Papers by Nigel Goring-Morris
PLOS ONE, Nov 27, 2023
People tend to belong to multiple social circles, which construct and reflect a person's social i... more People tend to belong to multiple social circles, which construct and reflect a person's social identity. Group affiliation is embodied and may be expressed by personal adornment. Personal adornment in general has multiple functions in human societies, among them the assimilation and transmission of different aspects of personal and collective, social and cultural identity. Beads in general, including shell beads, often constitute parcels of composite adornment, and as such are used in different configurations to portray these messages. The shared use of similar bead types by different individuals and communities indicates the mutual affiliation of the sharing parties to the same cultural circles and reflects social ties and relationships. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period in the Levant is a time of pivotal changes to human lifeways necessitating profound adjustments in all aspects of life, including social relations and networks. Here we use the shell bead assemblage from the cultic-mortuary aggregation site of Kfar HaHoresh, in comparison to shell bead assemblages from multiple other sites in the Levant, as a proxy for the exploration of local and regional networks and connections between PPNB communities. Multivariate analyses of shell bead type distribution patterns across the Levant demonstrate that some types were widely shared among different communities, characterising different geographic regions, while others were rare or unique, highlighting relationships between sites and regions, which are occasionally independent of geographic proximity. Specific occurrences of shared shell bead types between Kfar HaHoresh and compared sites further illuminate the web of connections between PPNB communities in the Levant and the varying breadths of sharingpatterns reflect the hierarchical nature of the underlying social circles. Outlining these widening social affiliations sheds light on the complex structure of Neolithic social identity.
Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, 2025
This paper presents the results of brief salvage investigations of two Early Natufian occupations... more This paper presents the results of brief salvage investigations of two Early Natufian occupations on the western side of the Lower Jordan Valley. Both sites were located adjacent to major water sources at a time when the latest Pleistocene Lake Lisan was shrinking rapidly. This occurred towards the end of the drier Bolling/Allerod and immediately preceding the onset of wetter conditions at the beginning of the Younger Dryas. While Fazael VI was located within the eponymous wadi adjacent to a major spring, Salibiya XII was located within the Rift Valley floor itself, in close proximity to springs and seeps forming the Salibiya depression marsh and ponds. The extents and depths of both occupations indicate they were significant basecamps, whether permanent or seasonal. These features include the presence of bedrock mortars, high chipped stone artifact densities, characteristic ground stone tool assemblages (especially notable are the capstones), and artistic or symbolic items. The absence of architectural remains likely relates to the limited nature of the investigations. Faunal remains, especially the relatively abundant and heterogeneous avifauna from Fazael VI, indicate that the majority are present in the region only during the cooler months.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2025
The transformation of human culture from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farming communiti... more The transformation of human culture from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farming communities represents the most prominent revolution in human history, termed the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution (NAR). The NAR was manifested in the cultivation and domestication of wild plants across the 'Fertile Crescent' from around the 11th millennium BP. Here, we investigate the environmental conditions that enabled the establishment of the first agricultural settlements in the southern Jordan Valley and compare these settings to the northern segments of the 'Fertile Crescent' (northern Mesopotamia). In particular we investigated the mineralogical composition of surface cover soils and the hydrological conditions in the Gilgal Basin where a few of the early agriculture settlements of the late Natufian-PPNA cultures were established. We focused our study on the Salibiya sedimentary section (and archeological sites) in the Gilgal Basin, where a sequence of fine detritus sediments accumulated during the post glacial to the early Holocene period. OSL ages from the Salibiya sedimentary section lie between ~24 and 11 ka BP, spanning the time of Lake Lisan retreat from its highest stands of ~180 ± 10 m below mean sea level (= m bmsl) to below 320 m bmsl. The Salibiya sedimentary section consists of silty detritus sediments that comprise recycled mountain soils washed from the adjacent Samarian Mountains to the Gilgal Basin. The 'mountain soils' in their turn consist of desert dust grains (e.g., quartz, calcite, clays) that were blown to the Levant region from the north Sahara deserts, mostly during arid periods. Enhanced amounts of desert dusts were blown to the region during hyperarid periods that coincided with the Heinrich Stadials (HS) in the northern latitudes, e.g., at ~24 ka, ~16ka and ~13ka. The hyperarid and dusty periods (which were harsh for the early-Natufian hunter-gatherers) were followed by wetter intervals when fresh groundwater activity resumed in the Judean and Samarian Mountains, e.g., at ~16-15 and ~12-11 ka. The availability of fertile 'mountain soils' and water during and after the Younger Dryas provided a favorable environmental setting that supported the establishment of early agriculture settlements in the Gilgal Basin (and others) in the Jordan Valley and impacted the transformation from the Epipalaeolithic Early Natufian hunter-gatherers to the Late Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and B (PPNA, B) cultures.
Journal of Arid Environments, 2024
Research in the arid margins of the Southern Levant has revealed a series of cultural entities re... more Research in the arid margins of the Southern Levant has revealed a series of cultural entities related to and interacting with analogues in the more mesic Mediterranean zone. These terminal Pleistocene (Epipalaeolithic) and early Holocene (Pre-Pottery Neolithic) foraging entities display clearly local traits reflecting restricted networking and adaptations at times when environmental conditions deteriorated, and the connections with contemporaneous cultural entities farther afield weakened, combined with connections with the wider panregional cultural entities. By examining the specific example of the short-lived Late Epipalaeolithic Harifian culture we attempt to illustrate the manner in which local social behaviours in the landscapes of the arid margins may have contributed to maximizing and prolonging cultural adaptations there especially during periods of variable, yet generally challenging environmental conditions during the Younger Dryas (YD), with a greater degree of isolation from the 'sown land'. Ultimately, a threshold was reached towards the end of the YD, and the Harifian adaptation ceased to be viable, so they had little choice but to abandon their former territories in the Negev and northern Sinai to more favourable environmental conditions, near and, perhaps, far. Speculatively, having to merge with different groups as conditions there were not improving and 'packing' was tight, may have contributed to the emergence of large-scale 'archaic' villages of the PPNA.
At the Edge, Parts i and ii: Terminal Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherers in the Negev and Sinai
Natufian
Springer eBooks, 2002
Ramat Matred
The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, 1992
Upper Palaeolithic sites from Wadi Fazael, Israel
Paléorient, 1980
In the course of an ongoing survey in the Lower Jordan Valley, three Upper Palaeolithic open air ... more In the course of an ongoing survey in the Lower Jordan Valley, three Upper Palaeolithic open air sites were discovered. Limited testing revealed the presence of intensively occupied extensive occurrences yielding abundant lithic and faunal samples. Although the sites are most probably all of terminal Upper Palaeolithic date, two distinct industries are represented; one, Fazael IX, is characterized by a flake-oriented lithic technology and a predominance of burins, especially those on concave truncations; the other, represented by Fazael X-XI is a microlithic industry in which partially and completely retouched bladelets dominate the tool repertoire. These industries reinforce the current consensus that development within the Upper Palaeolithic was dendritic. The Fazael X-XI assemblages in particular tend to confirm the autochthonous origins of the Epi-Palaeolithic Kebaran technocomplex.
A Late Natufian Campsite from the Western Negev, Israel
Paléorient, 1987
Les fouilles de Nahal Sekher VI ont révélé les vestiges d'un site éphémère de Natoufien Récen... more Les fouilles de Nahal Sekher VI ont révélé les vestiges d'un site éphémère de Natoufien Récent situé en bordure des dunes du Néguev occidental. L'activité principale des occupants semble avoir été le refaçonnage de l'équipement de chasse.
The Quick and the Dead
Kluwer Academic Publishers eBooks, Mar 9, 2006
Square pegs into round holes: a critique of Neeley & Barton
Antiquity, Mar 1, 1996
The Levantine Epipalaeolithic,c.20,000–10,000 BP, represents one of the most intensively studied ... more The Levantine Epipalaeolithic,c.20,000–10,000 BP, represents one of the most intensively studied periods in prehistoric research in the past 30 years, with literally hundreds of sites being discovered and many systematically investigated. The researchers involved come from a diverse range of backgrounds and national 'schools', and include American, Australian, British, French and Israeli scholars. Some, myself included, see its variability in chipped stone tool morphology, techniques of manufacture and specific means of hafting to reflect, in addition to functional factors, the stylistic traditions of specific groups in the landscape (Bar-Yosef 1991a; Goring-Morris 1987; 1995). This evidence is further bolstered by chrono-stratigraphy, settlement patterns, inter- and intra-site organization and patterning, as well as other material culture residues (Goring-Morris 1989a; 1989b; 1991).
Breaking the Mold
Natufian Foragers in the Levant
The Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic of Cisjordan
Quaternary of the Levant
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020
The Negev Desert, an arid region of the southern Levant, was only occasionally suited for human o... more The Negev Desert, an arid region of the southern Levant, was only occasionally suited for human occupation in prehistory. Archaeological sites are especially abundant in the Epipaleolithic periods, likely due to changes in the availability and distribution of water resources. We consider how hunter-gatherers adapted to this sometimes marginal region by investigating human demography, site occupation intensity and population mobility by revisiting the zooarchaeological assemblage from the Late Epipaleolithic, Harifian site of Ramat Harif (12,650/ 12,500-11,650 cal. BP) in the Central Highlands of the Negev. A near exclusive focus on ungulate species at Ramat Harif indicates efficient hunting overall. Nevertheless, high proportions of juvenile ibex and gazelle suggest intensive hunting of these two species. The rarity of other taxa in the diet indicates that they stopped short of depressing ungulate prey. Small variation in the body-part representation and age structure of the ungulates from Ramat Harif and other Late Epipaleolithic Negev sites may be linked to seasonality and their relative proximity to ibex and gazelle territories. The Negev pattern diverges from the adjacent Mediterranean zone where local Natufian populations hunted more diverse taxa, particularly small game. This pattern undoubtedly reflects higher occupation intensity and larger human populations in the Mediterranean zone as well as lower net primary production and biodiversity in the Negev desert.
Shells at Death – The Use of Shells in Neolithic Mortuary Contexts
Ruminations on the Role of Periphery and Centre in the Natufian
Natufian Foragers in the Levant
Final Remarks and Epilogue
More than Meets the Eye, 2017
The Upper Palaeolithic in Cisjordan
Quaternary of the Levant
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2020
The edge angle of lithic tools is an important source of information on the intended function and... more The edge angle of lithic tools is an important source of information on the intended function and the manufacturing technology of these artifacts. Yet, previously proposed procedures, both traditional and computer-based, can be flawed by ambiguity in the artifact positioning and in the choice of the points or surfaces defining the angle. A novel method, based on digital 3-D models of the artifact, calculates the measure of the edge angle based on its complete shape, providing an accurate and repeatable measurement of this feature. The procedure includes the automatic, univocal determination of the area that best represents the angle between the two surfaces, further increasing the objectivity of the result. To test its power in providing novel archaeological insight, the method is tested on a series of assemblages of Epipalaeolithic microliths. The combination of the obtained quantitative data with the typology-based cultural attribution of the assemblages highlights possible connections between different areas in the Southern Levant.
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Papers by Nigel Goring-Morris