Sha'ar HaGolan is a

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

near Kibbutz Sha'ar HaGolan in Israel. The

type site In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and H ...

of the

Yarmukian culture The Yarmukian culture was a Pottery Neolithic A (PNA) culture of the ancient Levant. It was the first culture in prehistoric Syria and one of the oldest in the Levant to make use of pottery. The Yarmukian derives its name from the Yarmuk Rive ...

, it is notable for the discovery of a significant number of artistic objects, as well as some of the earliest

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

in the

Southern Levant The Southern Levant is a geographical region that corresponds approximately to present-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southern Syria and the Sinai Peninsula. As a strictly geographical descript ...

. The first Yarmukian settlement was unearthed at

Tel Megiddo Tel Megiddo (from ) is the site of the ancient city of Megiddo (; ), the remains of which form a tell or archaeological mound, situated in northern Israel at the western edge of the Jezreel Valley about southeast of Haifa near the depopulate ...

during the 1930s, but was not identified as a distinct Neolithic culture at the time. At Sha'ar HaGolan, in 1949, professor Moshe Stekelis first identified the Yarmukian culture, a Pottery Neolithic culture that inhabited parts of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

.Garfinkel Y. 1993. The site, dated to ca. 6400–6000 BC (calibrated), is located in the central Jordan Valley, on the northern bank of the Yarmouk River. Its size is around 20 hectares, making it one of the largest settlements in the world at that time. Although other Yarmukian sites have been identified since, Sha'ar HaGolan is the largest, probably indicating its role as the Yarmukian center.Garfinkel, Y. 1999. The site was excavated by two teams from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

: one led by Moshe Stekelis (1949–1952), and the other by

Yosef Garfinkel Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew: יוסף גרפינקל; born 1956) is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is a professor of Prehistoric Archaeology and of Archaeology of the Biblical Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Biography Yosef G ...

(1989–90, 1996–2004), and later co-directed with Michele A. Miller (1998-2000). While during the earlier excavations no architecture was found, the second expedition uncovered large

courtyard house A courtyard house is a type of house—often a large house—where the main part of the building is disposed around a central courtyard. Many houses that have courtyards are not courtyard houses of the type covered by this article. For example, ...

s, ranging between 250 and 700 m² in area. The courtyard house makes its first appearance at Sha'ar HaGolan, giving the site a special significance in architectural history. This is an architectural concept still found among traditional Mediterranean societies. Monumental construction on this scale is unknown elsewhere during this period. The houses consist of a central courtyard surrounded by several small rooms. The houses were separated by streets, which constitute evidence of advanced community planning. The dig uncovered a central street about 3 m wide, paved with pebbles set in mud, and a narrow winding alley 1 m wide. These are the earliest streets discovered in Israel and among the earliest streets built by man. A 4.15 m well dug to the local water table indicates a knowledge of hydraulics. Exotic objects discovered during the excavations include sea shells from the Mediterranean, polished stone vessels made of alabaster (or marble), and blades made from obsidian from Turkey. The presence of obsidian points to trade connections extending over 700 km.

Pottery

The greatest technological innovation of the Sha'ar HaGolan Neolithic was the manufacture of

. This industry, which appears here for the first time in Israel, gives this cultural stage its name of

Pottery Neolithic In the archaeology of Southwest Asia, the Late Neolithic, also known as the Ceramic Neolithic or Pottery Neolithic, is the final part of the Neolithic period, following on from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and preceding the Chalcolithic. It is som ...

. The pottery vessels are in a variety of shapes and sizes and were put to various domestic uses. At the site of 'Ain Ghazal, located along the banks of the

Zarqa River The Zarqa River (, ''Nahr az-Zarqāʾ'', lit. "the River of the Blue ity) is the second largest tributary of the lower Jordan River, after the Yarmouk River. It is the third largest river in the region by annual discharge and its watershed enc ...

near

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, Jordan, the early Pottery Neolithic period is dated from 6,400 to 5,000 BC. In July 2022, archaeologists from the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

announced the discovery of a 8000 years-old "Mother Goddess" figurine. Anna Eirikh-Rose, co-director of the excavation reported that the 20-centimeter long figurine covered by a bracelet with a red bottom was found broken into 2 pieces. It was sculpted in a sitting position with big hips, a unique pointed hat and what is known as ‘coffee-bean’ eyes and a big nose. File:Early Pottery Vessels, Yarmukian Culture.jpg, Early Pottery Vessels, Yarmukian Culture Image:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, pottery.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, pottery Image:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, zoomorphic figurine.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, zoomorphic figurine File:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, clay figurine.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, clay figurine

Art

About 300 art objects were found at Sha'ar HaGolan, making it the main center of prehistoric art in Israel and one of the most important in the world. One of the houses yielded approximately 70 figurines made of stone or fired clay. No other single building of the Neolithic period has yielded that many prehistoric figurines. Among the outstanding art objects from Sha'ar HaGolan are figurines in human form made of fired clay or carved on pebbles. The overwhelming majority are female images, interpreted as representing a goddess. The clay figurines are extravagant in their detail, giving them a surrealistic appearance, while the pebble figurines are minimalist and abstract in form. The members of Kibbutz Sha'ar HaGolan have built a museum that exhibits the finds from the nearby site. Because of the unique artistic quality of the figurines from Sha'ar Hagolan, both the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

of New York and the

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

in Paris have mounted ten-year exhibits of objects from the site. In Israel, figurines are exhibited at the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

in Jerusalem.

Gallery

Image:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, excavations 1998.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, excavations 1998 Image:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, flint arrowhead.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, flint arrowhead Image:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, flint axe.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, flint axe Image:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, well.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, well Image:Yarmukian Culture -Sha'ar HaGolan, curtyard buildings.jpg, Sha'ar HaGolan, courtyard buildings

References

Bibliography

* Garfinkel Y. 1993. ''The Yarmukian Culture in Israel''. Paléorient, Vol 19, No. 1, pp. 115 – 134. * Garfinkel Y. 1999. ''The Yarmukians, Neolithic Art from Sha'ar Hagolan''. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum (Exhibition Catalogue). {{Neolithic Southwest Asia 7th-millennium BC establishments 6th-millennium BC disestablishments 1949 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites in Israel Archaeological type sites Neolithic sites of Asia Yarmukian culture