Haifa archaeologists look to crack mysterious 6,500-year-old 'Triangle Code'

Times of Israel ^ | January 31, 2019 | Amanda Borschel-Dan

[SunkenCiv]

...A couple of years ago while hunched over her microscope at the University of Haifa, graduate student Rikva Chasan began to notice on the inside rims of countless stone bowls a plethora of previously undocumented, methodically incised small triangles.

Chasan is working as part of a multi-year international interdisciplinary project conducted by the university’s laboratory for ground stone tools research that is tracking the provenance of these basalt vessels across the ancient Levant in order to show socioeconomic changes in the Chalcolithic period, circa 4,500 BCE – 3,900 BCE...

Chasan postulates that the clearly coordinated decorations depict the start of a crafts specialization that crossed regional zones. This is a show of interesting broad-strokes cultural cooperation during what is considered a smaller, more "chieftain-level of society," she said, in which the people were early farmers and herders...

Chasan, who grew up in New Jersey and moved to Israel 3.5 years ago for graduate school, studied the 6,500-year-old basalt stone vessels for her masters thesis. As she compared examples from different sites, she realized that regardless of where they were found in prehistoric Israel, the uniformly decorated bowls were incised with small downward-pointing triangles.

Beginning in the 1930s, previous researchers had noted decorations on the basalt vessels, found at hundreds of sites in the ancient Levant — Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. But not the shape of them...

Unlike their flint counterparts, the basalt vessels were not made at homesteads, but in central places of manufacture. The vessels were then transported to settlements, said Rosenberg, based on a paucity of production debris at dwellings' excavations.

In Israel, the black-colored stone is found mostly in the Jezreel Valley, the Golan and the Galilee.

[SunkenCiv]

The rest of the Chalcolithic keyword, sorted:

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• Genetic changes in Bronze Age southern Iberia [11/22/2021]
• Farmers in NE China initial speakers of Japanese, Korean, Turkish languages: Study [11/16/2021]
• The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales [02/12/2021]
• Ancient graves and mysterious enclosure discovered at Stonehenge ahead of tunnel construction [02/11/2021]
• Copper Ore Brought from what is now Jordan was smelted in a 6,500 Year Old Furnace in Beersheba [10/04/2020]
• Bronze Age 'New York' discovered, Israeli archaeologists say [10/13/2019]
• Long Bronze Age sequence and earlier Chalcolithic occupation... at Kisonerga-Skalia [Cyprus] [01/01/2019]
• DNA analysis of 6,500-year-old human remains in Israel points to origin of ancient culture [08/21/2018]
• Archaeologists Discover 6,500-Year-Old Grave of Man Holding Stone Ax Scepter... [Bulgaria] [06/19/2016]
• 'Pristine' Landscapes Haven't Existed For Thousands Of Years Due To Human Activity [06/18/2016]
• Bulgaria's Burgas Showcases for the first time 7,000-year-old... 'Pre-Alphabetic Writing' [06/13/2016]
• Cave art trove found in Spain 1,000 feet underground [05/29/2016]
• Stunning cave paintings found 300 metres below Spain [05/27/2016]
• A piece of research challenges the view that Neolithic societies were egalitarian [05/01/2015]
• Alexander the Great-Era Treasure Found in Israeli Cave [03/10/2015]
• Remains of 8,000-year-old olive oil found in Lower Galilee [12/19/2014]
• Chalcolithic catastrophe on the Mondsee [07/15/2014]
• 10,000-year-old house uncovered outside Jerusalem [11/25/2013]
• Study: Greenland Ice Sheet was smaller 3000-5000 years ago than today [11/22/2013]
• Archaeologists Uncover Europe's First Civilization [12/13/2012]
• Archaeologists Excavate Ancient Phoenician Port City [ Tel Achziv ] [04/21/2012]
• Evidence of massacre in Bronze Age Turkey [ Titris Hoyuk ] [02/20/2012]
• Enigmatic standing stele of Al-Rajajil [12/20/2011]
• Scientists finally determine iceman Otzi's last meal [Ice Man] [06/22/2011]
• Livestock and people in a Middle Chalcolithic settlement: a micromorphological investigation from... [01/18/2011]
• Tumulus skeleton found with arrow tip in spine [ 6,500 BC ] [12/10/2010]
• Researchers unearth 8,500-year-old bodies near Bursa [ Turkey ] [09/18/2010]
• 6,000-year-old statue discovered in Jordanian desert [07/22/2010]
• World's Oldest Leather Shoe Found -- Stunningly Preserved [06/09/2010]
• Bulgarian Archaeologists Discover 7 000-Years-Old Settlement [07/03/2009]
• The Last of the Zoroastrians [12/15/2008]
• Gobekli Tepe: The World's First Temple? ( massive carved stones about 11,000 years old ) [11/11/2008]
• Prehistoric Disaster: An Alpine Pompeii from the Stone Age [10/11/2008]
• From Indus Valley To Coastal Tamil Nadu [05/02/2008]
• Whose Jerusalem Is It, Anyway? [03/05/2008]
• The height of China's history [ Liangzhu culture] [12/03/2007]
• Archaeologists Stumble On Sensational Find (7,500 YO Metal Tools) [10/04/2007]
• Bulgaria-Unearthed Temples A Millenium Older than Egypt Pyramids [02/18/2007]
• Ruins in Northern Syria Bear the Scars of a City's Final Battle [01/16/2007]
• Europe Seeks Its Origins In Catalhoyuk [12/12/2006]
• Archaeologists Discover More Than 70 Ancient Settlement Areas In Yozgat (Turkey) [08/24/2006]
• Ancient Stone Tablets Could Shed Light On Surtepe Excavations [06/04/2006]
• Qasr'e Shirin's 6,000-Year-Old Mystery [02/26/2006]
• Fire Destroys Large Part of Dead Sea Nature Reserve [05/31/2005]
• Archaeologist stirs storm with 'ancient city' claim [04/04/2005]
• 7,000-Year-Old Artifacts Discovered In Bushehr Region (Iran) [01/06/2005]
• A Civilisation Parallel To Harappa? Experts Wonder [12/13/2004]
• Jewelry From 3rd Millennium BC Discovered In Southwest Iran [12/06/2004]
• In Search of Zarathustra [Pre-Islamic Iran once again making a strong come back] [09/05/2004]
• Stone Circles In Saudi Arabia [08/25/2004]

[SunkenCiv]

Diaper pails?

[SunkenCiv]

• Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age findings in Cyprus offer insight to inhabitants' lifestyle transition [TornosNews.gr 27.08.2019]

[FrankRizzo890]

“Don’t forget to drink your Ovaltine” WHAT A GYP!

[humblegunner]

on the inside rims of countless stone bowls

Countless?

[null and void]

Countless?

For a male archeologist, more than 21...

[Beowulf9]

At first I thought why couldn’t it just be decoration but as the article pointed out these people were not just sitting around on the internet, “For me they had to have represented something. It’s not like now where people are wasting time on nothing. There was no Facebook, they weren’t in front of the computer all day. These were busy people doing agriculture. It has to say something to the people there.”

But not knowing much about basalt it is a rock, right? So did they have to hollow out these vessels and shape them out of rock? If so that’s incredible in it’s own right.

[M Kehoe]

I apologize in advance...

Basalt, probably a washing ‘machine.”. Wouldn’t put wine in there.

Yes, I read the whole article. My bad.

I’m not an archeologist, but I did stay at a Holiday inn one time.

I must confess, my masters thesis was the French revolution and Marie Antoinette’s Chasity belt.

5.56mm

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Chasan Chasing Chalcolithic Chalices Cannot Count Countless Triangles.

[PIF]

But not knowing much about basalt it is a rock, right? So did they have to hollow out these vessels and shape them out of rock? If so that’s incredible in it’s own right.
—
Incredible using stone, and copper yes. Especially in some sort of factory line. Like some Old Kingdom carved heads that are from a type of granite which are accurate to the 1/16” and mirror imaged.

[GingisK]

Maybe they should just come to grips with the notion that is merely decoration rather than a code.

[SunkenCiv]

Sounds like a manufacturing system, products of a single shop, analogous to the 2nd c AD Samian ware from southern Gaul.

[SunkenCiv]

lol

[Born in 1950]

Maybe expansion joints. Or they limit cracking for easy repair.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

On behalf of the thread and Sunken Civ lets here about your thesis subject!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

'Through residue analysis, there was a clear use for the vessels and they were not just for display, said Chasan."

"Unlike their flint counterparts, the basalt vessels were not made at homesteads, but in central places of manufacture. The vessels were then transported to settlements, said Rosenberg, based on a paucity of production debris at dwellings’ excavations."

S.C. My Thoughts:

1) When handling an object it is helpful to have something that assist in your grip. I suspect the cross hatch provided hands a surface that helps in maintaining a persons grip. It functions like cross hatch on a piston handle.

2 If they had a machine or machines that allowed them to partially hollow out the vessels which would explain the "Factory". Takes some time to fabricate that machine and they might try to keep it "Secret" so that other manufacturers would duplicate the factory and compete with them.

Here is a much later ancient india lathe for soapstone columns and pillars.

Hoysaleswara Temple Famous Lathe Pillar. (10th century AD)

[SunkenCiv]

Good points!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Without handling the objects its hard to be sure regarding the grip. The pottery is in pieces and stuck to a form on another continent and in any case no, they would not allow me near or take it out of the display case to try.

[M Kehoe]

Okay.

It’s quite boring.

I’ll cut to the conclusion...

When the maker of the Chasity belt presented to the king, he gave him the gold key, but he had secretly made another.

The maker gave the other key to the Duke of Kent. They did the horizontal bop. King Louie found out about the affair and cut off her head.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

5.56mm

[M Kehoe]

Did you see my post 19?

5.56mm