Defining multiple inhabitations of a cave environment using interdisciplinary archaeometry: the ‘Christmas Cave’ of the Wadi en-Nar/Nahal Qidron, west of the Dead Sea

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dc.contributor.authorRasmussen, Kaare Lund
dc.contributor.authorvan der Plicht, Johannes
dc.contributor.authorDegano, Ilaria
dc.contributor.authorModugno, Francesca
dc.contributor.authorColombini, Maria Perla
dc.contributor.authorde la Fuente, Guillermo
dc.contributor.authorDelbey, Thomas
dc.contributor.authorFrumkin, Amos
dc.contributor.authorDavidovich, Uri
dc.contributor.authorPorat, Roi
dc.contributor.authorShamir, Orit
dc.contributor.authorSukenik, Naama
dc.contributor.authorDoudna, Greg
dc.contributor.authorTaylor, Joan
dc.contributor.authorPopović, Mladen
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-22T10:37:48Z
dc.date.available2022-02-22T10:37:48Z
dc.date.issued2022-02-05
dc.description.abstractThe present study reports a series of interdisciplinary archaeometrical analyses of objects found in the Christmas Cave, which was discovered by John Allegro and his team in 1960 on the West Bank of the Dead Sea and assumed to be inhabited only in the Chalcolithic era and by Jewish refugees of the second century CE, at the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Like many other Judaean desert caves, there was an abundance of organic material, especially textiles, surviving in the dry environment. In the absence of clear stratigraphy and even a proper publication of the finds, the present study shows how archaeometry can provide important insights. We analysed food crusts on ceramics by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GC–MS), made petrographic descriptions to estimated provenance of the ceramics, produced new radiocarbon dates from organic material and thermoluminescence (TL) dates from the pottery. It appears from the data that the Christmas Cave has been briefly inhabited or visited intermittently over a very long time, starting ca. 4000 BCE (the Chalcolithic period), and extending all the way to the Medieval period, even though there is also a concentration of dates near the period of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE). We argue, through a detailed analysis of the radiometric and TL-datings and by the artefactual evidence, that there was likely another refuge episode connected with the First Jewish Revolt during which people fled to this cave. However, we see no material connection to Qumran and nearby caves. Overall, our study demonstrates the importance of archaeometric studies in cave environments where stratigraphy is veritably absent.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationRasmussen KL, van der Plicht J, Degano I, et al., (2022) Defining multiple inhabitations of a cave environment using interdisciplinary archaeometry: the ‘Christmas Cave’ of the Wadi en-Nar/Nahal Qidron, west of the Dead Sea, Heritage Science, Volume 10, Issue 1, February 2022, Article number 18en_UK
dc.identifier.issn2050-7445
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-022-00652-2
dc.identifier.urihttp://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/17593
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherSpringeren_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.subjectChristmas Caveen_UK
dc.subjectJudean Deserten_UK
dc.subjectBar Kokhba Revolten_UK
dc.subjectRadiocarbon datingen_UK
dc.subjectTL-datingen_UK
dc.subjectCeramic analysesen_UK
dc.subjectOrganic residue analysesen_UK
dc.subjectTextilesen_UK
dc.titleDefining multiple inhabitations of a cave environment using interdisciplinary archaeometry: the ‘Christmas Cave’ of the Wadi en-Nar/Nahal Qidron, west of the Dead Seaen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

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