Sha'ar Hagolan
When the members of Kibbutz Sha’ar Hagolan dug
fishponds in their fields in 1943, they accidentally uncovered a prehistoric
site. Partially excavated from 1948 to 1962, under the direction of
M. Stekelis of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the unique culture
found there became known as the Yarmukian or Sha’ar Hagolan Culture.
New excavations, since 1989, uncovered impressive remains of a neolithic
village, dating to 5,500 - 5,000 BCE.
The village spreads over hundreds
of dunams (one dunam = 1/4 acre). It is located south of the Sea of
Galilee, on the bank of the Yarmuk River which flows into the Jordan
just south of the site. Several buildings with rectangular and circular
rooms were uncovered: the foundations consist of courses of fieldstones
topped with courses of loaf-shaped, sun-dried mudbricks; the walls
are sturdily constructed; the floors are beaten earth; and the ceilings
were of straw and mud over wooden frames. A variety of vessels was
found, including flat basalt slabs and concave basalt mortars for
domestic use.
At the center of the village
stood a very large, extremely well-constructed building, obviously
serving some public functions. It has a courtyard reached from the
narrow, winding alley which runs between the houses of the village.
Several rectangular rooms with particularly thick walls and one circular
room, which served as a silo, were built around the courtyard.
The abundance of artifacts
found in the village is indicative of a developed mixed-economy culture
of fishing, hunting and grain-cultivating. Flint tools were widely
used. They were made by advanced methods from flint cores – pebbles
collected from the river banks – and include sickle blades with one
denticulated side, which were inserted into handles of bone or wood;
arrowheads, some large, elongated and curved, others very small and
triangular, delicately retouched; also polished axes, scrapers, awls
and burins.
During this period, when pottery
vessels first appeared in the Middle East, the potters of Sha’ar
Hagolan produced a variety of sophisticated, well-fired vessels –
round open shapes for bowls and closed forms for jars, many with flat
bases on which they stood firmly. The most typical decorations were
incised herringbone patterns within parallel lines, sometimes also
with red, painted bands.
The outstanding characteristic
of the Yarmukian culture is its art. The artistic and cultic objects
include engraved and incised pebbles and small stone and clay figurines.
Anthropomorphic statuettes of clay were assembled from separately
made body parts. The facial features, particularly the protruding
eyes, are somewhat grotesque. The large number of fertility figurines,
probably representing the "goddess mother," reflect a cult
based on the life cycle.
The finds from the Neolithic
village of Sha’ar Hagolan are illustrative of new, previously
unknown aspects of the Neolithic culture in Israel. Until these discoveries,
the view prevailed that the Neolithic populations of the region were
nomadic pastoralists who lived in temporary settlements of primitive,
semi-subterranean huts. Sha’ar Hagolan was undoubtedly a permanent
village with well-constructed houses and a large communal building.
Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry |