distribution of settlements and cemeteries of the Chalcolithic Ghassulian Culture, and the relationships between both types of sites and the burial system of that period. These relationships are deciphered by means of petrography and viewshed analysis utilizing GIS systems. The volume emphasizes the anthropological and social aspects of the iconography of the Ghassulian Culture of the Chalcolithic period and a comprehensive view of the religious beliefs encompassed in these burial practices.