Last updated Levant Chalcolithic male figurine, 4500-3500 BC. Bir es-Safadi.
The Levant Chalcolithic is an archaeological period from c.4500-3500 BCE in the Levant.[2] Technologically, the "chalcolithic" if defined by the appearance of copper and/or painted pottery.[2] It was characterized by numerous small sedentary farming communities, depending on the culture of barley, wheat, lentils, and fruit trees, and the animal husbandry centered around sheep-goats, pigs, and cattle.[3] This was a period of major cultural and technological transformation.[4]
In the Levant, the period was preceded by the rise of the chalcolithic Halafian culture of northeastern Syria, circa 5500 BCE, which influenced cultural developments in the whole Levant.[2] The period saw rapid cultural changes, due to the influence of neighboring Egypt and Mesopotamia.[3] During the early Bronze Age, the first cities of the Levant followed the rise of the dynastic states in Egypt and Mesopotamia.[5] Various influences from Naqada culture Egypt have been recorded, especially in the production of ivory statuettes.[6] In many instance, interactions with Northern Egypt seem to have been going in the two directions, with also many Levantine artifacts found in the Nile Delta.[7]
The Ghassulian culture in the southern Levant is the best known archaeological entity of the period, which combined with chalcolithic traits from the northern Levant.[8]
The Levant Chalcolithic was succeeded by the Bronze Age circa 3500 BCE.[9]
Chalcolithic female figurine, 4500-3500 BCE.
Pottery Vessel of Ram Carrying Cornets, Negev, 4500-3500 BCE
Copper Crown, Lost Wax Process, 4500-3500 BCE, from Cave of the Treasures, Judean Desert
Sporadic contacts and exchanges between Egypt and the Southern Levant occurred from the time of the Early and sometimes Middle Chalcolithic period. This corresponds to the period of the Badarian culture (са. 4500-3800 BCE) in Upper Egypt. Egyptian potsherds of the period have been excavated in the southern Levant, as well as vast quantities of Nilotic shells (Chambardia acruata) valued for their mother-of-pearl surfaces used to make jewelry, and possibly flint tools and stone palettes which may have been imported or simply influence by Egypt.[10]
During the Late Chalcolithic period (ca. 4000-3500 BCE), relations increase between the southern Levant and the Maadi-Buto culture of Lower Egypt and the Naqada I and Naqada II culture in Upper Egypt. Trade in Chambardia acruata shells inceases, and numerous other objects of Egyptian origin are found in the southern Levant, such as flint tools, mace-heads, diorite vessels. In the southern Levant statuettes are also very similar to those of Egypt at that time.[11]
Late Chalcolithic ivory objects
Chalcolithic male figurine, 4500-3500 BCE. Bir es-Safadi.[1]
Chalcolithic female figurine, 4500-3500 BCE. Bir es-Safadi.[12]
Various ivory artifacts, originating from the tusks of elephants and hippopotamuses, have been found in areas of the southern Levant.[13] These ivories were likely non-local origin, most likely coming from the Egyptian Nile Valley, and reflect contacts between the southern Levant and Predynastic Egypt.[13] Such items were found in various sites, including Abu Matar, Bir es-Safadi, located in modern Beer Sheva, Shiqmim, Gilat, the Cave of the Treasure in Nahal Mishmar.[14]. They were most common in the south, also suggesting an Egyptian origin for the material.[15]
The figures are all naked.[16] Several have hole in their face, probably designed to insert elements depicting facial hair.[16] Holes are designed in place of the eyes, in order to accommodate inlaid eyes, as found in some of the statuettes.[16] The noses are generally long and broad with nostrils.[16] The genitals are clearly shown.[16]
These objects are indicative of contacts between Egypt and the southern Levant, and likely show an effort to emulate Egyptian culture.[15] Predynastic Egypt likely had on influence on Late Chalcolithic cultic and symbolic artifacts.[15] There is a degree of stylistic similarity between these objects and Naqada I statuettes from Egypt.[17] Trade relations are known during this time period, increasing towards the end of the period.[15] Examples are also known of locally-made south Levantine Late Chalcolithic style pottery at Buto in Egypt.[15]
Genetics
Mesopotamian expansions into the Near-East are dated to the Chalcolithic (5000–3300 BCE) and subsequent Bronze age periods, with high proportions of Mesopotamian ancestry found in human samples of this period in the Anatolian and Chalcolithic Levantine regions.[18]
Morez Jacobs, Adeline; Irish, Joel D.; Cooke, Ashley; Anastasiadou, Kyriaki; Barrington, Christopher; Gilardet, Alexandre; Kelly, Monica; Silva, Marina; Speidel, Leo; Tait, Frankie; Williams, Mia; Brucato, Nicolas; Ricaut, Francois-Xavier; Wilkinson, Caroline; Madgwick, Richard; Holt, Emily; Nederbragt, Alexandra J.; Inglis, Edward; Hajdinjak, Mateja; Skoglund, Pontus; Girdland-Flink, Linus (2 July 2025). "Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kingdom Egyptian". Nature: 1–8. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5. ISSN1476-4687. PMID40604286.
Rosenberg, Danny; Chasan, Rivka (December 2024). "Ivories in the Late Chalcolithic Period and Their Significance for Understanding Contacts Between Egypt and the Southern Levant". Journal of World Prehistory. 37 (4): 221–256. doi:10.1007/s10963-024-09187-9.
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