West Asia (6000–3500 BC)
84-530: Europe (5500–2200 BC) Central Asia (3700–1700 BC) South Asia (4300–1800 BC) China (5000–2900 BC) Ghassulian refers to a culture and an archaeological stage dating to the Middle and Late Chalcolithic Period in the Southern Levant (c. 4400 – c. 3500 BC). Its type-site , Teleilat Ghassul ( Teleilat el-Ghassul , Tulaylat al-Ghassul ), is located in the eastern Jordan Valley near
168-421: A Late Neolithic period and was succeeded by an Early Bronze I (EB I) period. Little is understood of the transition from the latest Chalcolithic to the earliest EB I, but there was apparently some transition of ceramic, flint-knapping and metallurgical traditions, especially in the southern regions of the southern Levant. The dates for Ghassulian are dependent upon 14C (radiocarbon) determinations, which suggest that
252-609: A cessasion of the international trade with luxury goods such as Gaza wine, grape production in the Negev settlements again giving way to subsistence farming, focused on barley and wheat . Repeated earthquakes hit the region during the Byzantine period, with numerous revetment walls added to buildings to support them against collapse; a large 7th-century seismic event though led to the abandonement of Avdat and Rehovot-in-the-Negev. This recent analysis of newly obtained data has proven
336-661: A few individuals in the Negev. The dorcas gazelle is more numerous, with some 1,000–1,500 individuals in the Negev. Some 350 to 500 Nubian ibex live in the Negev Highlands and in the Eilat Mountains . The Negev shrew is a species of mammal of the family Soricidae that is found only in Israel. A population of the critically endangered Kleinmann's tortoise (also known as the Negev tortoise ) survives in
420-533: A name applied to a Chalcolithic culture of the southern Levant, is derived from the eponymic site of Teleilat (el) Ghassul, northeast of the Dead Sea in the Great Rift Valley. The name has been used as a synonym for Chalcolithic in general and sometimes for late phases, associated with late strata at that site and other sites considered to be contemporary. More recently it has come to be associated with
504-656: A railway station. The authority of the tribal chiefs over the region was recognized by the Ottomans. A railroad connected it to the port of Rafah . In 1914, the Ottoman authorities estimated the nomadic population at 55,000. The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France placed the Negev in Area B, "Arab state or states" under British patronage. The Negev was taken from the Ottoman army by British forces during 1917 and became part of Mandatory Palestine . In 1922,
588-637: A regional cultural phenomenon (defined by sets of artifacts) in what is today central and southern Israel , the Palestinian territories in the West Bank , and the central area of western Jordan . Other phases of the Chalcolithic, associated with various regions of the Levant, are Qatifian and Timnian (arid zones) and Golanian. The use of the name varies from scholar to scholar. The main culture of
672-693: A sudden fall. It's when two major calamities strike the Byzantine Empire and large parts of the world: the Late Antique Little Ice Age (536-545), caused by huge volcanic eruptions in the world, with the resulting extreme weather events of 535–536 ; and in the 540s the first outbreak of bubonic plague in the Old World , known as the Justinianic Plague . It seems likely that these two events resulted in almost
756-547: Is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel . The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. 214,162), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort city and port of Eilat . It contains several development towns , including Dimona , Arad , and Mitzpe Ramon , as well as a number of small Bedouin towns, including Rahat , Tel Sheva , and Lakiya . There are also several kibbutzim , including Revivim and Sde Boker ;
840-662: Is a rocky desert. It is a melange of brown, rocky, dusty mountains interrupted by wadis (dry riverbeds that bloom briefly after rain) and deep craters. It can be split into five different ecological regions: northern, western and central Negev, the high plateau and the Arabah Valley. The northern Negev, or Mediterranean zone, receives 300 mm (12 in) of rain annually and has fairly fertile soils. The western Negev receives 250 mm (9.8 in) of rain per year, with light and partially sandy soils. Sand dunes can reach heights of up to 30 metres (98 ft) here. Home to
924-571: Is accordingly defined as "the eastern (biblical) Negev". According to the Book of Genesis chapter 13, Abraham lived for a while in the Negev after being banished from Egypt ( Genesis 13:1,3 ). During the Exodus journey to the Promised Land, Moses sent twelve scouts into the Negev to assess the land and population ( Numbers 13:17 ). Later the northern part of biblical Negev was inhabited by
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#17327648532081008-575: Is credited with introducing copper mining and smelting in both the Negev and the Sinai between 1400 and 1300 BCE. According to Israeli archaeologists, in the Hebrew Bible , the term Negev only relates to the northern, semiarid part of what we call Negev today; of this, the Arad - Beersheba Valley, which receives enough rain as to allow agriculture and thus sedentary occupation (the " desert fringe "),
1092-554: Is hard to determine the time of the Ghassulian settlement in the region, and whether or not they had evolved out of local, pre-Ghassulian, populations (such as the Besorian culture). It could generally be said that most of these settlements date to the 2nd half of the 5th millennium BC, and that they usually existed for only a short period of time, with the exception of Teleilat el-Ghassul, where 8 successive layers of occupation from
1176-465: Is home to hazardous infrastructures that include Negev Nuclear Research Center nuclear reactor , 22 agrochemical and petrochemical factories, an oil terminal, closed military zones, quarries, a toxic waste incinerator at Ne'ot Hovav , cell towers, a power plant, several airports, a prison, and two rivers of open sewage. In 2005, the Tel Aviv municipality was accused of dumping waste in the Negev at
1260-809: Is home to the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev , whose faculties include the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and the Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies , both located on the Midreshet Ben-Gurion campus adjacent to Sde Boker . In October 2012, global travel guide publisher Lonely Planet rated the Negev second on a list of the world's top ten regional travel destinations for 2013, noting its current transformation through development. The origin of
1344-488: Is naturally available in the area of Beersheba, so it appears that the ore was brought here from Wadi Feynan , in southern Jordan, and possibly also from Timna , where an ancient copper mine was discovered. It was attributed by Beno Rothenberg to the Chalcolithic era. The Ghassulian, if used as a synonym for the entire Chalcolithic period and not, as more appropriately, just to the Late Chalcolithic, followed
1428-422: Is zero. Snow and frost are rare in the northern Negev, and snow and frost are unknown in the vicinity of Eilat in the southernmost Negev. Nomadic life in the Negev dates back at least 4,000 years and perhaps as much as 7,000 years. The first urbanized settlements were established by a combination of Canaanite , Amalekite , Amorite , Nabataean and Edomite groups c. 2000 BCE . Pharaonic Egypt
1512-620: The Assyrian Empire . Beersheba was the region's capital and a center for trade in the 8th century BCE. Small settlements of Israelites in the areas around the capital existed between 1020 and 928 BCE. The 4th-century BCE arrival of the Nabateans resulted in the development of irrigation systems that supported new urban centers located along the Negev incense route at Avdat (Oboda), Mamshit (Mampsis), Shivta (Sobata), Haluza (Elusa), and Nitzana (Nessana). This at least
1596-471: The Beersheba culture (a Ghassulian subculture) lived in underground dwellings, a unique phenomenon in the archaeological history of the region, or in trapezoidal houses of mud-brick . Those were often built partially underground (on top of collapsed underground dwellings) and were covered with remarkable polychrome wall paintings (one of the most notable examples being the 'Ghassulian Star'). Their pottery
1680-575: The Dnieper-Donets culture , and migrated northwest to the Baltic and Denmark, where they mixed with natives ( TRBK A and C). This may be correlated with the spread of Indo-European languages, known as the Kurgan hypothesis . Near the end of the period, another branch left many traces in the lower Danube area (culture of Cernavodă culture I), in what seems to have been another invasion. Meanwhile,
1764-585: The Dudaim dump [ he ] . The Manufacturers Association of Israel established an authority in 2005 to move 60 industrial enterprises active in the Tel Aviv region to the Negev. In 1979, the Ramat Hovav toxic waste facility was established in Wadi el-Na'am because the area was perceived as invulnerable to leakage. However, within a decade, cracks were found in the rock beneath Ramat Hovav. In 2004,
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#17327648532081848-612: The Israel Defense Forces ' major bases – a process accelerating in the past two decades. As of 2010, the Negev was home to some 630,000 people, or 8.2% of Israel 's population, even though it comprises over 55% of the country's area. 470,000 Negev residents (75% of the population) are Jews , while 160,000 or 25% are Bedouin. Of the Bedouin population (a demographic with a semi-nomadic tradition), half live in unrecognized villages , and half live in towns built for them by
1932-621: The Nabataeans , a theory proven wrong by more recent studies, which dated the massive agricultural and demographic growth in the area to the Byzantine period . The older explanation for the Tuleilat el-Anab , lit. 'grape mounds' phenomenon, has also been discarded: these large piles of rocks probably served two purposes, of removing the rocks from the cultivated plots, and of accelerating the erosion and water transportation of topsoil from
2016-559: The Pleistocene , the Negev fluctuated between intervals of relative humidity and intervals of aridity similar to or even more severe than the present day; from around 80,000 to 13,000 years BP , during a time interval roughly corresponding to the Last Glacial Period , the Negev was significantly more humid than today. It covers more than half of Israel, over some 13,000 km (5,000 sq mi), or at least 55% of
2100-559: The Tribe of Judah and the southern part of biblical Negev by the Tribe of Simeon . The Negev was later part of the Kingdom of Solomon (in its entirety, all the way to the Red Sea), and then, with varied extension to the south, part of the Kingdom of Judah . In the 9th century BCE, development and expansion of mining in both the Negev and Edom (modern Jordan) coincided with the rise of
2184-617: The Wadi Musa and Petra areas in present-day Jordan . The Bedouins of the Negev historically survived chiefly on sheep and goat husbandry. Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. The Bedouin in years past established few permanent settlements, although some were built, leaving behind remnants of stone houses called 'baika.' In 1900, the Ottoman Empire established an administrative center for southern Syria at Beersheba including schools and
2268-580: The little owl (Athene Noctua) and the long-eared owl (Asio otux). This period extended from c. 2500 BC to c. 1800 or 1700 BC (depending on the region). The dates are general for the whole of Europe, and the Aegean area was already fully in the Bronze Age. c. 2500 BC the new Catacomb culture , which originated from the Yamnaya peoples in the regions north and east of
2352-442: The 4th century introduced Christianity to the population. Agriculture-based cities were established and the population grew exponentially. As shown by the research done by Michael Evenari , novel techniques were employed, such as runoff rainwater collection and management systems, which harvested water from larger areas and directed it onto smaller plots. This allowed the cultivation of plants with much higher water needs than
2436-641: The Austro-Hungarian Empire in recent times. The rest of the Balkans was profoundly restructured after the invasions of the previous period but, with the exception of the Coțofeni culture in a mountainous region, none of them show any eastern (or presumably Indo-European) traits. The new Ezero culture , in Bulgaria, had the first traits of pseudo-bronze (an alloy of copper with arsenic ); as did
2520-469: The Bedouin component of the population was estimated at 72,898 out of a total of 75,254 for the Beersheba sub-district. The 1931 census estimated that the population of the Beersheba sub-district was 51,082. This large decrease was considered to be an artifact of incorrect enumeration methods used in 1922. An Arabic history of tribes around Beersheba, published in 1934 records 23 tribal groups. Most of
2604-537: The Black Sea. Some of these infiltrated Poland and may have played a significant but unclear role in the transformation of the culture of the Globular Amphorae into the new Corded Ware culture . In Britain, copper was used between the 25th and 22nd centuries BC, but some archaeologists do not recognise a British Chalcolithic because production and use was on a small scale. Around 2400 BC. this people of
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2688-483: The Chalcolithic have been excavated, of which 6 are considered Ghassulian; and the earlier, pre-Ghassulian, layers are believed to belong to the Besorian culture. The total depth of these layers is 4.5 meters. The earliest evidence to the existence of a copper-industry in Israel was discovered in Bir abu Matar , near Beersheba , which specialized in copper production and the casting of copper tools and artifacts. No copper ore
2772-540: The Chalcolithic period in Israel is the Ghassulian culture, named after the name of its type-site , Teleilat el-Ghassul, located in the eastern part of the Jordan Rift Valley , opposite Jericho . Afterwards, many additional settlements, located in other archaeological sites, were identified as Ghassulian settlements. All these settlements had been built in areas that had not been previously inhabited, mainly on
2856-545: The Corded Ware replaced their predecessors and expanded to Danubian and Nordic areas of western Germany. One related branch invaded Denmark and southern Sweden ( Single Grave culture ), while the mid-Danubian basin, though showing more continuity, also displayed clear traits of new Indo-European elites ( Vučedol culture ). Simultaneously, in the west, the Artenac peoples reached Belgium. With the partial exception of Vučedol,
2940-653: The Danubian Lengyel culture absorbed its northern neighbours of the Czech Republic and Poland over a number of centuries, only to recede in the second half of the period. In Bulgaria and Wallachia (Southern Romania ), the Boian-Marica culture evolved into a monarchy with a clearly royal cemetery near the coast of the Black Sea. This model seems to have been copied later in the Tiszan region with
3024-660: The Danubian cultures, so buoyant just a few centuries ago, were wiped off the map of Europe. The rest of the period was the story of a mysterious phenomenon: the Beaker people . This group seems to have been of mercantile character and preferred being buried according to a very specific, almost invariable, ritual. Nevertheless, out of their original area of western Central Europe, they appeared only inside local cultures, so they never invaded and assimilated but rather went to live among those peoples, keeping their way of life. The rest of
3108-619: The Early Chalcolithic assemblages display all the hallmarks of the later Classic Ghassulian culture . – S.J. Bourke 31°51′39″N 35°38′26″E / 31.86083°N 35.64056°E / 31.86083; 35.64056 Chalcolithic Europe West Asia (6000–3500 BC) Europe (5500–2200 BC) Central Asia (3700–1700 BC) South Asia (4300–1800 BC) China (5000–2900 BC) The Chalcolithic (also Eneolithic, Copper Age) period of Prehistoric Europe lasted roughly from 5000 to 2000 BC, developing from
3192-513: The Ghassulian culture have been identified at numerous other sites in what is today southern Israel, especially in the region of Beersheba , where elaborate underground dwellings have been excavated. The Ghassulian culture correlates closely with the Amratian of Egypt and also seems to have affinities (e.g., the distinctive churns, or “bird vases”) with early Minoan culture in Crete. Ghassulian,
3276-651: The Iberian Peninsula: one in the Portuguese region of Estremadura (culture of Vila Nova de São Pedro ), strongly embedded in the Atlantic Megalithic culture; the other near Almería (SE Spain), centred on the large town of Los Millares , of Mediterranean character, probably affected by eastern cultural influxes ( tholoi ). Despite the many differences the two civilizations seemed to be in friendly contact and to have productive exchanges. In
3360-589: The Israeli Ministry of Health released Ben Gurion University research findings describing the health problems in a 20 km (12 mi) vicinity of Ramat Hovav. The study, funded in large part by Ramat Hovav, found higher rates of cancer and mortality for the 350,000 people in the area. Prematurely released to the media by an unknown source, the preliminary study was publicly discredited; However, its final conclusions – that Bedouin and Jewish residents near Ramat Hovav are significantly more susceptible than
3444-606: The Israeli government between the 1960s and 1980s; the largest of these is Rahat . The population of the Negev is expected to reach 1.2 million by 2025. It was projected that the Beersheba metropolitan area would reach a population of 1 million by 2020, and Arad , Yeruham , and Dimona would triple in size by 2025. A large part of the Negev Bedouins inhabit small communities or villages. Israel has refused to recognize certain Bedouin villages that were founded after
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3528-637: The Jordanian border stretches 180 km (110 mi) from Eilat in the south to the tip of the Dead Sea in the north. The Arabah Valley is very arid with barely 50 mm (2.0 in) of rain annually. It has inferior soils, in which little can grow without irrigation and special soil additives. Vegetation in the Negev is sparse, but certain trees and plants thrive there, among them Acacia , Pistacia , Retama , Urginea maritima and Thymelaea . Hyphaene thebaica or doum palm can be found in
3612-538: The Mediterranean basin, several cultures (most notably Chassey in SE France and La Lagozza in northern Italy) converged into a functional union, of which the most significant characteristic was the distribution network of honey-coloured flint . Despite this unity, the signs of conflicts are clear, as many skeletons show violent injuries. This was the time and area where Ötzi , a man whose well-preserved body
3696-530: The Megalithic super-culture , which extended from southern Sweden to southern Spain, including large parts of southern Germany. But the Mediterranean and Danubian groupings of the previous period appear to have been fragmented into many smaller pieces, some of them apparently backward in technological matters. After c. 2600 several phenomena prefigured the changes of the upcoming period. Large towns with stone walls appeared in two different areas of
3780-535: The Negev is known as an-Naqab or an-Naqb ('the [mountain] pass'), though it was not thought of as a distinct region until the demarcation of the Egypt-Ottoman frontier in the 1890s and has no single Arabic name. During the British Mandate , it was called "Beersheba sub-district". The Negev contains the oldest discovered surface on Earth, with an approximate age of 1.8 million years. During
3864-541: The Negev was earmarked by the November 1947 UN Partition Plan for the future Jewish state. During the 1947–49 War of Independence, Israel secured its sovereignty over the Negev. In the early years of the state, it absorbed many of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries , with the Israeli government setting up many development towns , such as Arad , Sderot and Netivot . Since then, the Negev has also become home to many of
3948-636: The Southern Negev. The Evrona Nature Reserve is the most northerly point in the world where this palm can be found. A small population of Arabian leopards , an endangered animal in the Arabian peninsula, has survived in the southern Negev but is now likely extinct. Other carnivora found in the Negev are the caracal , the striped hyena , the Arabian wolf , the golden jackal and the marbled polecat . The Arabah Arabian gazelle survives with
4032-402: The area of Dordogne ( Aquitaine , France), a new unexpected culture of bowmen appeared, the culture of Artenac , which would soon take control of western and even northern France and Belgium. In Poland and nearby regions, the putative Indo-Europeans reorganized and consolidated again with the culture of the Globular Amphoras. Nevertheless, the influence of many centuries in direct contact with
4116-438: The carriers of this culture were immigrants who had brought their own culture with them: all excavated sites represent an advanced stage of this culture, whereas no evidence of its nascent stages has been discovered, so far, anywhere in the region. This culture's characteristics indicate that they had connections with neighbouring regions and that their culture had not evolved in the southern Levant. Their origins are not known. It
4200-466: The centre of the Beaker Pottery returned to Bohemia, while in Iberia there was a decentralization of the phenomenon, with centres in Portugal but also in Los Millares and Ciempozuelos . [REDACTED] Media related to Copper Age in Europe at Wikimedia Commons Negev The Negev ( / ˈ n ɛ ɡ ɛ v / NEG -ev ; Hebrew : הַנֶּגֶב , romanized : hanNégev ) or Negeb ( Arabic : النقب , romanized : an-Naqab )
4284-604: The city of Beersheba , the central Negev has an annual precipitation of 200 mm (7.9 in) and is characterized by impervious soil, known as loess , allowing minimum penetration of water with greater soil erosion and water runoff. The high plateau area of Negev Mountains /Ramat HaNegev ( Hebrew : רמת הנגב , The Negev Heights ) stands between 370 metres (1,210 ft) and 520 metres (1,710 ft) above sea level with extreme temperatures in summer and winter. The area gets 100 mm (3.9 in) of rain per year, with inferior and partially salty soils. The Arabah Valley along
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#17327648532084368-444: The continent remained mostly unchanged and in apparent peace. From c. 2300 BC the first Beaker Pottery appeared in Bohemia and expanded in many directions, but particularly westward, along the Rhone and the sea shores, reaching the culture of Vila Nova (Portugal) and Catalonia (Spain) as its limit. Simultaneously but unrelatedly, c. 2200 BC in the Aegean region, the Cycladic culture decayed, being substituted by
4452-543: The cost of eight rounds of demolition to the state. Blueprint Negev is a Jewish National Fund project introduced in 2005. The $ 600 million project hopes to attract 500,000 new Jewish residents to the Negev by improving transportation infrastructure, establishing businesses, developing water resources and introducing programs to protect the environment. A planned artificial desert river, swimming pools and golf courses raised concerns among environmentalists. Critics oppose those plans, calling instead for an inclusive plan for
4536-442: The country's land area. It forms an inverted triangle shape whose western side is contiguous with the desert of the Sinai Peninsula , and whose eastern border is the Arabah valley. The Negev has a number of interesting cultural and geological features. Among the latter are three enormous, craterlike makhteshim (box canyons), which are unique to the region: Makhtesh Ramon , HaMakhtesh HaGadol , and HaMakhtesh HaKatan . The Negev
4620-413: The culture of Bodrogkeresztur . Labour specialization, economic stratification and possibly the risk of invasion may have been the reasons behind this development. The influx of early Troy (Troy I) is clear in both the expansion of metallurgy and social organization. In the western Danubian region (the Rhine and Seine basins) the culture of Michelsberg displaced its predecessor, Rössen . Meanwhile, in
4704-455: The establishment of the state. Under Israel's 2011-adopted and enacted Begin-Prawer plan – officially the Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev – some Bedouins are being moved to newly created townships. Bedouin villages established after the state without proper approvals are illegal under Israeli law. They are consequently destroyed or threatened with destruction. An Israeli court ruling in 2017 forced six residents to pay
4788-422: The first significant Aegean group: the Cycladic culture after c. 2800 BC . In the North, the supposedly Indo-European groups seemed to recede temporarily, suffering a strong cultural danubianization . In the East, the peoples of beyond the Volga ( Yamnaya culture ), surely eastern Indo-Europeans, ancestors of Iranians , took over southern Russia and Ukraine. In the West the only sign of unity comes from
4872-409: The given arid environment could provide for. Evenari researched the ancient mechanisms, rediscovered the ratio of water collection area to cultivation area, and explained the various ancient techniques of land amelioration , such as wadi terracing and flash-flood dams, and the features used for collecting and directing runoff water. He thought that the creators of this elaborate systems had been
4956-465: The green vitalization of existing population centers, investment in Bedouin villages, clean-up of toxic industries and development of job options for the unemployed. A major Israel Defense Forces training base is being constructed in the Negev to accommodate 10,000 army personnel and 2,500 civilian staff. Three more bases will be built by 2020 as part of a plan to vacate land and buildings in Tel Aviv and central Israel, and bring jobs and investment to
5040-495: The hands of humans in later centuries. The Negev region is arid ( Eilat receives on average only 24 mm (0.94 in) of rainfall a year), receiving very little rain due to its location to the east of the Sahara (as opposed to the Mediterranean, which lies to the west of Israel), and extreme temperatures due to its location 31 degrees north . However the northernmost areas of the Negev, including Beersheba , are semi-arid . The usual rainfall total from June through October
5124-453: The largest solar dishes in the world. Technically, however, the Arava is a separate desert with its own unique climate and ecology. A 250 MW solar park in Ashalim , an area in the northern Negev, the Ashalim Power Station , produces 121 Megawatts of power, using solar mirrors and thermal water heating. It is currently the largest in Israel. The Rotem Industrial Complex outside of Dimona, Israel , has dozens of solar mirrors that focus
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#17327648532085208-458: The latter became the home of Israel's first Prime Minister , David Ben-Gurion , after his retirement from politics. Although historically part of a separate region (known during the Roman period as Arabia Petraea ), the Negev was added to the proposed area of Mandatory Palestine , of which large parts later became Israel , on 10 July 1922, having been conceded by British representative St John Philby "in Trans-Jordan 's name". Despite this,
5292-415: The needs of the wine industry was noted for the early 6th century, documented by studying ancient trash mounds at Shivta, Elusa and Nessana . There is a sharp peak in the presence of grape pips and broken " Gaza jars " used to export wine and other Levantine goods from the port of Gaza (see " Gaza wine "), after a slower rise during the fourth and fifth centuries, and followed in the mid-6th century by
5376-435: The new palatine phase of the Minoan culture of Crete . The second phase of Beaker Pottery, from c. 2100 BC onwards, was marked by the displacement of the centre of this phenomenon to Portugal, inside the culture of Vila Nova. This new centre's influence reached to all southern and western France but was absent in southern and western Iberia, with the notable exception of Los Millares. After c. 1900 BC ,
5460-450: The northern edge of the Dead Sea , in modern Jordan . It was excavated in 1929-1938 and in 1959–1960, by the Jesuits . Basil Hennessy dug at the site in 1967 and in 1975–1977, and Stephen Bourke in 1994–1999. The Ghassulian stage was characterized by small hamlet settlements of mixed farming peoples, who had immigrated from the north and settled in the southern Levant - today's Jordan, Israel and Palestinian territories . People of
5544-409: The outskirts of populated areas. Thus, Chalcolithic settlements have been discovered in the Jordan Rift Valley, in the Israeli coastal plain and on its fringes, in the Judaean Desert , and in the northern and western Negev . On the other hand, it seems that people of the Chalcolithic period did not settle in the mountainous regions of Israel or in northern Israel. Several facts allow us to assume that
5628-497: The preceding Neolithic period and followed by the Bronze Age . It was a period of Megalithic culture, the appearance of the first significant economic stratification, and probably the earliest presence of Indo-European speakers. The economy of the Chalcolithic, even in the regions where copper was not yet used, was no longer that of peasant communities and tribes: some materials began to be produced in specific locations and distributed to wide regions. Mining of metal and stone
5712-437: The previously widely accepted theory to be wrong, namely that the Muslim conquest , which came a century after these events, and specifically the Muslim ban on alcoholic beverages , was the cause for the decline of the wine industry in the Negev. In Nessana, the number of grape pips is even seen to rise again during the Early Islamic period , probably due to the needs of a local Christian monastery. This disappearance of
5796-407: The region remained exclusively Arab until 1946; in response to the British Morrison–Grady Plan which would have allotted the area to an Arab state, the Jewish Agency enacted the 11 points in the Negev plan to begin Jewish settlement in the area. A year later, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine allotted a larger part of the area to the Jewish State which became Israel. The desert
5880-400: The runoff collection area onto those plots. Along with Avdat (Oboda), Mamshit (Mampsis), Shivta (Sobata), Haluza (Elusa), and Nitzana (Nessana), the settlements at Rehovot-in-the-Negev /Ruheibeh (the second largest by population of the Byzantine-era "Negev towns" ) and Saadon are also significant for this period. A massive rise in grape production in the northwestern Negev for
5964-448: The sands of the western and central Negev Desert. Animals that were reintroduced after their extinction in the wild or localized extinction respectively are the Arabian oryx and the Asiatic wild ass , which in the Negev counts about 250 animals. Like many areas in Israel and the rest of the Middle East, the Negev used to host in the distant past the Asiatic lion and the Asiatic cheetah , right until their complete extinction at
6048-507: The south. The Negev Desert and the surrounding area, including the Arava Valley , are the sunniest parts of Israel and little of this land is arable , which is why it has become the center of the Israeli solar industry. David Faiman , an expert on solar energy, feels the energy needs of Israel's future could be met by building solar energy plants in the Negev. As director of Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center , he operates one of
6132-512: The still-powerful Danubian peoples had greatly modified their culture. In the southwestern Iberian peninsula , owl -like plaques made of sandstone were discovered and dated to be crafted from 5500 to 4750 BP (Before Present). These are some of the most unique objects discovered in the Chalcolithic ( copper age ) cultural period. They have generally a head, two rounded eyes, and a body. Theses species were modeled after two owl species,
6216-558: The sun's rays on a tower that in turn heats a water boiler to create steam, turning a turbine to create electricity. Luz II, Ltd., plans to use the solar array to test new technology for the three new solar plants to be built in California for Pacific Gas and Electric Company . Vines have been planted in the Negev since ancient times. In modern times, vineyards have been established in the northern Negev hills using innovative computerized watering methods for irrigation. Carmel Winery
6300-592: The trade on the spice route between their capital Petra and the Gazan seaports. Nabatean currency and the remains of red and orange potsherds , identified as a trademark of their civilization, have been found along the route, remnants of which are also still visible. Nabatean control of the Negev ended when the Roman empire annexed their lands in 106 CE. The population, largely made up of nomads, venerated deities such as Dushara , Allat , and others. Byzantine rule in
6384-545: The typical later Ghassulian began sometime around the mid-5th millennium and ended ca. 3800 BC. The transition from Late Ghassulian to EB I seems to have been ca. 3800-3500 BC. The Issue of the nature of the transition from the Late Neolithic to the Early Chalcolithic is re-examined in this article [...] The Late Neolithic assemblages are to be closely identified with earlier Neolithic norms, whereas
6468-414: The vicinity of modern Eilat , along with copper and gold mines and stone quarries, and a sophisticated irrigation system and road network. The economic center was the port of Ayla (Aqaba). Nomadic tribes ruled the Negev largely independently and with a relative lack of interference for the next thousand years. What is known of this time is largely derived from oral histories and folk tales of tribes from
6552-464: The wine industry from the semiarid northern Negev shows that it was technically possible to sustain it over centuries, but that the grape monoculture was economically unsustainable in the long run due to its dependence on empire-wide trading networks, which required stability and prosperity over a vast territory. The southern Negev saw a flourishing of economic activity during the 8th to 10th or 11th centuries. Six Islamic settlements have been found in
6636-525: The word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'; in the Hebrew Bible , the word Negev is also used for the direction 'south'. Some English-language translations use the spelling Negeb . The Negev mentioned in the Bible (see below ) consisted only of the northernmost part of the modern Israeli Negev, with the semiarid Arad - Beersheba Valley defined as "the eastern (biblical) Negev". In Arabic,
6720-600: Was found in the Alps, lived. Another significant development of this period was the Megalithic phenomenon spreading to most places of the Atlantic region, bringing with it agriculture to some underdeveloped regions existing there. This period extends along the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Most significant is the reorganization of the Danubians into the powerful Baden culture , which extended more or less to what would be
6804-498: Was highly elaborate, including footed bowls and horn-shaped drinking goblets, indicating the cultivation of wine. Several samples display the use of sculptural decoration or of a reserved slip (a clay and water coating partially wiped away while still wet). The Ghassulians were a Chalcolithic culture as they used stone tools but also smelted copper. Funerary customs show evidence that they buried their dead in stone dolmens and also practised secondary burial . Settlements belonging to
6888-649: Was particularly developed in some areas, along with the processing of those materials into valuable goods. From c. 5000 BC to 3000 BC, copper started being used first in Southeast Europe , then in Eastern Europe, and Central Europe. From c. 3500 onwards, there was an influx of people into Eastern Europe from the Pontic-Caspian steppe ( Yamnaya culture ), creating a plural complex known as Sredny Stog culture . This culture replaced
6972-514: Was the first of the major wineries to plant vineyards in the Negev and operates a boutique winery at Ramat Arad . Tishbi has vineyards at Sde Boker and Barkan grows its grapes in Mitzpe Ramon . Yatir Winery is a winery in Tel Arad . Its vineyards are on a hill 900 meters above sea level on the outskirts of Yatir Forest . Carmey Avdat is Israel's first solar-powered winery. The Negev
7056-432: Was the prevailing theory, until more recent research showed that the earliest form of Nabataean agriculture in the Negev Highlands was only based on spring-water irrigation, with the much more extensive run-off water harvesting techniques using barrages and terraces apparently developing and being used only later, during the 4th-7th centuries CE, after the 3rd-century collapse of long-distance trade. The Nabateans controlled
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