Projectiles from Yemen? A unique discovery of geometric microliths in a mortuary site of the mid-first millennium BCE in the Negev Highlands, Israel

Abstract

The following paper describes a unique assemblage of geometric microliths uncovered inside a newly discovered mortuary complex dated to the Iron Age IIB-C and early Achaemenid Persian periods (seventh to fifth centuries BCE) in the Negev Highlands of southern Israel. The complex contained dozens of interments together with incense burners and alabaster incense containers, mortars and pestles brought from Southern Arabia. The deceased, many of whom were young women, were buried with copper and silver jewelry and a variety of trinkets such as beads, pendants, earrings, bone rings, shells, scarabs, and amulets from Egypt, the Red Sea region, Southern Arabia, and the Mediterranean basin. We suggest that the microliths described here were either imports from the southern Arabian Peninsula or, based on other finds from the site, were fabricated in the Negev by a foreigner who originated from that region and were probably a burial offering for one of the deceased.