title: The Earliest Lead Object in the Levant.
abstract: In the deepest section of a large complex cave in the northern Negev desert, Israel, a bi-conical lead object was found logged onto a wooden shaft. Associated material remains and radiocarbon dating of the shaft place the object within the Late Chalcolithic period, at the late 5th millennium BCE. Based on chemical and lead isotope analysis, we show that this unique object was made of almost pure metallic lead, likely smelted from lead ores originating in the Taurus range in Anatolia. Either the finished object, or the raw material, was brought to the southern Levant, adding another major component to the already-rich Late Chalcolithic metallurgical corpus known to-date. The paper also discusses possible uses of the object, suggesting that it may have been used as a spindle whorl, at least towards its deposition.
authors.affiliation: The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.|Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Naama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yahalom-Mack
authors.affiliation: The Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments, The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, Israel.
authors.forename: Dafna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Langgut
authors.affiliation: The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Omri
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dvir
authors.affiliation: The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Ofir
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tirosh
authors.affiliation: The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Adi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eliyahu-Behar
authors.affiliation: The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Yigal
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Erel
authors.affiliation: Israel Cave Research Center, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Boaz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Langford
authors.affiliation: Israel Cave Research Center, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Amos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frumkin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel.|Israel Cave Research Center, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ullman
authors.affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel.|Israel Cave Research Center, Department of Geography, The Hebrew University, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel.|McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3ER, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Uri
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Davidovich
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D004777:Environment; D005580:Fossils; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007854:Lead / Q000266:history*; D008669:Metallurgy / Q000266:history*; D055110:Radiometric Dating
chemical_list: D007854:Lead