干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Because the Holy Land occupies a land bridge between the two great centers of early Near Eastern culture-Egypt and Mesopotamia-the Holy Land and its social evolution have usually been linked to these core areas of ancient civilization. Recent excavations in Israel’s northern Negev Desert at the late fifth to early fourth millennium BC settlement of Shiqmim provide insights into the growth and decline of the earliest agro-pastoral settlement system in the Beersheva Valley. The new data point to a local growth process with little direct influence from the outside world. Numerous radiocarbon determinations, extensive systems of subterranean rooms in the lowest occupation levels, and a planned open-air settlement in the latest stratum, challenge theories concerning the developmental history of human societies in this part of the Near East. Analyses of fauna and craft specialization in metal add insight into the emergence of the Mediterranean economy and social complexity in the ancient Levant.