The Wadi Rabah 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 to the middle of the

5th millennium BCE 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 ...

Research

This period was first identified at the ancient site of Jericho (

Tell es-Sultan Tell es-Sultan ( ar, تل السلطان, ''lit.'' Sultan's Hill), also known as Tel Jericho ( he, תל יריחו) or Ancient Jericho, is a UNESCO-nominated archaeological site in the West Bank, in the State of Palestine, located adjacent to th ...

) by British archaeologists

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 ...

and

Kathleen Kenyon Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon, (5 January 1906 – 24 August 1978) was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called ...

in separate excavations. Kenyon has named this period in Jericho "

B". The name "Wadi Rabah" was since used in archaeologic literature thanks to the works of Israeli archaeologist Jacob Kaplan at the site of Wadi Rabah.Garfinkel 2019, 105

Settlements

This culture is known from a small amount of sites, in some of which remains of small rectangular structures were discovered. Some larger structures were found in

Munhata Munhata (Horvat Minha or Khirbet Munhata) is an archaeological site south of Lake Tiberias, Israel on the north bank and near the outlet of Nahal Tavor (Tabor Stream) on a terrace below sea level. Excavations The area of in the Jordan Valley ...

, Wadi Rabah and Ein el-Jarba, though Israeli archaeologist

Yosef Garfinkel Yosef Garfinkel (hebrew: יוסף גרפינקל; born 1956) is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology and of Archaeology of the Biblical Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Biography Yosef (Yo ...

suggests that large courtyard structures were erected in that period, like the ones found at Sha'ar HaGolan of the preceding Yarmukian culture (c. 6400–6000 BCE) and Tel Tsaf of the following Early/Middle

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

period (c. 5300–4500 BCE)

Sites

*Wadi Rabah *

Baysamun Baysamun or Beisamoun ( ar, بيسمون, ''Beisamûn'') was a small Palestinian Arab village, located in the marshy Hula Valley northeast of Safad. In 1945, it had a population of 20.Hadawi, 1970p. 69 It was depopulated during the 1948 War on M ...

Dan Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoi ...

Kfar Giladi Kfar Giladi ( he, כְּפַר גִּלְעָדִי, ''lit.'' Giladi Village, ar, كفار جلعادي) is a kibbutz in the Galilee Panhandle of northern Israel. Located south of Metula on the Naftali Mountains above the Hula Valley and alon ...

HaGoshrim HaGoshrim ( he, הַגּוֹשְׁרִים, ) is a kibbutz in the Galilee Panhandle in northern Israel, 5 km east of Kiryat Shmona. The kibbutz is adjacent to the Hurshat Tal National Park and bisected by tributaries of the Jordan River, ...

* Nahal Betzet * Tel Teo * Kabri * Horvat Uza *

Kiryat Ata Kiryat Ata ( he, קִרְיַת אָתָא; also Qiryat Ata) is a city in the Haifa District of Israel. In it had a population of , 92% of whom were Jewish citizens. History The Early Bronze Age site at Qiryat Ata has been extensively excavate ...

* Einot Tsipori * Tel Ali * Yizre'el * Tel Yosef *

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 ...

* Ein el-Jarba *

* Nahal Zehora * Al-Shuna al-Shamalyah *

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 ...

* Abu Hamid * Habashan street * Lod *

Kidron Valley The Kidron Valley ( classical transliteration, ''Cedron'', from he, נחל קדרון, ''Naḥal Qidron'', literally Qidron River; also Qidron Valley) is the valley originating slightly northeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, which then separate ...

Atlit Yam Atlit Yam is an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit, Israel. It has been carbon-dated as to be between 8,900 and 8,300 years old. Among the features of the 10-acre site is a stone circle. History Atlit-Yam provides the ear ...

* Teluliot Batashi

Research

Settlements

Sites

See also

References

Further reading