When Western explorers first encountered dolmens in the Levant, they thought they had discovered the origins of a megalithic phenomenon that spread as far as the Atlantic coast. Although European dolmens are now considered an unrelated tradition, many researchers continue to approach dolmens in the Levant as part of a trans-regional phenomenon that spanned the Taurus mountains to the Arabian peninsula.
By tightly defining the term 'dolmen' itself, this book brings these mysterious monuments into sharper focus. Drawing on historical, archaeological and geological sources, it is shown that dolmens in the Levant mostly concentrate in the eastern escarpment of the Jordan Rift Valley, and in the Galilean hills. They cluster near proto-urban settlements of the Early Bronze I period (37003000 BCE) in particular geological zones suitable for the extraction of megalithic slabs. Rather than approaching dolmens as a regional phenomenon, this book considers dolmens as part of a local burial tradition whose tomb forms varied depending on geological constraints.
Dolmens in the Levant
is essential for anyone interested in the rise of civilisations in the ancient Middle East, and particularly those who have wondered at the origins of these enigmatic burial monuments that dominate the landscape.
Acknowledgements; List of Illustrations; Abbreviations; Part I The
typology, chronology and distribution of dolmens in the Levant;
1.
Approaching dolmens in the Levant; 1.1. Reappraising dolmens as a megalithic
phenomenon; 1.2. Terminology and function; 1.3. Chronology; 1.4.
Distribution; 1.5. Dolmens in the Wadi ar-Rayyan;
2. Megalithism, nomadism
and the dolmen problem: a history of dolmen research in the Levant; 2.1.
19th-century travellers and explorers; 2.2. Diffusionism and the apostles of
the megalithic faith; 2.3. Dolmens in the biblical texts; 2.4. Challenging
diffusionism and a megalithic Kulturkreis; 2.5. New approaches in the 1960s
and dating dolmens to the EB I; 2.6. Dolmens, nomad hypotheses and dating
dolmens to the EB IV; 2.7. Zohars 1992 hypothesis of dolmens and nomadism in
the EB IV; 2.8. Prags 1995 hypothesis of dolmens and nomadism in the EB I;
2.9. Recent developments; 2.10. Conclusion;
3. Untangling dolmen typologies
and chronologies in the Levant; 3.1 Typologies; 3.2 Chronologies; 3.3
Discussion;
4. The dolmen phenomenon in Israel/Palestine and the northern
Levant; 4.1. Israel/Palestine and the destruction hypothesis; 4.2. Syria,
Lebanon and south-eastern Turkey; 4.3. Approaching the dolmen phenomenon in
the Levant;
5. Dolmens, geology and the EB settlement landscape in Jordan;
5.1. The relationship between dolmens and EB I settlement sites; 5.2. Dolmens
and geology; 5.3. The limitations of the data; 5.4. The south Jordan Valley,
the eastern escarpment and the Madaba Plains; 5.5. The Wadi az-Zerqa; 5.6.
Northern Jordan between the Wadi Kufrinja and the Wadi Yarmouk; 5.7. Dolmen
distribution beyond the Irbid-Madaba zone; 5.8. Discussion;
6. Dolmens,
geology and the EB settlement landscape in the Galilee, the Golan and the
Leja; 6.1. The Golan; 6.2. The Raqqad-Allane plateau; 6.3. The Leja; 6.4 The
Hauran; 6.5. The Huleh Valley; 6.6. The Korazim plateau; 6.7. The Upper
Galilee and southern Lebanon; 6.8. Discussion; Part II Dolmens i
James A. Fraser was awarded his PhD at the University of Sydney, Australia, for his thesis on Levantine dolmens in 2016. He served as Project Curator for the Ancient Levant at the British Museum 20152017, and is now Senior Curator of the Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney. He has worked on archaeological projects in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kashmir, Greece, Cambodia, Australia and the Solomon Islands. He currently directs the Khirbet Ghozlan Excavation Project, investigating the production of olive oil in Jordan around 2000 BCE.
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