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The Lodian culture or Jericho IX culture is a
Pottery Neolithic
In the archaeology of Southwest Asia, the Late Neolithic, also known as the Ceramic Neolithic or Pottery Neolithic, is the final part of the Neolithic period, following on from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and preceding the Chalcolithic. It is some ...
archaeological culture of the
Southern Levant
The Southern Levant is a geographical region encompassing the southern half of the Levant. It corresponds approximately to modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southern Syria and/or the Sinai P ...
dating from the first half of the
5th millennium BC
The 5th millennium BC spanned the years 5000 BC to 4001 BC (c. 7 ka to c. 6 ka). It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological an ...
, existing alongside the
Yarmukian and
Nizzanim cultures. The Lodian culture appears mainly in areas south of the territory of the
Yarmukian culture, in the
Shfela
The Shephelah or Shfela, lit. "lowlands" ( hbo, הַשְּפֵלָה ''hašŠǝfēlā'', also Modern Hebrew: , ''Šǝfēlat Yəhūda'', the "Judaean foothills"), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel str ...
and the beginning of the
Israeli coastal plain
Israeli coastal plain ( he, מישור החוף, ''Mishor HaḤof'') is the coastal plain along Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, extending north to south. It is a geographical region defined morphologically by the sea, in terms of topography a ...
; the
Judaean Mountains
The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills ( he, הרי יהודה, translit=Harei Yehuda) or the Hebron Mountains ( ar, تلال الخليل, translit=Tilal al-Khalīl, links=, lit=Hebron Mountains), is a mountain range in Palestine and Israel wh ...
, and in the desert regions around the
Dead Sea and south of it.
The Jericho IX culture is defined by its distinctive pottery. It was first identified by
John Garstang
John Garstang (5 May 1876 – 12 September 1956) was a British archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, especially Egypt, Sudan, Anatolia and the southern Levant. He was the younger brother of Professor Walter Garstang, FRS, a marine bi ...
during his excavations of the eponymous Layer IX at
Jericho.
Thomas Levy later coined the term Lodian, shifting the
type site
In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...
to that of
Lod, first excavated by
Jacob Kaplan in the 1950s. The relationship between the Lodian culture and the two other Southern Levantine Pottery Neolithic cultures, the Yarmoukian and the
Wadi Raba culture, has been debated for many years. Levy argued that it was a short-lived but distinct tradition that emerged after the Yarmoukian and before the Wadi Raba.
Settlements
Most known settlements associated with the Lodian culture were small and ephemeral. From the few sites remains of architecture have been found, it appears the inhabitants lived in circular, semi-subterranean rounded structures, 2-3 meters in diameter, made from
mudbrick. Next to the structures were many pits dug by these inhabitants. They kept domestic animals, including sheep, goats, cattle and pigs, and also fished and hunted wild gazelle. It is assumed that they also grew the typical Neolithic crops, e.g. cereals and legumes, but no
archaeobotanical evidence has been recovered from Lodian sites to confirm this.
Sites with Lodian material include
Jericho,
Lod,
Tel Megiddo
Tel Megiddo ( he, תל מגידו; ar, مجیدو, Tell el- Mutesellim, ''lit.'' "Mound of the Governor"; gr, Μεγιδδώ, Megiddo) is the site of the ancient city of Megiddo, the remains of which form a tell (archaeological mound), situa ...
,
Ghrubba,
Yesodot
Yesodot ( he, יְסוֹדוֹת, ''lit.'' Foundations) is a Haredi moshav shitufi in central Israel. Located in the Shephelah, it falls under the jurisdiction of Nahal Sorek Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
The village was ...
,
Teluliot Batashi,
Tel Lachish
Lachish ( he, לכיש; grc, Λαχίς; la, Lachis) was an ancient Canaanite and Israelite city in the Shephelah ("lowlands of Judea") region of Israel, on the South bank of the Lakhish River, mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. Th ...
,
Tel Ali,
Abu Zurayq
Abu Zurayq is an archaeological site located on the western edge of the Jezreel Valley and its transition to the Menashe Heights, next to Highway 66, between the modern kibbutzim of HaZore'a and Mishmar HaEmek.
The site includes tell calle ...
,
Wadi Shueib,
Dhra′,
Khirbet ed-Dharih,
Nizzanim, and
En Esur
En Esur, also En Esur (; ) or Ein Asawir ( ar, عين الأساور, lit=Spring of the Braceletes) is an ancient site located on the northern Sharon Plain, at the entrance of the Wadi Ara pass leading from the Coastal Plain further inland. The ...
.
Very few burials have been found at Lodian sites. The inhabitants may have disposed of their dead in other ways, or used dedicated cemeteries away from settlements, as the later Wadi Raba culture was known to do.
Tools
Lodian pottery slightly differs in shape to the Yarmukian pottery and in decoration. One of the noted differences is more complexity in paste preparation and another being in its variety of vessel forms.
The typical Lodian pottery vessels are painted and
burnished, with distinctive geometric motifs.
One of these types is the Jericho IX Jar, which possesses distinction by its more common appearance in Lodian culture. It usually has a rounded rim, flared neck, and 2 thick looped handles from the upper neck to its shoulders.
Its lithic
industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
is dominated by
flake tools, including several characteristic types of arrowheads (Haparsa, Nizzanim, and Herzlia points) and
sickle blades. Bipolar cores, common in preceding cultures, disappeared during the Lodian.
Figurines
A figurine
A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many medi ...
and other ritual objects are notably rare in Lodian assemblages, unlike the Yarmoukian.
The flint tools area also similar to those of the Yarmukian. One distinctive type of flint tool that is unique to the Lodian culture is a rectangular sickle, shaped with
pressure flaking
In archaeology, in particular of the Stone Age, lithic reduction is the process of fashioning stones or rocks from their natural state into tools or weapons by removing some parts. It has been intensely studied and many archaeological industri ...
.
References
{{Neolithic Southwest Asia
Neolithic cultures of Asia
Archaeological cultures in Israel
Archaeological cultures in Jordan
5th millennium BC
Late Neolithic