The following study presents a novel method for computerized 3D geometric morphometric shape analysis of archaeological artifacts. It consists of a newly developed tool for automated positioning of 3D digital models and the following placement of 3D homologous landmarks for geometric morphometric analysis. It provides a quick and easy method for acquiring high-resolution 3D landmark coordinate data. This tool is applicable to a wide range of objects which have two opposed faces of relatively similar size and can be consistently positioned along their maximal length in planform view. The acquired data can be subjected to common multivariate statistical procedures for the quantitative description and analysis of shape variability in an assemblage. The method is applied here to a case study of experimentally produced assemblages of Acheulian handaxe replicas made by six knappers of differing skill levels. An analysis is performed to test whether the shapes of the handaxes can be used to classify them according to their knapper's skill level. Generalized Procrustes analysis (GPA), principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) are applied to the landmarks' coordinates. The results indicate that applying DA to PC scores allows a reliable classification of artifacts according to the skill level of their knappers, with a minimal misclassification rate. Thus, this method demonstrates that application of high-resolution 3D geometric morphometric methods can be used for the quantitative differentiation of skill levels based on tool morphology.

The climatic downturn known globally as the Younger Dryas (YD; ∼12,900–11,500 BP) has frequently been cited as a prime mover of agricultural origins and has thus inspired enthusiastic debate over its local impact. This study presents seasonal climatic data from the southern Levant obtained from the sequential sampling of gazelle tooth carbonates from the Early and Late Natufian archaeological sites of Hayonim and Hilazon Tachtit Caves (western Galilee, Israel). Our results challenge the entrenched model that assumes that warm temperatures and high precipitation are synonymous with climatic amelioration and cold and wet conditions are combined in climatic downturns. Enamel carbon isotope values from teeth of human-hunted gazelle dating before and during the YD provide a proxy measure for water availability during plant growth. They reveal that although the YD was cooler, it was not drier than the preceding Bølling–Allerød. In addition, the magnitude of the seasonal curve constructed from oxygen isotopes is significantly dampened during the YD, indicating that cooling was most pronounced in the growing season. Cool temperatures likely affected the productivity of staple wild cereal resources. We hypothesize that human groups responded by shifting settlement strategies—increasing population mobility and perhaps moving to the warmer Jordan Valley where wild cereals were more productive and stable.

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.

The Natufian culture is of great importance as a starting point to investigate the dynamics of the transition to agriculture. Given its chronological position at the threshold of the Neolithic (ca. 12,000 years ago) and its geographic setting in the productive Jordan Valley, the site of Nahal Ein Gev II (NEG II) reveals aspects of the Late Natufian adaptations and its implications for the transition to agriculture. The size of the site, the thick archaeological deposits, invested architecture and multiple occupation sub-phases reveal a large, sedentary community at least on par with Early Natufian camps in the Mediterranean zone. Although the NEG II lithic tool kit completely lacks attributes typical of succeeding Pre Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) assemblages, the artistic style is more closely related to the early PPNA world, despite clear roots in Early Natufian tradition. The site does not conform to current perceptions of the Late Natufians as a largely mobile population coping with reduced resource productivity caused by the Younger Dryas. Instead, the faunal and architectural data suggest that the sedentary populations of the Early Natufian did not revert back to a nomadic way of life in the Late Natufian in the Jordan Valley. NEG II encapsulates cultural characteristics typical of both Natufian and PPNA traditions and thus bridges the crossroads between Late Paleolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers.

Ritual practice plays crucial social roles in human societies by communicating information about social status, calming tensions, and integrating communities. Although communication occurs through the act of ritual performance itself, the archaeological record rarely has the resolution to identify individual ritual actions. The high quality of preservation and recovery of a well-preserved grave of an unusual woman at the Late Natufian (12,000 cal BP) site of Hilazon Tachtit, Israel, enables the identification of multiple stages of a funerary ritual. These represent a variety of actions that allow glimpses into ritual performance as well as larger generalizations about Natufian ritual practice during this dynamic period at the beginning of the agricultural transition.

Archaeologists generally agree that high-power computer technology constitutes the most efficient venue for addressing many issues in archaeological research. Digital techniques have become indispensable components of archaeological surveys, fieldwork, lab work, and communication between researchers. One of the greatest advantages of the digital approach is its ability to examine large assemblages of items using advanced statistical methods. Digital documentation has reached the point of no return in archaeological research, and reverting to traditional methods is highly improbable. However, digital data may also contain additional information that has yet to be extracted by computer analysis. In this arena, new computer algorithms can be triggered by research questions that cannot be addressed without digital models.

The Late Epipaleolithic Natufian Culture was initially identified in Dorothy Garrod’s excavation at Shuqba Cave (Wadi enNatuf) in the Samarian Hills, but later research focused on the Mt. Carmel, the Galilee and the Negev regions, leaving the Natufian of the Central Highlands of the southern Levant relatively unknown. We report the recent discovery of a Natufian occurrence in a partly collapsed cave chamber in el-Hamam Cave in the Samaria Hills. The lithic assemblage assigns the site to the Late Natufian, with the possibility of occupation also during the Early Natufian. The faunal assemblage is small but diverse, indicating gazelle as the primary hunted animal. In spite of the limited scope of fieldwork, the site exhibits several landmark Natufian characteristics, including a large lithic assemblage with high diversity of tools, a bedrock mortar, typical faunal remains and groundstone implements. These traits indicate cultural complexity during the varied and prolonged use of the site (possibly multi-period occupation), reminiscent of the better-known Natufian camps in other parts of the Levant.

The resharpening of sidescrapers is a widely discussed issue in recent Middle Paleolithic studies. However, in the Levantine record the evidence for sidescraper resharpening is meager. The Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla, Israel, represents a rare case in which sidescrapers were frequently modified by removal of longitudinal spalls from their edges. Both parent sidescrapers and spalls, 'Long Sharpening Flakes' (LSF), are abundant throughout the site's stratigraphy, providing a rare opportunity for a complementary study of both artifact groups. The aim of the present study is to reconstruct the life history of sidescrapers retrieved from Nesher Ramla. We ask how the LSF removal changed the morphology of the sidescraper edge, at which stage of the sidescraper life-history it occurred, what was the purpose of LSF removal and was it a part of a recycling system aimed at producing a new edge/tool type or the maintenance of the existing tool edge.

The studied artifacts (100 parent sidescrapers and 60 complete LSF) were sampled randomly from the most intensively occupied and richest layers of the site. Our results suggest that sidescraper edge modification was a well-mastered and skillful process that resulted in standardized and morphologically distinct products. In most cases the sidescrapers were not further retouched after the LSF removal. This leads us to propose that the major goal was to transform the sidescraper into a tool with a sharp, straight and flat edge. The LSF removal at Nesher Ramla provides an exceptional case in which a simple raw edge was deliberately manufactured at the expense of the previously retouched edge. This reinforces the previous assumptions that simple raw edges were often preferred over retouched ones.

This article reviews the activities at the Computerized Archaeology Laboratory at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where techniques and ideas from computer science (e.g., computer graphics, machine learning, etc.) are integrated into archaeological research methodologies. The laboratory operates optical scanners which provide 3D digital models that are then analyzed by computer programs developed in-house. These programs address research issues and needs which could not be tackled without the availability of digital 3D models, thus broadening the horizons of archaeological research. To date, these methods and applications have been applied successfully to more than 30,000 pottery fragments, 3,000 stone tools, and many other archaeological finds submitted by more than 100 expeditions. This level of integration provides daily verification of the 3D approach and its intellectual and economical advantages.

Being a significant and the largest archaeological organization that runs around 250-300 rescue excavations per year, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) sees the near future as the turning point from old traditional documentation methods into the "digital era." The remarkable advantages of new 3D technologies for archaeology are self-evident and have become widespread during the last two decades. First of all, 3D documentation is faster, cheaper, and more accurate than the traditional methods. Second, it improves the accessibility of the data to scholars, and can serve as the digital conservation of deteriorating objects. Third, it opens new levels of research questions which are based on the 3D information. However, the huge amount of data accumulated annually at the IAA calls for a systematic and complete solution that goes beyond the feasibility test of scanning archeological artifacts in 3D. Therefore, we have initiated a new facility - The National Laboratory for Digital Documentation of Archaeological Artifacts. The lab is running in parallel with and closely connected to the Computerized Archaeology Laboratory at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The mutual purpose of the twin laboratories is to harness mathematical and computational methods to support archaeological research, documentation, and visualization (Grosman, Karasik et al. 2014). The laboratory is equipped with modern, high precision scanners which provide digital models of archaeological finds. We apply and continue to develop several tools and algorithms which are used routinely as the ultimate procedure for the analysis, publication, and digital storage of the finds. The up-to-date "life-circle" of archaeological objects, from their first sighting at the excavation until their final rest at the storehouse, is exemplified here with the story of one unique pottery fragment studied within its archaeological context.

Behavioural variability is likely to emerge when a particular task is performed in different cultural settings, assuming that part of human motor behaviour is influenced by culture. In analysing motor behaviour it is useful to distinguish how the action is performed from the result achieved. Does cultural environment lead to specific cultural motor skills? Are there differences between cultures both in the skills themselves and in the corresponding outcomes? Here we analyse the skill of pottery wheel-throwing in French and Indian cultural environments. Our specific goal was to examine the ability of expert potters from distinct cultural settings to reproduce a common model shape (a sphere). The operational aspects of motor performance were captured through the analysis of the hand positions used by the potters during the fashioning process. In parallel, the outcomes were captured by the geometrical characteristics of the vessels produced. As expected, results revealed a cultural influence on the operational aspects of the potters’ motor skill. Yet, the marked cultural differences in hand positions used did not give rise to noticeable differences in the shapes of the vessels produced. Hence, for the simple model form studied, the culturally-specific motor traditions of the French and Indian potters gave rise to an equivalent outcome, that is shape uniformity. Further work is needed to test whether such equivalence is also observed in more complex ceramic shapes.