The project

DEADSEA-ECO aims to explore the effects of human settlement on mammalian community structure, focusing on the phenomenon of trophic cascades in antiquity. The subject is approached using bioarchaeological methods applied to the uniquely-preserved material record from the middle and late Holocene settlement sequence (approximately 8,000 BCE to 2,000 CE) of the Dead Sea Ein Gedi Oasis, and to the contemporary palaeontological assemblages from caves located in the surrounding Judean Desert. DEADSEA-ECO is expected to bridge between aspects of current thinking on ecosystem dynamics and the study of human past by exploring the role of trophic cascades as an invisible dimension of Anthropocene life in marginal environments.

Small-scale excavations will be carried out in sites around the Ein Gedi Oasis to date with precision the settlement periods in this central location in the Judean Desert. Bioarchaeological remains will be collected and studied using stable isotope tools to estimate to what extent the Oasis settlements relied on outside supply of animal and plant staples in different periods. We'll concentrate our efforts on the Chalcolithic, Iron Age, and Roman-Byzantine periods of the Oasis, but also on the investigation of lesser-known Early Bronze Age presence in the region.

Walled enclosures and leopard traps are perceptible features of the Judean Desert highlands. We intend to date numerous such features to gain insight into the intensity of human involvement in the desert landscape in different periods.

We plan to date remains of key mammalian taxa (leopard, ibex, hyrax, hyena and fox) from the numerous biogenic cave assemblages of the southern Judean Desert and model the probability of their occurrence in space and time. Genetic analysis will be used to estimate population size of key taxa, and stable isotope analysis will be employed to study temporal fluctuations in scavenger trophic levels.