Landscape Alteration by Pre-Pottery Neolithic Communities in the Southern Levant - The Kaizer Hilltop Quarry, Israel

Leore Grosman; Naama Goren-Inbar

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150395

Landscape Alteration by Pre-Pottery Neolithic Communities in the Southern Levant - The Kaizer Hilltop Quarry, Israel

PLoS One. 2016 Mar 9;11(3):e0150395. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150395. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Leore Grosman¹, Naama Goren-Inbar¹

Affiliation

¹ Institute of Archaeology, Mount Scopus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel.

Abstract

This study focuses on Kaizer Hill, a quarry site located in the vicinity of the city of Modiin where remains of a single prehistoric cultural entity assigned to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A were discovered. A systematic survey revealed that large-scale quarrying activities have left damage markings on the bedrock of the Hilltop and its slopes. We aim to present here our findings from the Hilltop, which are concerned with the human impact on rock surfaces and the lithic artifacts retrieved during the survey. It is evident that the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A inhabitants of the area changed their landscape forever, "stripping" the caliche surface and penetrating it in search of flint bedded in the bedrock.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Archaeology*
Israel

Grants and funding

The project was supported by the Ruth Amiran Foundation, Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.