Evidence of a form of administration that survived from the 5th millennium BC at an excavation site in the Beit Shan Valley * The rare seal impression that was found is the earliest evidence in Israel of the use of a seal for signing shipments or locking doors. The seal dates to the Middle Chalcolithic period, about two thousand years before the appearance of writing
A rare discovery in the north: A seal impression (stamp), dating from about 7000 years ago, with impressions of two seals that were decorated with geometric patterns, was recently identified by the Hebrew University's archeological excavation team in the prehistoric village of "Tel Zef" in the Beit Shan Valley. The discovery was made at the beginning of the 2004s (2007-XNUMX), when the excavation was conducted Prof. Yossi Garfinkel from the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University together with two of his students, who over time became senior researchers at Ariel University - Prof. David Ben-Shloma and Dr. Michael Freikman. About 150 stamps without seal impressions were found on the site, but recently the researchers realized that one of them is a one-time and historical discovery. The research findings were published in the scientific magazine "Levant".
Seal impressions - stamps - are small pieces of clay, known in historical periods for signing letters, and are intended to maintain the discretion of the letter writers and prevent others from reading their contents on the way to their destination. The stamps, which are made of clay, left fascinating evidence of historical events and background about the people who stood behind them. The bulla found at Tel Tsef is particularly exciting as it is the evidence The first for its use as a means of sealing shipments or closing silos and barns. As soon as they opened the doors of the barns on which the stamp was affixed - it broke, and so it was clear to the site administrators that someone else had visited them, perhaps robbed them. "Even today, the Electric Company or the Gihon close their clocks using Plumbe, in order to prevent changes initiated by consumers. It turns out that this method was practiced in Israel already 7,000 years ago, an administrative and administrative measure that can be used to prevent cheating and theft - this is definitely not an esoteric technique," Prof. Garfinkel explains this week.
Since it is a tiny item measuring less than a centimeter (!), only recently did it become clear to the excavation team after many deciphering efforts that the fragment they found is definitely a seal impression. according to the researchers This is the earliest evidence in Israel of the use of a seal for the purpose of signing doors or deliveries, with the seal being dated (using the carbon 14 method) to the Middle Chalcolithic period (4500-5200 BC). According to the article, the stamp was designed to close any tank. The research team further clarifies that the bulla was excellently preserved because the Beit Shean Valley is a dry place and the soil is friendly to archaeologists.
Two seal impressions with markings of symmetrical, parallel and uniform lines were definitely identified on the stamp. Many stamps have been found in the last decade in Jerusalem, with some of them bearing the imprint of a person's seal, sometimes even a figure that appears in the biblical tradition. At Tel Tsef it is a period before the invention of writing, therefore no names of people were found on the seals. In addition, since it is a bulla with two seals, this hints at a sophisticated management system that sometimes involves the involvement of two different people.
The sealing of goods sent in containers or agricultural produce in silos, using the stamp, probably had two purposes - 'internal' and 'external'. The "internal" purpose allows the owners of the silos and warehouses on the site to follow the events of opening the storage facilities and keeping the products inside them. The 'external' purpose refers to the security of shipments sent to the site from afar. Prof. Garfinkel emphasizes the large scale of use of stamps in general, and the stamp bearing the two seal impressions found at the site. The impressive underwriting found in Tel Tsef may reflect the development of the economy at that time, the need to secure the delivery of goods and storage at a specific site, and to ensure access only to authorized persons.
A petrographic analysis conducted for the bole, examining the composition of the soil from which it was made, indicates that the clay is not local, and came from a distance of at least 10 km from the excavation site. That is, the stamps are a personal importation of the residents of the site to the area. The researchers explicitly state in their article that The seals used to stamp the stamps are not historically unique. Seals decorated with geometric patterns are already known in the region from earlier periods, from about 8,500 years ago, from the ceramic Neolithic period.
In addition to the bulla, extremely rare objects were found at the site, such as a metal vessel that is considered to be the oldest found in Israel, a concentration of 2,600 beads from the eggshells of ostriches, over 100 stone beads of exotic minerals from the Middle East, obsidian - a volcanic glass that came from Anatolia, and even pottery that is characteristic of the Ubaid culture which belongs to the end of the prehistory period in Mesopotamia (such pottery has never been found in Israel). "At this site we have evidence of connections with the regions of Mesopotamia, Turkey, Egypt and the Caucasus. There is not a single prehistoric site in the entire Middle East that has international trade connections to such extensive areas," Prof. Garfinkel explains this week.
The amounts of grain, and probably also other types of supplies that were kept in storage facilities at Tel Tsef, were on an unprecedented scale. There were houses in which 5-4 silos were found that could store 30-20 tons of grains - when one family needs food to the extent of only about XNUMX tons of grains per year. "It's crazy, no one needs to eat that much to survive," notes Prof. Garfinkel. "A family that grows and harvests fields, is not able to produce so much food. This means that the owners of houses in Tel Tsef were unusually rich, and stored food produced by other people. This is evidence of people's control over land, and possibly over Iris, that is, the development of social stratification in such an early period. There are also quite a few sites from this period in the Jordan Valley, but no storage buildings like those found at Tel Tsef were found there. No stamps were found on these sites either, and no luxury items imported from all over the Middle East were found. Tel Zef was, therefore, the most important center in the region." It seems that for the purpose of managing the large amount of agricultural produce, and of shipping supplies to the site, the residents developed an administration method of seals and stamps, which made it possible to monitor the economic activity.
The surplus of agricultural produce on the one hand, and finds from all over the ancient Near East on the other hand, indicate that Tel Tsef served as a central trading point for the exchange of goods. The inhabitants of the site could trade surplus agricultural produce with small regional communities, and with nomads, who brought with them rare and exotic goods from far away. It is possible that the use of seals and stamps is evidence of the first step taken in the place to build trading methods and build a network of moving products from place to place. The researchers conclude that society in the Middle Collegiate period consisted of a complex system of interrelationships between communities, and not a collection of individual sites that each stood for itself. "We hope that the ongoing excavations at Tel Tsef, and at other sites from the period, will yield additional evidence that will help to understand the phenomenon of the beginning of the administration in the southern Levant," notes Prof. Garfinkel.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
