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 (3700-3000 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.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
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. Zohar's 1992 hypothesis of dolmens and nomadism in the EB IV; 2.8. Prag's 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
