Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Early Maritime Activity on the Dead Sea: Bitumen Harvesting and the Possible Use of Reed Watercraft

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Maritime Archaeology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Most studies of ancient maritime activity on the Dead Sea focus on the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine periods, for which a rich body of archaeological and historic data exists. However, finds of Dead Sea bitumen at distant prehistoric sites and an anchor dating to the seventh century BC indicate that maritime activity on the lake preceded the Greek and Roman periods, and raise questions regarding this activity’s origins and nature. By linking the exploitation of Dead Sea bitumen with the use of watercraft, and through consideration of a broader early maritime record of the ancient Near East, this study pushes back the dating of this activity on the lake and suggests the nature of its watercraft.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alon D, Yekutieli Y (1995) The Tel Halif terrace ‘silo site’ and its implications for the Early Bronze Age I. Atiqot 27:149–189

  • Ambar-Armon E (2005) The Greek World and the Coastal Plain of Israel before the Macedonian Conquest. Cathedra 116:5–30 (Hebrew; English abstract, p 177)

  • Amiran R (1978) Early Arad: The Chalcolithic Settlement and Early Bronze City. Israel Exploration Society

  • Amiran R, Ilan O, Arnon C (1983) Excavations at Small Tel Malhata: three Narmer Serekhs. Isr Mus J 2:75–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Ammerman AJ (2010) The first argonauts: towards the study of the earliest seafaring in the mediterranean. In: Anderson A, Barrett JH, Boyle KV (eds) The global origins and development of seafaring. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, pp 81–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold JE, Bernard J (2005) Negotiating the coasts: status and the evolution of boat technology in California. World Archaeol 37:109–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Avitsur S (1976) Man and his work: historical atlas of tools and workshops in the Holy Land. Carta & Israel Exploration Society

  • Avi-Yonah M (1954) The Madaba mosaic map. Jerusalem

  • Bailey G (2004) World prehistory from the margins: the role of coastlines in human evolution. J Interdiscip Stud Hist Archaeol 1:39–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Adon P (1989a) Rujm el-Bahar. Atiqot (Hebrew Series) Spec Issue Excav Judean Desert 9:3–14 (Hebrew; English summary: 4*)

  • Bar-Adon P (1989b) Qasr el-Yahud. Atiqot (Hebrew Series) Spec Issue Excav Judean Desert 9:18–29 (Hebrew; English summary: 5*)

  • Barkai R, Gopher A, Weiner J (2007) Quarrying flint at Neolithic Ramat Tamar—an experiment. In: Astruc L, Binder D, Briois F (eds) Systèmes Techniques et Communautés du Néolithique Précéramique au Proche-Orient. Actes du 5ème Colloque International Fréjus, 2004, 25–32. Antibes

  • Barrett JH, Anderson A (2010) Histories of global seafaring: a discussion. In: Anderson A, Barrett JH, Boyle KV (eds) The global origins and development of seafaring. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, pp 305–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef Mayer DE (2010) Shell assemblages of the Gilgal Sites. In: Bar-Yosef O, Gopher A, Goring-Morris N (eds) Gilgal: early neolithic occupations in the lower Jordan Valley: the excavations of Tamar Noy. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 239–243

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef O, Gopher A, Tchernov E, Kislev EM (1991) Netiv Hagdud: an early Neolithic Village site in the Jordan Valley. J Field Archaeol 18:405–424

    Google Scholar 

  • Belfer-Cohen A, Bar-Yosef O (2002) Early sedentism in the near east. In: Kuijt I (ed) Life in neolithic farming communities. Springer, US, pp 19–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Biggs HEJ (1960) Mollusca from Prehistoric Jericho. J Conchol 24:379–387

    Google Scholar 

  • Bitan A (1977) The influence of the special shape of the Dead Sea and its environment on the local wind system. Arch Met Geoph Biokl Ser B 24:283–301

    Google Scholar 

  • Bitan A (1984) The similarities and the differences in the wind regime on the internal lakes of Israel. Eretz Israel 17:23–37 (in Hebrew)

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackman D, Rankov B (2014) Shipsheds of the ancient Mediterranean. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda E, Connan J, Dessort D, Muhesen S, Mercier N, Valladas H, Tisnérat N (1996) Bitumen as a hafting material on Middle Palaeolithic artefacts. Nature 380:336–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Boëda E, Bonilauri S, Connan J, Jarvie D, Mercier N, Tobey M, Valladas H, al-Sakhel H, Muhesen S (2008) Middle Palaeolithic bitumen use at Umm el Tlel around 70000 BP. Antiquity 82:853–861

    Google Scholar 

  • Boivin N, Blench R, Fuller DQ (2009) Archaeological, linguistic and historical sources on ancient seafaring: a multidisciplinary approach to the study of early maritime contact and exchange in the Arabian Peninsula. In: Petraglia MD, Rose JI (eds) The evolution of human populations in Arabia: paleoenvironments, prehistory and genetics. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 251–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Bookman R, Bartov Y, Enzel Y, Stein M (2006) Quaternary lake levels in the Dead Sea basin: two centuries of research. In: Enzel Y, Agnon A, Stein M (eds) New Frontiers in Dead Sea Paleoenvironmental Research. Geological Society of America Special Paper no. 401, pp 155–170

  • Broodbank C (2006) The origins and early development of Mediterranean maritime activity. J Mediterr Archaeol 19(2):199–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Broshi M (1992) Agriculture and economy in Roman Palestine: seven notes on the Babatha archive. Isr Explor J 42:230–240

    Google Scholar 

  • Broshi M, Qimron E (1986) A house sale deed from Kefar Baru from the time of Bar Kokhba. Isr Explor J 36:201–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown KM, Connan J, Poister NW, Vellanoweth RL, Zumberge J, Engel MH (2014) Sourcing archaeological asphaltum (bitumen) from the California Channel Islands to submarine seeps. J Archaeol Sci 43:66–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter RA (2002) Ubaid-period boat remains from As-Sabiyah: excavations by the British archaeological expedition to Kuwait. Proc Semin Arab Stud 32:13–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter RA (2006) Boat remains and maritime trade in the Persian Gulf during the sixth and fifth millennia BC. Antiquity 80:52–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter RA (2010) The social and environmental context of neolithic seafaring in the Persian Gulf. In: Anderson A, Barrett JH, Boyle KV (eds) The global origins and development of seafaring. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, pp 191–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Chesney FR (1850) The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris: carried on by Order of the British Government in the Year 1835, 1836, and 1837; Preceded by Geographical and Historical Notices of the Regions Situated between the Rivers Nile and Indus. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleuziou S, Tosi M (1994) Black boats of Magan: some thoughts on Bronze Age water transport in Oman and beyond from the impressed bitumen slabs of Ra’s al-Junayz. In: Parpola A, Koskikallio P (eds) South Asian Archaeology 1993, vol 2. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Helsinki, pp 707–714

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleuziou S, Tosi M (2000) Ra’s al-Jinz and the prehistoric coastal cultures of the Ja’alan. J Oman Stud 11:19–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J (1999) Use and trade of bitumen in antiquity and prehistory: molecular archaeology reveals secrets of past civilizations. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 354:33–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J (2012) Le bitume dans l’antiquité. Editions Errance, Arles

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J, Deschesne O (1995) Archaeological bitumen: identification, origins and uses of an ancient near eastern material. Mater Res Soc Sympos Proc 267:683–720

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J, Nissenbaum A (2004) The organic geochemistry of the Hasbeya asphalt (Lebanon): comparison with asphalts from the Dead Sea area and Iraq. Org Geochem 35:775–789

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J, Van de Velde T (2010) An overview of bitumen trade in the Near East from the Neolithic (c.8000 BC) to the early Islamic period. Arab Archaeol Epigr 21:1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J, Nissenbaum A, Dessort D (1992) Molecular archaeology: export of Dead Sea asphalt to Canaan and Egypt in the Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age (4th–3rd millennium BC). Geochim Cosmochim Acta 56:2743–2759

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J, Nissenbaum A, Dessort D (1995) Geochemical study of Neolithic “bitumen”-coated objects of the Nahal Hemar cave in the Dead Sea area. In: Grimalt J, Dorronsoro C (eds) Organic geochemistry: developments and applications to energy, climate, environment and human history. A.I.G.O.A, Donostia-San Sebastian, pp 699–701

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J, Carter RA, Crawford HEW, Tobey M, Charrié-Duhaut A, Jarvie D, Albrecht P, Norman K (2005) A comparative geochemical study of bituminous boat remains from H3, As-Sabiyah (Kuwait), and RJ-2, Ra’s al-Jinz (Oman). Arab Archaeol Epigr 16:21–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Connan J, Nissenbaum A, Imbus K, Zumberge J, Macko S (2006) Asphalt in iron age excavations from the Philistine Tel Miqne-Ekron city (Israel): origin and trade routes. Org Geochem 37:1768–1786

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper JP (2011) Humbler craft: rafts of the Egyptian Nile, 17th to 20th centuries AD. Int J Naut Archaeol 40:344–360

    Google Scholar 

  • Cotton HM, Greenfield JC (1995) Babatha’s Patria: Mahoza Mahoz ‘Eglatain and Zo’ar. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 107:126–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford HEW, Carter RA (2010) Maritime interactions in the Arabian Neolithic. In: American School of prehistoric research monograph series. Brill Academic Pub., Leiden

  • Crowfoot PJ (1983) The flint implements. In: Kenyon K, Holland TA (eds) Excavations at Jericho. V: the pottery phases of the tell and other finds. British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, London, pp 622–758

    Google Scholar 

  • Crown AD, Cansdale L (1994) Qumran: was it an essene settlement? Biblic Archaeol Rev 20/5:24–35, 73–78

  • Davidovich U, Goldsmith Y, Porat R, Porat N (2014) Dating and interpreting desert structures: the enclosures of the Judean Desert, Southern Levant, re-evaluated. Archaeometry 56:878–897

    Google Scholar 

  • de Miroschedji P (1988) Yarmouth 1. Rapport sur les trois premières campagnes de fouilles à Tel Yarmouth (Israël)(1980–1982). Paris

  • Delaville le Roulx J (1894) Cartulaire General de l’ordre des Hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jerusalem (1100-1310) I, Paris

  • Edwards PC, Meadows J, Sayej G, Metzger MC (2002) Zahrat Adh-Dhra` 2: a new pre-pottery Neolithic A Site on the Dead Sea Plain in Jordan. Bull Am Schools Orient Res 327:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Enzel Y (2001) Holocene debris flows along the western escarpment of the Dead Sea basin: Israel Ministry of Infrastructure, Earth Sciences Administration Report ES-53-2001

  • Erlandson JM (2001) The archaeology of aquatic adaptations: paradigms for a new millennium. J Archaeol Res 9:287–350

    Google Scholar 

  • Erlandson JM (2010) Neptune’s children: the evolution of human seafaring. In: Anderson A, Barrett JH, Boyle KV (eds) The global origins and development of seafaring. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, pp 19–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Farr H (2010) Island colonization and trade in the mediterranean. In: Anderson A, Barrett JH, Boyle KV (eds) The global origins and development of seafaring. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, pp 179–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferentinos G, Gkioni M, Geraga M, Papatheodorou G (2012) Early seafaring activity in the southern Ionian Islands, Mediterranean Sea. J Archaeol Sci 39(7):2167–2176

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer M, Gichon M, Tal O (2000) Conclusions. In: Fischer M, Gichon M, Tal O (eds) En Boqeq: excavation in an Oasis on the Dead Sea, vol II: the officina. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, pp 137–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Forbes RJ (1964) Bitumen and petroleum in antiquity. In: Studies in ancient technology, 2nd edn, vol 1. E. J. Brill, Leiden, pp 11–23

  • Friedman Z (1999) Ship Iconography on Mosaics from the Eastern Mediterranean (Israel and Jordan): 1st–8th Centuries AD, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Haifa

  • Friedman Z (2011a) Ships depicted in the Madaba Map Mosaic. In: Şahin M (ed) 11th International Colloquium on Ancient Mosaics October 16th–20th, 2009. Bursa, Turkey, pp 391–404

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman Z (2011b) Ship Iconography in Mosaics: an aid to understanding ancient ships and their construction. BAR International Series 2202. Oxford

  • Galili E (2004) Submerged settlements of the ninth to seventh millennia BP off the Carmel coast. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Tel Aviv University

  • Galili E, Rosen B, Gopher A, Kolska-Horwitz L (2002) The emergence and dispersion of the Eastern Mediterranean fishing village: evidence from submerged Neolithic settlements off the Carmel Coast, Israel. J Mediter Archaeol 15:167–198

    Google Scholar 

  • Galili E, Lernau O, Zohar I (2004) Fishing and coastal adaptations at ‘Atlit-Yam—a submerged PPNC fishing village off the Carmel Coast, Israel’. Atiqot 48:1–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Gat Z, Karni O (1995) Climate and agrometeorology of the Jordan Valley, adjacent Samaria slopes and Dead Sea Region. Israel Meteorological Service (in Hebrew), 306 pp

  • Gichon M (2000) Industry. In: Fischer M, Gichon M, Tal O (eds) En Boqeq: excavation in an Oasis on the Dead Sea, vol II: the Officina. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, pp 93–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Golani A (2004) Salvage excavations at the Early Bronze Age site of Ashqelon, Afridar—Area E. Atiqot 45:9–62

    Google Scholar 

  • Gophna R, Milevski I (2003) Feinan and the Mediterranean during the Early Bronze Age. Tel Aviv 2:222–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Gophna R, Cresson B, Friedmann E (1996) Excavations at Tel Dalit: an early Bronze Age Walled Town in Central Israel. Ramot Publishing House, Tel Aviv University

  • Goring-Morris AN (1991) PPNB settlement at Kfar HaHoresh in Lower Galilee: a preliminary report of the 1991 season. J Isr Prehist Soc 24:77–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadas G (1992) Stone anchors from the Dead Sea. Atiqot 21:55–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadas G (1993a) Where was the Harbour of ‘En-Gedi Situated? Isr Explor J 43:45–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadas G (1993b) A stone anchor from the Dead Sea. Int J Naut Archaeol 22:89–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadas G (2008) Dead Sea Sailing Routes during the Herodian Period. Bull Anglo-Isr Archaeol Soc 26:31–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadas G (2011) Dead Sea Anchorages. Revue Biblique 118:161–179

    Google Scholar 

  • Hadas G, Liphschitz N, Bonani G (2005) Two ancient wooden anchors from Ein Gedi on the Dead Sea, Israel. Int J Naut Archaeol 34:299–307

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrell JA, Lewan MD (2002) Sources of mummy bitumen in ancient Egypt and Palestine. Archaeometry 44(2):285–293

    Google Scholar 

  • Hecht A, Gertman I (2003) Dead Sea meteorological climate. In: Fungal life in the dead sea, pp 68–114

  • Hendricks S, Vermeer P (2000) Prehistory: from the paleolithic to the Badarian culture. In: Shaw I (ed) The Oxford history of ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 17–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschfeld Y (2004) Qumran in context: reassessing the archaeological evidence. Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschfeld Y (2006) The archaeology of the Dead Sea Valley in the late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. In: Enzel Y, Agnon A, Stein M (eds) New frontiers in Dead Sea Paleoenvironmental Research. Geological Society of America Special Paper no. 401, pp 215–229

  • Hollander D, Schwartz M (2000) Annealing, distilling, reheating and recycling: bitumen processing in the Ancient Near East. Paléorient 26:83–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Hornell J (1946) Water transport: origins and early evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (Reprinted 1970 by Newton Abbot: David & Charles)

  • Horowitz A (2001) The Jordan Rift Valley. Rotterdam

  • Horwitz LK, Simmons T, Lernau O, Tchernov E (2010) Fauna from the sites of Gilgal I, II, III. In: Bar-Yosef O, Gopher A, Goring-Morris N (eds) Gilgal: early neolithic occupations in the lower Jordan Valley: the excavations of Tamar Noy. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 263–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Israel Water Authority (2014) http://www.water.gov.il/Hebrew/Water-Environment/Dead-Sea/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed January, 2014

  • Jaubert PA (1836-40) La Géographie d’Edrisi, Paris (reprinted 1975 Amsterdam)

  • Johnstone P (1988) Seacraft of prehistory, 2nd edn. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Karmon Y (1990) The history of the Hula Valley. In: Karmon Y, Livne M (eds) The Hula Valley and its environs. Ariel, 75–76. Jerusalem. (Hebrew), pp 37–63

  • Kashtan N (2000) Seafaring and Jews in Graeco-Roman Palestine: realistic and symbolic dimensions. Mediterr Hist Rev Spec Issue Seafar Jews 15:16–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelso JL, Powell AR (1944) Glance pitch from Tell Beit Mirsim. Bull Am Sch Orient Res 95:14–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkbride D (1967) Beidha 1965: an interim report. Palest Explor Q 99:5–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkbride D (1991) Un village néolithique jordanien: Beidha. Les Dossiers d’Archéologie 163:82–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein C (1982) Morphological evidence of lake level changes, Western Shore of the Dead Sea. Isr J Earth Sci 31:67–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuijt I, Goring-Morris AN (2002) Foraging, farming, and social complexity in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Southern Levant: a review and synthesis. J World Prehist 16:361–440

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis N (1985/88) A Jewish landowner in Provincia Arabia. Scripta Classica Israelica 8–9:132–137

  • Magness J (1994) The community at Qumran in the light of its pottery. In: Wise MO, Golb N, Collins JJ, Pardee DG (eds) Methods of investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran site, present realities and future prospects. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 722. New York, pp 39–50

  • Makarewicz C, Goodale N, Rassman EP, White C, Millers H, Haroun J, Carlson E, Pantos A, Kroot M, Kadowaki S, Casson A, Williams JT, Austin AE, Fabre B (2006) El-Hemmeh: a multi-period pre-pottery neolithic site in the Wadi el-Hasa, Jordan. Eurasian Prehist 4:183–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus E (2002) Early seafaring and maritime activity in the southern Levant from prehistory through the third millennium BC. In: van den Brink E, Levy TE (eds) Egypt and the levant: interrelations from the 4th through the early 3rd Millennium BCE. Leicester University Press, London, pp 403–417

    Google Scholar 

  • Marder O, Braun E, Milevski I (1995) The flint assemblage of Lower Horvat ‘Illin: some technical and economic considerations. Atiqot 27:63–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Marder O, Khalaily H, Milevski I (2012) The lithic industry of Area E. In: Garfinkel Y et al (eds) The pre-pottery Neolithic B Village of Yiftahel. The 1980s and 1990s excavations. ex oriente, Berlin, pp 155–187

  • McGrail S (2001) Boats of the world. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mienis HK (1988) Nahal Hemar Cave: the marine molluscs. Atiqot 18:47–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Milevski I, Marder O, Goring-Morris AN (2004) The circulation of asphalt in Southern Canaan and Egypt during the early bronze age I. In: Van den Brink ECM, Yannai E (eds) In quest of ancient settlement and landscapes. Archaeological Studies in Honour of Ram Gophna. Tel Aviv, Ramot Publishing-Tel Aviv University, 219–236

  • Nadel D, Zaidner Y (2002) Upper Pleistocene and mid-Holocene net sinkers from the Sea of Galilee, Israel. J Isr Prehist Soc 32:49–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Neev D, Emery KO (1967) The Dead Sea, depositional processes and environments of evaporates. Geological Survey of Israel Bulletin 41, Jerusalem

  • Niemi TM, Ben-Avraham Z, Gat JR (1997) Dead Sea research—an introduction. In: Niemi TM, Ben-Avraham Z, Gat JR (eds) The Dead Sea: the lake and its setting. Oxford Monographs on Geology and Geophysics 36, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 3–7

  • Nissenbaum A (1980) The floating asphalt blocks of the Dead Sea. In: Douglas AG, Maxwell JR (eds) Advances in organic geochemistry 1979. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp 157–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissenbaum A (1991) Shipping lanes of the Dead Sea. Rehovot 11:19–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissenbaum A (1993) The Dead Sea—an economic resource for 10000 years. Saline Lakes 5:127–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissenbaum A, Buckley S (2013) Dead Sea asphalt in ancient Egyptian mummies—why? Archaeometry 55:563–568

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissenbaum A, Goldberg M (1980) Asphalts, heavy oils, ozocerite and gases in the Dead Sea basin. Org Geochem 2:167–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissenbaum A, Serban A, Amiran R, Ilan O (1984) Dead Sea asphalt from the excavations in Tel Arad and small Tel Malhata. Paléorient 10:157–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissenbaum A, Carmi I, Hadas G (1990) Dating of ancient anchors from the Dead Sea. Naturwissenschaften 77:228–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Noy T (1989) Gilgal I: a pre-pottery neolithic site, Israel. The 1985–1987 seasons. Paléorient 15.1:11–18

  • Ochsenschlager E (1992) Ethnographic evidence for wood, boats, bitumen and reeds in southern Iraq. Ethnoarchaeology at al-Hiba. Bull Sumer Agric 6:47–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Oron A, Hadas G, Liphschitz N, Bonani G (2008) A new type of composite anchor dated to the Fatimid-Crusader Period from the Dead Sea, Israel. Int J Naut Archaeol 37:295–301

    Google Scholar 

  • Oron A, Galili E, Hadas G, Klein M (2015) Two artificial anchorages off the northern shore of the Dead Sea: a specific feature of an ancient maritime cultural landscape. Int J Naut Archaeol 44:81–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Patai R (1998) The Children of Noah: Jewish seafaring in ancient times. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson J (2004) Khirbet Hammam (WHS 149): a late pre-pottery neolithic B settlement in the Wadi el-Hasa. Bull Am Sch Orient Res 334:1–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Politis KD (2002) The discovery and excavation of Khirbet Qazone cemetery and its significance relative to Qumran. In: Galor K, Humbert JB, Zangenberg J (eds) Qumran: the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Archaeological interpretations and debates (Proceedings of the Conference at Brown University, November 17 (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 57). Leiden; Boston, pp 213–219

  • Politis KD (2004) Ancient Arabs, Jews and Greeks on the Shores of the Dead Sea. In: al Khraysheh F (ed) Studies in the history and archaeology of Jordan VIII: Archaeological Perspectives on Society, Culture and Identity, pp 361–370

  • Qualls C (1981) Boats of Mesopotamia before 2000 B.C. unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University

  • Recchi A, Gopher A (2002) Birds and humans in the Holocene: the case of Qumran Cave 24 (Dead Sea, Israel). Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 45:139–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Renfrew C, Aspinall A (1990) Aegean obsidian and Franchthi Cave. In: Perlès C (ed) Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece, Fascicle 5: Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce) II. Les industries du Mésolithique et du Néolithique initial. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp 257–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Rizkana I, Seeher J (1989) Maadi IlI the non-lithic small finds and the structural remains of the predynastic settlement. Mainz am Rhein

  • Rosen B (1986) An incorrect representation of a sailing boat in the Madaba Mosaic. Isr Explor J 36:97–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Rullkötter J, Nissenbaum A (1988) Dead Sea asphalt in Egyptian mummies: molecular evidence. Naturwissenschaften 75:618–621

    Google Scholar 

  • Rullkötter J, Spiro B, Nissenbaum A (1985) Biological marker characteristics of oils and asphalts from carbonate source rocks in a rapidly subsiding graben, Dead Sea, Israel. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 49:1357–1370

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaub T, Chesson MS (2007) Life in the earliest Walled Towns on the Dead Sea Plain: Bab edh-Dhra’ and an-Numayra. In: TE Levy, PM Michèle Daviau, RW Younker, M Shaer (eds) Crossing Jordan: North American contributions to the archaeology of Jordan. Equinox, London, pp 245–252

  • Schick T (1988) Nahal Hemar Cave: cordage, basketry and fabrics. Atiqot 18:31–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Schick T (2010) Basketry finds from Gilgal I. In: Bar-Yosef O, Gopher A, Goring-Morris N (eds) Gilgal: early neolithic occupations in the lower Jordan Valley: the excavations of Tamar Noy. Oxbow, Oxford, pp 245–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz M (2002) Early evidence of reed boats from southeast Anatolia. Antiquity 76:617–618

    Google Scholar 

  • Schyle D (2007) Ramat Tamar and Mezad Mazal, the early Neolithic economy of mining and production of bifacials southwest of the Dead Sea. Bibliotheca neolithica Asiae meridionalis et occidentalis. Ex Oriente, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebbane M, Avner U (1993) Biq’at Nimra: a tomb from the beginning of the Early Bronze Age I. Atiqot 22:33–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharon I (2013) Levantine chronology. In: Steiner ML, Killebrew AE (eds) Oxford handbook of the archaeology of the levant: C. 8000-332 BCE. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 44–65, table 4.3

  • Shatner Y (1999) The River Jordan delta. Ariel 140–41:299–325

    Google Scholar 

  • Stager LE (1992) The periodization of Palestine from neolithic through Early Bronze times. Chronol Old World Archaeol 1:22–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Stern E (ed) (1992) New Encyclopedia of archaeological excavations in the holy land, vol 1. Israel Exploration Society and Carta, Jerusalem

    Google Scholar 

  • Stieglitz RR (2000) Hebrew seafaring in the biblical period. Mediterr Hist Rev Spec Issue Seafar Jews 15:5–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Strasser TF, Panagopoulou E, Runnels CN, Murray MP, Thompson N, Karkanas P, McCoy FW, Wegmann KW (2010) Stone Age seafaring in the Mediterranean: evidence from the Plakias Region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic habitation of Crete. Hesperia 79:145–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Strasser TF, Runnels C, Wegmann K, Panagopoulou E, Mccoy F, Digregorio C, Thompson N (2011) Dating Palaeolithic sites in southwestern Crete, Greece. J Quat Sci 26(5):553–560

    Google Scholar 

  • Talbot GC (1983) Beads and pendants from the Tell and Tombs. In: Kenyon K, Holland TH (eds) Excavations at Jericho, Vol. V: The Pottery phases of the tell and other Finds. British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, pp 788–801

  • Taute W (1994) Pre-Pottery neolithic flint mining and flint workshop activities southwest of the Dead Sea, Israel (Ramat Tamar and Mesad Mazzal). In: Gebel HG, Kozlowski SK (eds) Neolithic Chipped Stone Industries of the Fertile Crescent. Ex Oriente, Berlin, pp 495–510

    Google Scholar 

  • Thesiger W (1964) The Marsh Arabs. London: Longman. [Reprint 1994. Dubai: Motivate]

  • Thomas RI (2007) The Arabaegypti Ichthyophagi: cultural connections with Egypt and the maintenance of identity. In: Starkey J, Starkey P, Wilkinson T (eds) Natural resources and cultural connections of the Red Sea. BAR International Series 1661, Oxford, pp 149–160

  • Tzalas HE (1995) On the obsidian trail: with a papyrus craft in the Cyclades. In: Tzalas HE (ed) Tropis III: 3rd international symposium on ship construction in antiquity. Hellenic Institute for the Preservation of Nautical Traditions, Athens, pp 441–469

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Neer W, Zohar I, Lernau O (2005) The emergence of fishing communities in the eastern Mediterranean region: a survey of evidence from pre- and protohistoric periods. Paléorient 31:131–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Vardi J, Cohen-Sasson E (2012) Har-Parsa: a large-scale larnite quarry and bifacial tool production site in the Judean Desert, Israel. Antiquity 86:332

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker AA (1998) Oldest glue discovered. http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/glue.html. Accessed December 2012

  • Ward C (2006) Boat-building and its social context in early Egypt: interpretations from the First Dynasty boat-grave cemetery at Abydos. Antiquity 80:118–129

    Google Scholar 

  • Yadin, Y, Greenfield JC, Yardeni A, Levine BA (2002) The documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters. Jerusalem

  • Yekutieli Y, Gophna R (1994) Excavations at an early Bronze Age Site near Nizzanim. Tel Aviv 2:162–185

    Google Scholar 

  • Zangenberg J (2004) Opening up our view. Khirbet Qumran in a regional perspective. In: Edwards DR (ed) Religion and Society in Roman Palestine. Old problems and new approaches. London, pp 170–187

Download references

Acknowledgments

The study was supported by an Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology Regional Research Grant at the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, and by a Ph.D. scholarship from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Haifa. Funding for field work has been generously provided over the years by RPM Nautical Foundation, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, the Minerva Dead Sea Research Center at Tel Aviv University, and the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center. The authors thank the Israeli Antiquities Authority, B. Rosen for his valuable comments on the manuscript, and N. Külah for library assistance. They also acknowledge E. Raz, who discovered composite anchor b and shared its location with them. Finally thanks are due to the two reviewers whose comments have undoubtedly improved this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 3498838, Haifa, Israel

    Asaf Oron & Micha Klein

  2. Israel Antiquities Authority and Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, POB 180, 30300, Atlit, Israel

    Ehud Galili

  3. Dead Sea and Arava Science Centre, Tamar Regional Council, 86910, Dead Sea Post, Israel

    Gideon Hadas

Authors
  1. Asaf Oron
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ehud Galili
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gideon Hadas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Micha Klein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Asaf Oron.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Oron, A., Galili, E., Hadas, G. et al. Early Maritime Activity on the Dead Sea: Bitumen Harvesting and the Possible Use of Reed Watercraft. J Mari Arch 10, 65–88 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-015-9135-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-015-9135-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation