Amos Frumkin is an Israeli geologist and speleologist.
Frumkin (עמוס פרומקין; born in 1953) is a professor of geology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. [1]
Frumkin was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1953. His expertise is the geology of caves. [2] As an active speleologist, he founded and directs the Cave Research Center of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Frumkin's research fields cover karst, cave morphology, environment, and sediments, as indicators of palaeoclimate, palaeohydrology, geological history, tectonics, karst aquifers and human evolution. He also studies underground ancient water supply systems. He uses earth-sciences methods, such as radiometric dating and stable isotopes, collaborating with archaeologists, biologists and karstologists around the globe. He has authored or co-authored over 100-refereed articles and seven books.[ citation needed ]
Frumkin's Ph.D. thesis on "The karst system of the Mount Sedom salt diapir" [3] focused on karst geomorphology and hydrology of this salt diapir, and its palaeoclimatic implications. This was the first karst research performed in salt.[ citation needed ]
Most of Frumkin's studies are performed on karst terrains in diverse fields of research, comprising palaeoclimate, geomorphology, hydrology, palaeohydrology, geoarchaeology, human impact on the environment and ancient water systems. The research is mostly associated with underground (speleological) features studied using earth-sciences methods. He studies the underground interface between geoscience, geography, environment, and archaeology. An interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary view of the sub-surface is achieved by wide-scale interaction and cooperation with scientists in various fields. The research has been performed mainly in Israel, complemented with research in other countries such as Jordan, United Emirates, and Bulgaria. Additional collection of data is done over the globe, resulting in a global karst geomorphology volume. Some of the research is performed in underground laboratories in which measuring equipment was installed. Within an underground laboratory in Sedom Cave, salt cave speleogenetic processes are monitored for since 1980’s. Much of the data collection is performed by graduate students. [ citation needed ]
Caves are treated as living organisms, with birth (initiation, inception), complex life history involving hydrogeologic, palaeoclimatic, biologic and anthropogenic processes, culminating in cave 'death' during which the cave is obliterated by filling or erosion. All these stages and processes are tackled in Frumkin’s studies. [ citation needed ]
His data and interpretation often changed the previously accepted paradigm, becoming the new, widely accepted 'common knowledge'. For example: (a) Oxygen isotopes fluctuations over glacial/interglacial periods in Levantine speleothems are dominated by 'source effect', consequently glacials were wetter than interglacials (rather than drier as was thought earlier, according to oxygen isotopes); (b) Hypogenic source of the 'Ayyalon salinity anomaly' (rather than an upper source); (c) Salt dissolution as the major undermining source of Dead Sea sinkholes (rather than earlier piping concept); (d) Natural caves have been widely used for refuge in the Mediterranean zone of Israel (rather than only in the desert); (e) Speleothems have been used in Israel in the past for production of 'calcite alabaster' luxury items (rather than only imported from Israel). [ citation needed ]
Frumkin studies the recharge vadose zone at the mountains in central Israel, concentrating on recharge through karst shafts and cave drips injecting water and potentially pollution into the aquifer. The integration of recharge over catchment areas is studied using spring monitoring and models. Much of the research is focused in the phreatic, confined and hypogenic parts of the aquifers. It is found that most 's carbonate caves have initiated and developed to full size under such conditions. Aging and dying stages of cave life are studied through excavations in filled caves. [ citation needed ]
Caves preserve unique records of the geological history of their region. They form along structural lines, they are deformed and uplifted with the rock, and they preserve ancient sediments with geological records. Frumkin studied such features of tectonics, diapir rising rates and morphostructure of the Dead Sea basin and its shoulders. [ citation needed ]
Frumkin has obtained detailed well-dated climatic records for the mid-late Quaternary in Israel. The results solve some important questions on climate change during the Quaternary in the Levant and other regions, and how it could/would influence humans, and the nature of climatic belts migration during glacial/interglacial cycles. The answers obtained have direct impact on understanding present and future climatic change. The palaeoclimatic studies were extended to lava tubes in Jordan, ancient wood preserved in caves, and to stromatolite caves in the Dead Sea basin. Paleoclimate records were obtained for various climatic regions, from Mt. Hermon, where freezing and thawing periods were reconstructed, through the northern-central Dead Sea catchment, where glacials were shown to be wetter than interglacials. The last interglacial was shown to be extreme in several ways, indicating possible scenarios of future warming. Environmental catastrophes during the Holocene received particular attention, due to their relevance to present and future global change. [ citation needed ]
Among the co-authored studies are: Dating of early Paleolithic cave inhabitants; evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic; paleoclimatic corridors for human migration out of Africa; dating ancient Jerusalem water supply system; technical innovations to bring water into ancient cities; Extending the knowledge on Bar-Kokhba Revolt, ~1900 yr ago, through remains including papyrus documents and hoards of coins from caves; Comparing field evidence with historic and archaeologic records. In 2003, Frumkin led a team that radiometrically-dated Siloam Tunnel. [4] He is the author of the generally accepted explanation of how a tunnel dug by two teams working from opposite ends was engineered by the ancient Israelites before the development of trigonometry. [5] He found for the first time that calcite-alabaster was produced in Israel and not only imported from Egypt. [ citation needed ]
The Dead Sea, also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and the West Bank and Israel to the west. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. Subterranean drainage may limit surface water, with few to no rivers or lakes. However, in regions where the dissolved bedrock is covered or confined by one or more superimposed non-soluble rock strata, distinctive karst features may occur only at subsurface levels and can be totally missing above ground.
Ein Gedi, also spelled En Gedi, meaning "spring of the kid", is an oasis, an archeological site and a nature reserve in Israel, located west of the Dead Sea, near Masada and the Qumran Caves. Ein Gedi, a kibbutz, was established nearby in 1954.
Emanuel Tov, is a Dutch Israeli, emeritus J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible Studies in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been intimately involved with the Dead Sea Scrolls for many decades, and from 1991, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project.
The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, it has been nominated to the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in the State of Palestine, particularly for its monastic ruins.
The Ayyalon Cave is a large limestone cave near Ramla, Israel in which new species of crustaceans were discovered in April 2006. It has been studied for its complex food web, which survived for millions of years without light or organic food coming in from the surface, being based solely on a type of bacterium which feeds on sulfur which serves as the only organic matter available for the next higher level of organisms to feed on. The cave has offered an ecological refuge for species whose relatives living at the surface have been wiped out by climatic changes and catastrophic events over millions of years, and offers a unique sample for the study of long-term ecological changes in the area.
The suprainiac fossa is an elliptical depression on the occiput above the superior nuchal line, or inion, or a dent in the back of the head. Suprainiac fossae were common anatomical features of Neanderthals but are rare in modern Humans.
The Sahara pump theory is a hypothesis that explains how flora and fauna migrated between Eurasia and Africa via a land bridge in the Levant region. It posits that extended periods of abundant rainfall lasting many thousands of years in Africa are associated with a "wet-green Sahara" phase, during which larger lakes and more rivers existed. This caused changes in the flora and fauna found in the area. Migration along the river corridor was halted when, during a desert phase 1.8–0.8 million years ago (mya), the Nile ceased to flow completely and possibly flowed only temporarily in other periods due to the geologic uplift of the Nile River region.
Aboud is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the central West Bank, northwest of Ramallah and 30 kilometers north of Jerusalem. Nearby towns include al-Lubban to the northeast and Bani Zeid to the northwest.
A speleoseismite is a damaged speleothem argued to have been deformed by a seismic event. Speleoseismites can include severed stalagmites, fallen stalactites, collapsed cave ceilings, tilted speleothems, change in growth axis of speleothems, stalactite-stalagmite pair displaced from one another and others. These seismites can be used in paleoseismological studies of ancient earthquakes.
Paul Goldberg is a geologist specializing in geomorphology and geoarchaeology who had done extensive worldwide field researches.
Qesem cave is a Lower Paleolithic archaeological site near the city of Kafr Qasim in Israel. Early humans were occupying the site by 400,000 until c. 200,000 years ago.
Khirbat Umm Burj was a Palestinian Arab village in the Hebron Subdistrict, sometimes designated in modern maps as Burgin. Its ruins are today located within the borders of Israel. It occupied an extensive site, stretching about 30 dunams on the crest of a hill, rising some 430 metres (1,410 ft) above sea level, and commanding a good prospect of the surrounding region. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 28, 1948, during the third stage of Operation Yo'av under the command of Yigal Allon. The site is located 17 km northwest of Hebron.
Avi Gopher is an Israeli archaeologist. He is a professor at the University of Tel Aviv.
Hanan Eshel was an Israeli archaeologist and historian, well known in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls studies, although he did research in the Hasmonean and Bar Kokhba periods as well. With Magen Broshi he discovered a number of residential caves in the near vicinity of Qumran and co-published a number of historically significant documents from Qumran.
Horvat 'Ethri, Hebrew for "Ethri ruin", Arabic name: Umm Suweid, is an archaeological site situated in the Judean Lowlands in modern-day Israel. Excavations at the site uncovered the remains of a now partially restored Jewish village of the Second Temple period, wherein are preserved an ancient synagogue, wine presses, cisterns, ritual baths and stone ossuaries, as well as an underground hideout system. The village was violently destroyed during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Manot Cave is a cave in Western Galilee, Israel, discovered in 2008. It is notable for the discovery of a skull that belongs to a modern human, called Manot 1, which is estimated to be 54,700 years old. The partial skull was discovered at the beginning of the cave's exploration in 2008. Its significance was realised after detailed scientific analysis, and was first published in an online edition of Nature on 28 January 2015. This age implies that the specimen is the oldest known human outside Africa, and is evidence that modern humans lived side-by-side with Neanderthals. The cave is also noted for its "impressive archaeological record of flint and bone artefacts". Geologically, it is an "active stalactite cave".
Manot 1 is a fossil specimen designated to a skullcap that represents an archaic modern human discovered in Manot Cave, Western Galilee, Israel. It was discovered in 2008 and the scientific description was published in 2015. Radiometric dating indicates that it is about 54,700 years old, and thought to be directly ancestral to the Upper Paleolithic populations of the Levant and Europe.
Southwest Asian Neanderthals were Neanderthals who lived in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, and Iran - the southernmost expanse of the known Neanderthal range. Although their arrival in Asia is not well-dated, early Neanderthals occupied the region apparently until about 100,000 years ago. At this time, Homo sapiens immigrants seem to have replaced them in one of the first anatomically-modern expansions out of Africa. In their turn, starting around 80,000 years ago, Neanderthals seem to have returned and replaced Homo sapiens in Southwest Asia. They inhabited the region until about 55,000 years ago.
Gerasa (Judaea) was an ancient Jewish town mentioned by the historian Josephus (The Jewish War, 4.9.1) as being sacked by the Imperial Roman army under Lucius Annius during the First Jewish-Roman War.
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