The first industrial revolution in the southern Levant crystallized during the Iron Age when copp... more The first industrial revolution in the southern Levant crystallized during the Iron Age when copper production reached scales never before seen in this part of the Middle East. Ever since copper ore was first smelted during the Chalcolithic period, the Arabah valley, and its widespread distribution of copper mineralization, was the main source for copper ore in the region. The main ore deposits are located in Timna (Israel) in the southern part of the valley, and some 105 km to the north, in the Faynan region (Jordan). Faynan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Levant. Excavations at the Iron Age Faynan site of Khirbat en-Nahas and the recent final publication of that project have revealed peaks in industrial-scale production during the 10 th and 9 th centuries BCE. However, the role of ground stone tools in the Iron Age copper industry in Faynan has not been systematically presented. This paper presents a preliminary study of the ground stone assemblage from one excavation season at Khirbat en-Nahas, thereby highlighting the great potential for ground stone tools research at the site. Using the chaîne opératoire method of technological study, this paper takes a quantitative approach to the typological, material, and spatial distribution of ground stone artefacts at Khirbat en-Nahas to understand their role in copper production. Ethnoarchaeological study of hereditary bronze casting workshops in southern India provides a compelling model of how ground stone tools played a critical role in one of the most important dimensions of metal production in all periods-recycling-in an Iron Age copper factory.
Abstract to Miroslav Barta's book 'Sinuhe, the Bible, and the Patriarchs. Contextulizes Barta's ... more Abstract to Miroslav Barta's book 'Sinuhe, the Bible, and the Patriarchs. Contextulizes Barta's work in a transdisciplinary perspective.
Recent current events have dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of the world's material cul... more Recent current events have dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of the world's material cultural heritage. The 3-D Digital Preservation of At-Risk Global Cultural Heritage project, led by Thomas Levy at UC San Diego, catalyzes a collabora-tive research effort by four University of California campuses (San Diego, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Merced) to use cyber-archaeology and computer graphics for cultural heritage to document and safeguard virtually some of the most at-risk heritage objects and places. Faculty and students involved in this project are conducting path-breaking archaeological research-covering more than 10,000 years of culture and architecture-in Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and the United States. This project uses the 3-D archaeological data collected in numerous at-risk heritage places to study, forecast, and model the effects of human conflict, climate change, natural disasters and technological and cultural changes on these sites and landscapes. The greater challenge undertaken by this project is to integrate archaeological heritage data and digital heritage data using the recently-announced Pacific Research Platform (PRP) and its 10-100Gb/s network as well as virtual reality kiosks installed in each participating UC campus. Our aim is to link UC San Diego and the San Diego Supercom-puter Center to other labs, libraries and museums at the other UC campuses to form a highly-networked collaborative platform for curation, analysis, and visualization of 3D archaeological heritage data.
New data concerning the role of one of the earliest historically know Egyptian kings, Narmer, in ... more New data concerning the role of one of the earliest historically know Egyptian kings, Narmer, in the expansion of the Nile Valley civilization is present.
The environmental impact of mining and metallurgy is an issue that has affected societies in the ... more The environmental impact of mining and metallurgy is an issue that has affected societies in the ancient Near East over the past 8000 years. We present the results of a multidisciplinary project using agricultural sediments from ancient terraces as a cultural archive of environmental pollution and land use in the copper ore-rich Faynan valley of southern Jordan. Due to the simultaneous production of agricultural goods and copper metallurgy throughout the last 6000 years in the valley, environmental pollution and its consequences for human health have been considered as a factor in settlement abatement. Sediments from two farming terrace systems adjacent to the major mining and smelting locales were analyzed. The sediment analyses included metal concentrations, lead-isotopes and phytolith analysis, and OSL dating. Although measurable concentrations of lead and other heavy metals persist in ancient metallurgical waste piles, our investigations found minimal evidence for contamination in the adjacent terrace systems. Based on these results, we argue that the occurrence of environmental pollution in the Faynan valley is highly variable, and that the distribution of heavy metals resulted from a combination of natural and cultural factors, including persistent landscape features that helped contain the most polluted metallurgical deposits. These findings are significant for understanding the processes of landscape change and human impacts on desert environments, including the ways in which past human actions have negatively affected the environment, as well as preserved and protected the environment from further degradation.
THE PAST FORWARD - Drawing on new emerging technologies, Thomas E. Levy predicts the rise of the ... more THE PAST FORWARD - Drawing on new emerging technologies, Thomas E. Levy predicts the rise of the cyber-archaeologist
Geomagnetic models based on direct observations since the 1830s show that the averaged relative c... more Geomagnetic models based on direct observations since the 1830s show that the averaged relative change in field intensity on Earth's surface over the past 170 years is less than 4.8% per decade. It is unknown if these rates represent the typical behavior of secular variations due to insufficient temporal resolution of archaeomagnetic records from earlier periods. To address this question we investigate two ancient slag mounds in Cyprus - Skouriotissa Vouppes (SU1, 4th - 5th centuries CE, 21 meter in height), and Mitsero Kokkinoyia (MK1, 7th - 5th BCE, 8 meter in height). The mounds are multi-layered sequences of slag and charcoals that accumulated near ancient copper production sites. We modeled the age-height relation of the mounds using radiocarbon dates, and estimated paleointensities using Thellier-type IZZI experiments with additional anisotropy, cooling rate, and non-linear TRM assessments. To screen out ambiguous paleointensity interpretations we applied strict selection criteria at the specimen/sample levels. To ensure objectivity, consistency, and robust error estimation we employed an automatic interpretation technique and put the data available in the MagIC database. The analyses yielded two independent sub-century scale paleointensity time series. The MK1 data indicate relatively stable field at the time the mound accumulated. In contrast, the SU1 data demonstrate changes that are comparable in magnitude to the fastest changes inferred from geomagnetic models. We suggest that fast changes observed in the published archaeomagnetic data from the Levant are driven by two longitudinally-paired regions, the Middle East and South Africa, that show unusual activity in geomagnetic models.
Hyperspectral (multiple, narrow band) satellite imaging provides a useful discovery and analytica... more Hyperspectral (multiple, narrow band) satellite imaging provides a useful discovery and analytical tool for archaeologists. The Hyperion instrument, fl ying on the Earth Observer 1 (EO-1) satellite, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on November 21, 2000. Hyperion provides 242 (196 calibrated) narrow bands in the visible (VIS) to shortwave infrared range (SWIR), enabling detailed archaeological and geological analyses. We analyzed a Hyperion image swath targeted on Khirbat en-Nahas (KEN), an ancient copper smelting site along the Wadi al-Ghuwayb (WAG) in Jordan's Faynan district, where extensive ore processing occurred from the third millennium B.C.E. to industrial scale production over several centuries in the early fi rst millennium B.C.E. (Iron Age) and continued until Medieval Islamic times. We use a combination of Principal Components Analysis (PCA), similarity matrices, and Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) to locate additional ore processing sites and discern depositional differences that may help illuminate issues related to the organization of production at KEN. Extensive fi eld surveys in the research area provide a unique opportunity to "ground truth" the results of the hyperspectral research. Our results show considerable promise for future work with Hyperion
The discovery of an assemblage of large prismatic flint blades at the Chalcol£thic cult site of G... more The discovery of an assemblage of large prismatic flint blades at the Chalcol£thic cult site of Gilat in Israel's northern Negev desert, adds a new corpus of technological and cultural data concerning the ChalcolithicjEarly Bronze Age transition in Palestine. A description of these blades and their cultural significance is presented here.
The Faynan region in southern Jordan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Lev... more The Faynan region in southern Jordan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Levant and was exploited for these ores beginning ca. 8000 years BP. We discuss the relationship between nomadic populations and major copper smelting sites during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-500 BCE) based on mortuary excavations and toxic metal analyses at the Wadi Fidan 40 cemetery, the largest Iron Age mortuary complex in southern Jordan. The Iron Age represents the first industrial revolution in this part of the Middle East. The study presented here is the first to employ chemical and isotopic measurements from a systematically excavated Iron Age mortuary population to determine exposure to Cu and Pb pollution and mobility patterns (based on Sr isotopes). We describe a methodology to control for post-depositional diagenetic uptake of chemical elements in human teeth recovered from the cemetery that has not previously been applied in Faynan in ancient pollution studies. The results suggest that most of the excess of Pb and Cu measured in tooth enamel samples were a product of post-depositional diagenetic addition. Our findings suggest that the majority of people buried at the Wadi Fidan 40 cemetery were not exposed to metal pollution during their lives. The few individuals who were exposed to metal pollution exhibited a spectrum of traits indicative of lifestyle and social status. The results bring into question how severe the ancient pollution impacted the lives of the Iron Age population living in Faynan.
A series of AMS radiocarbon determinations have been obtained from the site of Khirbet-en-Nahas, ... more A series of AMS radiocarbon determinations have been obtained from the site of Khirbet-en-Nahas, Jordan. An initial suite of samples dated in Oxford and a subsequent and much larger suite from Groningen were obtained to determine the onset of copper and iron production in the Faynan district. The determinations came from two different areas at the site. Bayesian modeling was used to improve the chronometric resolution. This showed that copper production expanded from ca. 950 BCE. The challenge at sites such as this is to obtain samples of short-lived age and thereby avoid ‘inbuilt age’. Several of the AMS determinations were, in all likelihood, affected by this, and the Bayesian modeling enabled us to determine outliers and question their reliability. Further work is planned.
The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eigh... more The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium bc. Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and other products from living animals-that is, traction and wool-the first clear evidence for these appears much later, from the late fifth and fourth millennia bc. Hence, the timing and region in which milking was first practised remain unknown. Organic residues preserved in archaeological pottery have provided direct evidence for the use of milk in the fourth millennium in Britain, and in the sixth millennium in eastern Europe, based on the delta(13)C values of the major fatty acids of milk fat. Here we apply this approach to more than 2,200 pottery vessels from sites in the Near East and southeastern Europe dating from the fifth to the seventh millennia bc. We show that milk was in use by the seventh millennium; this is the earliest direct evidence to d...
2013 Digital Heritage International Congress (DigitalHeritage), 2013
ABSTRACT Stereo panorama photography is able to create a visual immersive experience in which the... more ABSTRACT Stereo panorama photography is able to create a visual immersive experience in which the viewer is able to see in any direction from a single static point. Acquiring data through CAVEcams [1, 2], we are able to create points of immersion at cultural heritage sites. Through this technique, the user can virtually experience archaeological sites, which they might not otherwise be able to do. These immersive data communicate a sense of place better than an individual photograph is capable of doing. CAVEcam images can be combined with data collected by LiDAR and "Structure from Motion" techniques to create a stereo fusion of gigapixel photography and 3D point cloud data. For museums, this means bringing the context of the artifacts they display to their visitors. Rather than isolated artifacts, visitors can experience where they come from and gain a better understanding for the story behind them. For researchers this means being able to visit their project, even when it is thousands of miles away. Collaborative tools in virtualization systems such as CalVR [3, 4] make it possible for researchers in different parts of the world to work on projects together. For the classroom, it means bringing the environments to the students in ways not previously possible. Hieroglyphs can be read from the walls of tombs, while benchmark sites can be visited and explored in conjunction with classroom lectures and presentations. Ultimately, this tool has very real implications for the preservation and presentation of cultural heritage and archaeology.
The first industrial revolution in the southern Levant crystallized during the Iron Age when copp... more The first industrial revolution in the southern Levant crystallized during the Iron Age when copper production reached scales never before seen in this part of the Middle East. Ever since copper ore was first smelted during the Chalcolithic period, the Arabah valley, and its widespread distribution of copper mineralization, was the main source for copper ore in the region. The main ore deposits are located in Timna (Israel) in the southern part of the valley, and some 105 km to the north, in the Faynan region (Jordan). Faynan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Levant. Excavations at the Iron Age Faynan site of Khirbat en-Nahas and the recent final publication of that project have revealed peaks in industrial-scale production during the 10 th and 9 th centuries BCE. However, the role of ground stone tools in the Iron Age copper industry in Faynan has not been systematically presented. This paper presents a preliminary study of the ground stone assemblage from one excavation season at Khirbat en-Nahas, thereby highlighting the great potential for ground stone tools research at the site. Using the chaîne opératoire method of technological study, this paper takes a quantitative approach to the typological, material, and spatial distribution of ground stone artefacts at Khirbat en-Nahas to understand their role in copper production. Ethnoarchaeological study of hereditary bronze casting workshops in southern India provides a compelling model of how ground stone tools played a critical role in one of the most important dimensions of metal production in all periods-recycling-in an Iron Age copper factory.
Abstract to Miroslav Barta's book 'Sinuhe, the Bible, and the Patriarchs. Contextulizes Barta's ... more Abstract to Miroslav Barta's book 'Sinuhe, the Bible, and the Patriarchs. Contextulizes Barta's work in a transdisciplinary perspective.
Recent current events have dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of the world's material cul... more Recent current events have dramatically highlighted the vulnerability of the world's material cultural heritage. The 3-D Digital Preservation of At-Risk Global Cultural Heritage project, led by Thomas Levy at UC San Diego, catalyzes a collabora-tive research effort by four University of California campuses (San Diego, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Merced) to use cyber-archaeology and computer graphics for cultural heritage to document and safeguard virtually some of the most at-risk heritage objects and places. Faculty and students involved in this project are conducting path-breaking archaeological research-covering more than 10,000 years of culture and architecture-in Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, and the United States. This project uses the 3-D archaeological data collected in numerous at-risk heritage places to study, forecast, and model the effects of human conflict, climate change, natural disasters and technological and cultural changes on these sites and landscapes. The greater challenge undertaken by this project is to integrate archaeological heritage data and digital heritage data using the recently-announced Pacific Research Platform (PRP) and its 10-100Gb/s network as well as virtual reality kiosks installed in each participating UC campus. Our aim is to link UC San Diego and the San Diego Supercom-puter Center to other labs, libraries and museums at the other UC campuses to form a highly-networked collaborative platform for curation, analysis, and visualization of 3D archaeological heritage data.
New data concerning the role of one of the earliest historically know Egyptian kings, Narmer, in ... more New data concerning the role of one of the earliest historically know Egyptian kings, Narmer, in the expansion of the Nile Valley civilization is present.
The environmental impact of mining and metallurgy is an issue that has affected societies in the ... more The environmental impact of mining and metallurgy is an issue that has affected societies in the ancient Near East over the past 8000 years. We present the results of a multidisciplinary project using agricultural sediments from ancient terraces as a cultural archive of environmental pollution and land use in the copper ore-rich Faynan valley of southern Jordan. Due to the simultaneous production of agricultural goods and copper metallurgy throughout the last 6000 years in the valley, environmental pollution and its consequences for human health have been considered as a factor in settlement abatement. Sediments from two farming terrace systems adjacent to the major mining and smelting locales were analyzed. The sediment analyses included metal concentrations, lead-isotopes and phytolith analysis, and OSL dating. Although measurable concentrations of lead and other heavy metals persist in ancient metallurgical waste piles, our investigations found minimal evidence for contamination in the adjacent terrace systems. Based on these results, we argue that the occurrence of environmental pollution in the Faynan valley is highly variable, and that the distribution of heavy metals resulted from a combination of natural and cultural factors, including persistent landscape features that helped contain the most polluted metallurgical deposits. These findings are significant for understanding the processes of landscape change and human impacts on desert environments, including the ways in which past human actions have negatively affected the environment, as well as preserved and protected the environment from further degradation.
THE PAST FORWARD - Drawing on new emerging technologies, Thomas E. Levy predicts the rise of the ... more THE PAST FORWARD - Drawing on new emerging technologies, Thomas E. Levy predicts the rise of the cyber-archaeologist
Geomagnetic models based on direct observations since the 1830s show that the averaged relative c... more Geomagnetic models based on direct observations since the 1830s show that the averaged relative change in field intensity on Earth's surface over the past 170 years is less than 4.8% per decade. It is unknown if these rates represent the typical behavior of secular variations due to insufficient temporal resolution of archaeomagnetic records from earlier periods. To address this question we investigate two ancient slag mounds in Cyprus - Skouriotissa Vouppes (SU1, 4th - 5th centuries CE, 21 meter in height), and Mitsero Kokkinoyia (MK1, 7th - 5th BCE, 8 meter in height). The mounds are multi-layered sequences of slag and charcoals that accumulated near ancient copper production sites. We modeled the age-height relation of the mounds using radiocarbon dates, and estimated paleointensities using Thellier-type IZZI experiments with additional anisotropy, cooling rate, and non-linear TRM assessments. To screen out ambiguous paleointensity interpretations we applied strict selection criteria at the specimen/sample levels. To ensure objectivity, consistency, and robust error estimation we employed an automatic interpretation technique and put the data available in the MagIC database. The analyses yielded two independent sub-century scale paleointensity time series. The MK1 data indicate relatively stable field at the time the mound accumulated. In contrast, the SU1 data demonstrate changes that are comparable in magnitude to the fastest changes inferred from geomagnetic models. We suggest that fast changes observed in the published archaeomagnetic data from the Levant are driven by two longitudinally-paired regions, the Middle East and South Africa, that show unusual activity in geomagnetic models.
Hyperspectral (multiple, narrow band) satellite imaging provides a useful discovery and analytica... more Hyperspectral (multiple, narrow band) satellite imaging provides a useful discovery and analytical tool for archaeologists. The Hyperion instrument, fl ying on the Earth Observer 1 (EO-1) satellite, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on November 21, 2000. Hyperion provides 242 (196 calibrated) narrow bands in the visible (VIS) to shortwave infrared range (SWIR), enabling detailed archaeological and geological analyses. We analyzed a Hyperion image swath targeted on Khirbat en-Nahas (KEN), an ancient copper smelting site along the Wadi al-Ghuwayb (WAG) in Jordan's Faynan district, where extensive ore processing occurred from the third millennium B.C.E. to industrial scale production over several centuries in the early fi rst millennium B.C.E. (Iron Age) and continued until Medieval Islamic times. We use a combination of Principal Components Analysis (PCA), similarity matrices, and Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) to locate additional ore processing sites and discern depositional differences that may help illuminate issues related to the organization of production at KEN. Extensive fi eld surveys in the research area provide a unique opportunity to "ground truth" the results of the hyperspectral research. Our results show considerable promise for future work with Hyperion
The discovery of an assemblage of large prismatic flint blades at the Chalcol£thic cult site of G... more The discovery of an assemblage of large prismatic flint blades at the Chalcol£thic cult site of Gilat in Israel's northern Negev desert, adds a new corpus of technological and cultural data concerning the ChalcolithicjEarly Bronze Age transition in Palestine. A description of these blades and their cultural significance is presented here.
The Faynan region in southern Jordan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Lev... more The Faynan region in southern Jordan is the largest copper ore resource zone in the southern Levant and was exploited for these ores beginning ca. 8000 years BP. We discuss the relationship between nomadic populations and major copper smelting sites during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-500 BCE) based on mortuary excavations and toxic metal analyses at the Wadi Fidan 40 cemetery, the largest Iron Age mortuary complex in southern Jordan. The Iron Age represents the first industrial revolution in this part of the Middle East. The study presented here is the first to employ chemical and isotopic measurements from a systematically excavated Iron Age mortuary population to determine exposure to Cu and Pb pollution and mobility patterns (based on Sr isotopes). We describe a methodology to control for post-depositional diagenetic uptake of chemical elements in human teeth recovered from the cemetery that has not previously been applied in Faynan in ancient pollution studies. The results suggest that most of the excess of Pb and Cu measured in tooth enamel samples were a product of post-depositional diagenetic addition. Our findings suggest that the majority of people buried at the Wadi Fidan 40 cemetery were not exposed to metal pollution during their lives. The few individuals who were exposed to metal pollution exhibited a spectrum of traits indicative of lifestyle and social status. The results bring into question how severe the ancient pollution impacted the lives of the Iron Age population living in Faynan.
A series of AMS radiocarbon determinations have been obtained from the site of Khirbet-en-Nahas, ... more A series of AMS radiocarbon determinations have been obtained from the site of Khirbet-en-Nahas, Jordan. An initial suite of samples dated in Oxford and a subsequent and much larger suite from Groningen were obtained to determine the onset of copper and iron production in the Faynan district. The determinations came from two different areas at the site. Bayesian modeling was used to improve the chronometric resolution. This showed that copper production expanded from ca. 950 BCE. The challenge at sites such as this is to obtain samples of short-lived age and thereby avoid ‘inbuilt age’. Several of the AMS determinations were, in all likelihood, affected by this, and the Bayesian modeling enabled us to determine outliers and question their reliability. Further work is planned.
The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eigh... more The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium bc. Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and other products from living animals-that is, traction and wool-the first clear evidence for these appears much later, from the late fifth and fourth millennia bc. Hence, the timing and region in which milking was first practised remain unknown. Organic residues preserved in archaeological pottery have provided direct evidence for the use of milk in the fourth millennium in Britain, and in the sixth millennium in eastern Europe, based on the delta(13)C values of the major fatty acids of milk fat. Here we apply this approach to more than 2,200 pottery vessels from sites in the Near East and southeastern Europe dating from the fifth to the seventh millennia bc. We show that milk was in use by the seventh millennium; this is the earliest direct evidence to d...
2013 Digital Heritage International Congress (DigitalHeritage), 2013
ABSTRACT Stereo panorama photography is able to create a visual immersive experience in which the... more ABSTRACT Stereo panorama photography is able to create a visual immersive experience in which the viewer is able to see in any direction from a single static point. Acquiring data through CAVEcams [1, 2], we are able to create points of immersion at cultural heritage sites. Through this technique, the user can virtually experience archaeological sites, which they might not otherwise be able to do. These immersive data communicate a sense of place better than an individual photograph is capable of doing. CAVEcam images can be combined with data collected by LiDAR and "Structure from Motion" techniques to create a stereo fusion of gigapixel photography and 3D point cloud data. For museums, this means bringing the context of the artifacts they display to their visitors. Rather than isolated artifacts, visitors can experience where they come from and gain a better understanding for the story behind them. For researchers this means being able to visit their project, even when it is thousands of miles away. Collaborative tools in virtualization systems such as CalVR [3, 4] make it possible for researchers in different parts of the world to work on projects together. For the classroom, it means bringing the environments to the students in ways not previously possible. Hieroglyphs can be read from the walls of tombs, while benchmark sites can be visited and explored in conjunction with classroom lectures and presentations. Ultimately, this tool has very real implications for the preservation and presentation of cultural heritage and archaeology.
Uploads
Papers by Thomas E Levy