A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to wh... more A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to which the assemblage is to be classified. Two conflicting requirements dictate this choice: the number of prototypes should be minimal to allow an efficient classification. At the same time, the set of prototypes should be comprehensive so that the essential variability of the original assemblage is reproduced by the prototypes. This problem is especially complex when the assemblage consists of ceramic vessels of the same genre such as e.g., storage jars, cooking pots or drinking cups. Here, we would like to present a computerized method to identify an optimal set of prototypes, which is based on the analysis of pottery profiles in terms of their curvature functions. The profiles are clustered according to their correlations (defined as the scalar products of the curvature functions). Averaging the curvature functions in each of the dominant branches yield a set of curvature functions, who...
A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to wh... more A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to which the assemblage is to be classified. Two conflicting requirements dictate this choice: the number of prototypes should be minimal to allow an efficient classification. At the same time, the set of prototypes should be comprehensive so that the essential variability of the original assemblage is reproduced by the prototypes. This problem is especially complex when the assemblage consists of ceramic vessels of the same genre such as e.g., storage jars, cooking pots or drinking cups. Here, we present a computerized method to identify an optimal set of prototypes, which is based on the analysis of pottery profiles considered as planar curves. The profiles are clustered according to their correlations, and the correlation tree yields a preliminary set of types, whose number is much smaller than the number of profiles in the original assemblage, and which is based on the dominant but distin...
CyberResearch on the Ancient Near East and Neighboring Regions, 2018
for their help with proofreading. In addition, we thank the Brill editors, and especially the edi... more for their help with proofreading. In addition, we thank the Brill editors, and especially the editors of the Digital Biblical Studies series, Claire Clivaz and David Hamidović, who patiently supported us in this wonderful project. Finally, the co-editors, Vanessa Bigot Juloux, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and Alessandro di Ludovico, sincerely thank the authors for their close collaboration and for having agreed to join us in this adventure toward the advancement of the humanities for both educational and scientific purposes. More than anything else, this project would never have been successful without the strong support of our families (including Vanessa's numerous cats and dogs), friends, and peers, of whom we are deeply appreciative.
The understanding that fine mesh sieving is the optimal procedure for the recovery of minute find... more The understanding that fine mesh sieving is the optimal procedure for the recovery of minute finds poses two challenges for archeologists of historical periods: it is costly and time consuming, and it puts into question the value of data collected in excavations where sieving was conducted minimally or not at all. That hand picking causes loss of data pertaining to microfaunal remains is indisputable, but the extent of information loss regarding larger fauna is not as clear. In order to evaluate these challenges for macrofaunal remains, we carried out, for the first time, a comprehensive sieving experiment at Tel Dor, a multi-layered complex site, the most prominent site type in historical periods. We examine the effects of wet sieving on the macro-and microfauna frequencies, and discuss its implications in terms of the interpretations of the faunal assemblages and the choice of excavations' collection protocols. We demonstrate that while sieving has a substantial effect on microfauna frequencies, it has a limited effect on those of the macrofauna. We also suggest that faunal assemblages of livestock animals that were hand collected or partially sieved, are valid for comparison with sieved assemblages. Finally, we call for an explicit presentation of the retrieval protocol in site reports and other studies, differentiating clearly between sieved and un-sieved material, and raise some points for future discussion.
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2014
The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) is published biannually by the ... more The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) is published biannually by the American Schools of Oriental Research. The journal will consider for publication manuscripts consistent with the broad areas of research supported by the society. These include the art and archaeology, history, anthropology, literature, philology, and epigraphy of the Near East and eastern Mediterranean world from the Palaeolithic period through Islamic times. Manuscripts and books to be considered for review should be sent to the Editors. Manuscripts are subject to peer review by at least two outside readers as well as the Editors.
Abstract 1 Kings 4 relates that Dor, the major port-town on Israel's Carmel coast, constitute... more Abstract 1 Kings 4 relates that Dor, the major port-town on Israel's Carmel coast, constituted part of the Solomonic state. This formed the basis for several historical reconstructions. Here, for the first time, we examine all the relevant archaeological data available after three decades of excavations at Tel Dor. We conclude that indeed, archaeology supports a scenario whereby Dor passed from Phoenician to Israelite hands, but that this happened in the second half of the 9th century BC. This shift involved a significant change in the role of Dor and its harbour, exemplified by changes in urban layout, ceramic production, and in commercial and other interaction spheres.
The ability to perceive and produce symmetrical shapes is usually taken to be a major step in the... more The ability to perceive and produce symmetrical shapes is usually taken to be a major step in the development of human cognition. Despite the importance of the concept of symmetry to studies of early human development, its current use is usually based on loose qualitative assessment. A more informative approach would be to use a continuous scale of this shape property rather than the strict current language of ''more'' or ''less''. A symmetry measurement tool has been developed, which is based on evaluation of the minimal distances that the vertices of a structure have to move in order to attain the required symmetry. Using this Continuous Symmetry Measure (CSM) method, it is possible to evaluate quantitatively how much symmetry exists in a non-symmetrical configuration and how the nearest symmetrical shape looks. We test and demonstrate the feasibility and versatility of this approach on handaxe samples from three Lower Paleolithic sites in Israel, Ubeidiya, Gesher Benot Ya'aqov and Ma'ayan Barukh, representing various stages in the Acheulian Techno-complex of the Levant. We provide, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, quantitative demonstration that the overall symmetry of handaxes generally increases, and that the variability decreases over time.
... It is still unclear whether we have not yet 1 For a review of the first 12 seasons, see E. St... more ... It is still unclear whether we have not yet 1 For a review of the first 12 seasons, see E. Stern: Dor ? Ruler of the Seas, Jerusalem, 1994. For a preliminary report of the eleventh season, see E. Stern,Ayelet Gilboa and I. Sharon: Tel Dor, 1991: Preliminary Report, IEJ 42 (1992), pp. ...
A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to wh... more A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to which the assemblage is to be classified. Two conflicting requirements dictate this choice: the number of prototypes should be minimal to allow an efficient classification. At the same time, the set of prototypes should be comprehensive so that the essential variability of the original assemblage is reproduced by the prototypes. This problem is especially complex when the assemblage consists of ceramic vessels of the same genre such as e.g., storage jars, cooking pots or drinking cups. Here, we would like to present a computerized method to identify an optimal set of prototypes, which is based on the analysis of pottery profiles in terms of their curvature functions. The profiles are clustered according to their correlations (defined as the scalar products of the curvature functions). Averaging the curvature functions in each of the dominant branches yield a set of curvature functions, who...
A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to wh... more A crucial step in any typological analysis is the determination of the prototypes according to which the assemblage is to be classified. Two conflicting requirements dictate this choice: the number of prototypes should be minimal to allow an efficient classification. At the same time, the set of prototypes should be comprehensive so that the essential variability of the original assemblage is reproduced by the prototypes. This problem is especially complex when the assemblage consists of ceramic vessels of the same genre such as e.g., storage jars, cooking pots or drinking cups. Here, we present a computerized method to identify an optimal set of prototypes, which is based on the analysis of pottery profiles considered as planar curves. The profiles are clustered according to their correlations, and the correlation tree yields a preliminary set of types, whose number is much smaller than the number of profiles in the original assemblage, and which is based on the dominant but distin...
CyberResearch on the Ancient Near East and Neighboring Regions, 2018
for their help with proofreading. In addition, we thank the Brill editors, and especially the edi... more for their help with proofreading. In addition, we thank the Brill editors, and especially the editors of the Digital Biblical Studies series, Claire Clivaz and David Hamidović, who patiently supported us in this wonderful project. Finally, the co-editors, Vanessa Bigot Juloux, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and Alessandro di Ludovico, sincerely thank the authors for their close collaboration and for having agreed to join us in this adventure toward the advancement of the humanities for both educational and scientific purposes. More than anything else, this project would never have been successful without the strong support of our families (including Vanessa's numerous cats and dogs), friends, and peers, of whom we are deeply appreciative.
The understanding that fine mesh sieving is the optimal procedure for the recovery of minute find... more The understanding that fine mesh sieving is the optimal procedure for the recovery of minute finds poses two challenges for archeologists of historical periods: it is costly and time consuming, and it puts into question the value of data collected in excavations where sieving was conducted minimally or not at all. That hand picking causes loss of data pertaining to microfaunal remains is indisputable, but the extent of information loss regarding larger fauna is not as clear. In order to evaluate these challenges for macrofaunal remains, we carried out, for the first time, a comprehensive sieving experiment at Tel Dor, a multi-layered complex site, the most prominent site type in historical periods. We examine the effects of wet sieving on the macro-and microfauna frequencies, and discuss its implications in terms of the interpretations of the faunal assemblages and the choice of excavations' collection protocols. We demonstrate that while sieving has a substantial effect on microfauna frequencies, it has a limited effect on those of the macrofauna. We also suggest that faunal assemblages of livestock animals that were hand collected or partially sieved, are valid for comparison with sieved assemblages. Finally, we call for an explicit presentation of the retrieval protocol in site reports and other studies, differentiating clearly between sieved and un-sieved material, and raise some points for future discussion.
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2014
The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) is published biannually by the ... more The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) is published biannually by the American Schools of Oriental Research. The journal will consider for publication manuscripts consistent with the broad areas of research supported by the society. These include the art and archaeology, history, anthropology, literature, philology, and epigraphy of the Near East and eastern Mediterranean world from the Palaeolithic period through Islamic times. Manuscripts and books to be considered for review should be sent to the Editors. Manuscripts are subject to peer review by at least two outside readers as well as the Editors.
Abstract 1 Kings 4 relates that Dor, the major port-town on Israel's Carmel coast, constitute... more Abstract 1 Kings 4 relates that Dor, the major port-town on Israel's Carmel coast, constituted part of the Solomonic state. This formed the basis for several historical reconstructions. Here, for the first time, we examine all the relevant archaeological data available after three decades of excavations at Tel Dor. We conclude that indeed, archaeology supports a scenario whereby Dor passed from Phoenician to Israelite hands, but that this happened in the second half of the 9th century BC. This shift involved a significant change in the role of Dor and its harbour, exemplified by changes in urban layout, ceramic production, and in commercial and other interaction spheres.
The ability to perceive and produce symmetrical shapes is usually taken to be a major step in the... more The ability to perceive and produce symmetrical shapes is usually taken to be a major step in the development of human cognition. Despite the importance of the concept of symmetry to studies of early human development, its current use is usually based on loose qualitative assessment. A more informative approach would be to use a continuous scale of this shape property rather than the strict current language of ''more'' or ''less''. A symmetry measurement tool has been developed, which is based on evaluation of the minimal distances that the vertices of a structure have to move in order to attain the required symmetry. Using this Continuous Symmetry Measure (CSM) method, it is possible to evaluate quantitatively how much symmetry exists in a non-symmetrical configuration and how the nearest symmetrical shape looks. We test and demonstrate the feasibility and versatility of this approach on handaxe samples from three Lower Paleolithic sites in Israel, Ubeidiya, Gesher Benot Ya'aqov and Ma'ayan Barukh, representing various stages in the Acheulian Techno-complex of the Levant. We provide, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, quantitative demonstration that the overall symmetry of handaxes generally increases, and that the variability decreases over time.
... It is still unclear whether we have not yet 1 For a review of the first 12 seasons, see E. St... more ... It is still unclear whether we have not yet 1 For a review of the first 12 seasons, see E. Stern: Dor ? Ruler of the Seas, Jerusalem, 1994. For a preliminary report of the eleventh season, see E. Stern,Ayelet Gilboa and I. Sharon: Tel Dor, 1991: Preliminary Report, IEJ 42 (1992), pp. ...
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