Dr. Shirley's Web Courses
REL 433 - Biblical Archaeology
Course Notes
Week 5 - Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic Periods
Notes
- Go here for notes on the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods
- You may be wondering why, in a course on Biblical Archaeology, we spend a whole week dealing with periods which pre-date the time of the Patriarchs, and why we spend time looking at cultures which flourished in Mesopotamia, Turkey, or Greece. This is because the development of cultures in Israel/Palestine was influenced by those of surrounding lands. In future weeks you will learn that the Philistines probably originated in the Aegean, the Hittite homeland was in Turkey; and that when/if Abraham was called to leave his "father's house" and follow where God led him, Abraham was not leaving some pastoralist or nomadic society, but left a culture which had been developing for hundreds of years, and which had reached a high level of sophistication.
- Pronunciation and Spelling - Many of the words encountered in the Middle East are difficult for westerners to pronounce. The languages often have glottal stops and guttural sounds (made at the back of the throat) which do not occur in western languages. The apostrophes and ' marks which you may see in some names, for example 'Ubaid, indicate a glottal stop or one of the sounds for which we do not have a letter. In such cases, do not worry about the sound, or try to pronounce it, just miss it out or make a brief pause in the word.
Similarly, the cedilla Ç, amd umlauts ü of Çatal Hüyük indicate sounds in the Turkish langauge which differ from those in English. The name is probably best pronounced "kha-TAHL hoo-YUK"
The languages of the Middle East are also written with other alphabets than the western latin version with which westerners are familiar. Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic often do not show vowels - the speaker just has to know how a word is pronounced. That is why you may encounter variations in spelling, and why, for instance, some of the names of people may differ. eg. Pharaoh Merneptah's name can also be written "Merenptah" - we are not sure quite where the vowels were to be put.
- Note on restoration of jewelry, skulls, etc - photographs such as the one on page 37, of the Natufian necklace, may give the impression that the photo shows the necklace as it was found. In actual fact, what was found was a group of scatterred beads, which the archaeologists have strung together to show what the artefact probably looked like when it was in use.
To get an idea of how shatterred some remains can be, see some of the web pages which show Neolithic skulls before, during, and after excavation.
- Notes on Chapter 2 - This chapter was originally written in Hebrew, and then translated into English. The level of the vocabulary presupposes some knowledge of academic archaeological terms which may make hard reading for some students. However, as you continue to read and think about what things mean, the chapters will get easier.
Glossary
- Syro-African Rift - another name for the "Great Rift Valley".
- pastoralism - keeping herds of domesticated animals such as sheep, goats, cattle.
- floruit - the time at which a culture was at its peak - from the Latin floreo, florui - to flourish.
- microlith - small flake of flint or stone. A series of microliths could be fitted into a wooden or bone handle, ro give a cutting implement.
- contracted and articulated burials - the corpse was buried in a crouched or fetal position, and the bones of the skeleton were still connected to one another
- disarticulated - the bones of a skeleton were no longer connected, but had been separated from one another.
- secondary burial - the corpse had been moved and re-buried somewhere else
- osteological evidence - evidence obtained by examining bones. Bones can show the type, age, and condition of people and animals. In the case on page 37, some bones which had been discovered appeared to be those of domesticated dogs rather than wild ones.
- Pre-Pottery, also called by some authors aceramic (the a- prefix meaning non-) - the technique of baking clay to produce earthenware or pottery had not yet been invented.
- adze - a chopping tool, with a blade set at right angles to the handle.
- celt - a stone chisel.
- burin - a curved pointed tool, used for engraving or scratching a surface.
- quern - a stone, usually concave, on which grain could be ground into flour.
- apotropaic - intended to drive away evil.
- krater - a container for liquids, with a wide mouth and a narrower foot, often with handles on the sides.
- lug - a projecting roll of clay which forms a handle for a vessel.
- slip - a coating for pottery, made from a thin mixture of clay and water, often with ground colored stone or other pigments added, which is smeared onto the body of the vessel before firing. During firing the slip melts and then sets to give a smooth colored coating on the pot.
This Week's Assignment
Show and Tell - on a separate Web Page
Remember to cite your sources
Use MSWord or a text editor such as Notepad to prepare and save your work, then send it as an Attachment to, or pasted into, an email message to Dr. Rollinson at rollinsondr@yahoo.com,rollinsondr@hellokitty.com,rollinsondr@mail2world.com.
Please use all 3 email addresses in case any of the maiboxes go down.
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
Dr. Rollinson
Department of Religion
ENMU Station 19
Portales, NM 88130
Last Updated: January 31, 2008
