Updates
Exploring the Judean Desert caves with friends from ERIS...
Thanks to Boaz Langford for the photos (:
A new paper on Avi's excavations in the Ein Gedi Oasis.
ICAANE 2023 (COpenhagen)
A workshop presenting DEADSEA_ECO results.
Human Carnivoran Interactions Symposium
July 2021
The Crested Rat remains from the caves of skulls published in PNAS!
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2105719118
Romi and Micka sampling leopard traps. Photographs by Roi Porat, 10/2/2021
February 2021
Cave survey ended; last collection of temperature/moisture sensors by Assaf; last samples of leopard traps by Romi.
First publication of results from the cave survey and radiocarbon studies...
November 2020
1) Last sortie to the Cave of Skulls: Micromorphological sampling of a Pleistocene section
2) End of the second excavation season in Nahal Rahaf 2, an Upper Paleolithic rock shelter.
3) Dating of leopard traps continues
We are a little off with fieldwork now -- COVID -- so we're looking into cultural aspects of human-carnivoran interactions in the region. The results are published in Antiquity and JAS Reports...
September-October 2020
Fieldwork: End of the second excavation season in Ein Gedi: Tel Goren & the Spring Terrace
We finished radiocarbon dating all the bones from the cave survey!!! we've 126 dates for our model. Only a few sorties to collect sensors and we're done with this part of our fieldwork.
May 2020
We planned to visit the Cave of Skulls w/ Jack Sparrow, Valentina, and Natalia, but the COVID situation didn't allow for their arrival from abroad. Our plans to sample the section and send the samples to Natalia and Valentina were also thwarted when already in the field, because of a delayed nesting of a snake eagle by the cave. We rescheduled our sampling sortie to early June, and meanwhile Uri, Roee, Mika and Nimrod surveyed caves in the Mishmar--Hever area: Cave of the Salt Flowers, where we located a Pleistocene deposit of caprine bones; Cave of the White Stone, where we found a rich deposit of bird and fox bones; Netifey Hever, which looks like a hyena resting site; and Tsavo'a Qatan cave, which is a very nifty hyena den. We came back with four more hyena specimens and found another two leopard bones, and many hyrax, hare, and gazelle specimens. After databasing and documentation we'll be ready to deliver the last batch of radiocarbon samples for dating.
In addition, we also found two deep sections of stratified dung for lipid and geoarchaeological analyses: on in Yael Cave, and the other in a cave we named Tor Hever. Took some samples for radiocarb.
and a new publication on our dig in Nahal Rahaf...
February-April 2020
We excavated in Ein Gedi in February. No trace of a Chalcolithic settlement, but nice organic conservation in Iron Age Tel Goren
Progress made in OSL dating the leopard traps -- preliminary results have arrived from the Israel Geological Survey: thank Romi and Naomi Porat
New Uranium-Thorium dates from the Cave of Skulls, thank Perach Nuriel of the IGS!
Sensor placement in caves completed, cheers Asaf O (:
A batch of radiocarbon dates turned in from ORAU
January 2020
Excavation in the lower spring terrace of En Gedi this week!
A new batch of bones sent for radiocarbon dating -- especially wild herbivore specimens.
New samples from the cave survey brought to the lab and processed
Analysis of the faunal assemblage from Byzantine En Gedi completed
Identification of the bones from Upper Paleolithic Nahal Rahaf 2 excavation completed
a new ungulate taxon found -- sent to zooMS for molecular validation
photogramatric model of the oasis region completed by Alex Wiegman! here's a clip
December 2019
Excavation in the upper spring terrace of En Gedi this week. A Roman/Byzantine building and Iron Age architecture were uncovered.
September-October, 2019
(1) More crested rat bones dated! we also found coprolites of the Punk Rat, and completed GMM analysis of the teeth.
(2) We've some 30 radiocarbon dates on leopards and other faunas collected from the caves last winter. More results are forthcoming from Oxford soon.
(3) A 4 kya leopard bone yielded good aDNA (:
(4) Work on Nahal Rahaf finds continues: radiocarbon dates are forthcoming, and there's preliminary data on the flint and fauna, soon to be presented in conferences in Israel and abroad.
(5) fieldwork in the caves has resumed -- conservation + bone recovery.
(6) getting ready to resume archaeological work in the Ein Gedi Oasis in December.
Meanwhile, exploring carnivore and human social interactions far away in space and time....
June - August 2020
Fieldwork: work in the southern Dead Sea region on Roman-Nabataean remains.
Waiting for the results of more radiocarbon dates, and started to grind materials (leopard specimens) for genetic analysis.
August, 2019
Crested rat bones with no collagen dated using bioapatite in CAIS (Athens, Georgia). The results are very interesting -- we're sending more samples.
Planning of the 2020 field season under way... we'll try to
(1) excavate more in Ein Gedi Terrace (Roman, Iron Age): Uri, Yael, Roi
(2) survey around Ein Gedi: Roi
(3) collect fauna from more caves: Mika, Roi, Ignacio
(4) collect environmental data from caves to see how they relate to preservation: Asaf
and aDNA from a leopard and a crested rat.
Meanwhile we've got a 4,000 years old leopard!
July, 2019
Alright, apparently much of the hi nitrogen pre-screening results are contamination, or in other words animal pee. Many of the bones do not preserve collagen well, especially those of archaic/locally extinct taxa such as deer, bears, and crested rat. We're beginning a new pre-screening procedure, based on collagen extraction.
June, 2019
Ignacio drilled the first batch of bones in Oxford. All yielded very high nitrogen readings in the pre-screening, which predicts good collagen preservation.
April, 2019
Ein Gedi Spring Terrace excavations: dated a couple of enigmatic buildings in the terrace above the spring during four days of excavation, to further our understanding of the oasis settlement history.
Cave faunas: first batch of faunal remains (~150 specimens) getting readied for dating in Oxford. Rare specimens are CT scanned prior to destructive analyses. First samples taken for aDNA analysis. Priority to higher trophic levels! leopards first.
March, 2019
Nahal Rahaf rock shelter
Excavation in a late Upper Paleolithic site, aiming to reconstruct JD faunas of the last glacial maximum (LGM). Dig co-directors Omry Barzilai (IAA) and Nimrod Marom (UH). Other participants: Maayan Shemer (IAA), Mika Ulman, Ignacio Lazagabaster, Emil Elajam, Cheryl Makarewicz (Kiel), Elisabetta Boaretto (Weizman Institute for Science).
February, 2019 cave faunas...
Tour of Qina cave with Cheryl Makarewicz (Kiel) and Dan Malkinson (UH), see gallery
Sampling previously-excavated cave assemblages by Ignacio and Nimrod
Cave zooarch survey led by Roi and Mika
January, 2019 official start!
Geological field trip with CSMS geologist Revital Bookman.
Permits for cave survey obtained!