RT Article
T1 Distancing the Dead: Late Chalcolithic Burials in Large Maze Caves in the Negev Desert, Israel
JF Bulletin of ASOR
VO 379
SP 113
OP 152
A1 Davidovich, Uri
A1 Marom, Nimrod
A1 Abramov, Julia
A1 Frumkin, Amos 1953-
A1 Langford, Boaz
A1 Langgut, Dafna
A1 Ullman, Micka
A1 Yahalom-Mack, Naama
A2 Marom, Nimrod
A2 Abramov, Julia
A2 Frumkin, Amos 1953-
A2 Langford, Boaz
A2 Langgut, Dafna
A2 Ullman, Micka
A2 Yahalom-Mack, Naama
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/157731459X
AB The Late Chalcolithic of the southern Levant (ca. 4500-3800 B.C.E.) is known for its extensive use of the subterranean sphere for mortuary practices. Numerous natural and hewn caves, constituting formal extramural cemeteries, were used as secondary burial localities for multiple individuals, reflecting and reaffirming social order and/or communal identity and ideology. Recently, two large complex caves located in the northern Negev Highlands, south of the densely settled Late Chalcolithic province of the Beersheba Valley, yielded skeletal evidence for secondary interment of select individuals accompanied by sets of material culture that share distinct similarities. The observed patterns suggest that the interred individuals belonged to sedentary communities engaging in animal husbandry, and they were deliberately distanced after their death, both above-ground (into the desert) and underground (deep inside subterranean mazes), deviating from common cultural practices.
K1 Ashalim Cave
K1 Chalcolithic
K1 Levant
K1 Qina Cave
K1 animal husbandry
K1 cave burials
K1 mortuary practices
K1 social deviancy
DO 10.5615/bullamerschoorie.379.0113