Chalcolithic Grar in Southern Israel
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Chalcolithic Grar

Grar: A Chalcolithic Site in the Northern Negev of Israel
Isaac Gilead in Journal of Field Archaeology
Volume 16 (1989) [Pages 377--394] (JSTOR)

Excerpts and Definitions and Addendums

ABSTRACT: Grar is one of the largest Chalcolithic sites in southern Israel. The site of Grar is a cluster of occupational units once inhabited by sedentary farmers growing cereals and raising sheep - goats - pigs - cattle. Grar is similar to other sites in the northern Negev previously considered as ephemeral. This suggests that the role of pastoralism and semi-nomadism in the Chalcolithic Period has been overemphasized. Grar and other sites of the Chalcolithic period are in fact the earliest versions of villages of the Near Eastern peasants or fellahin. It is suggested that during the Chalcolithic Period the northern Negev was settled by two groups or tribes with the same cultural background but different modes of life .....

INTRODUCTION

The Chalcolithic Period in the Levant - especially in its southern part - includes numerous sites some of which yielded very rich cultural assemblages. More Chlacolithic sites are known from the northern Negev Desert in Israel than any other part of the Levant.

Like most of the other Chalcolithic sites in the northern Negev Grar was discovered by David Alon in 1961. His observations and the small soundings conducted by the Israel Department of Antiquities indicated that it was a large occupation site circa 0.5 kilometres long and that it was similar to the Tell Farah (North) sites.

The cultural assemblages of Grar show that the site falls within the typical 4th millennium BC group of the northern Negev Ghassulian sites .....

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