Miryam Bar‐matthew
Biographic Data
| ID | 85865 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Miryam Bar‐matthew |
| GIVEN NAMES | Miryam |
| FAMILY NAME | Bar‐matthew |
| SIGNATURE | MATTHEW M B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Geological Survey of Israel |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8373-5341 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 408 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
A new MIS 5 to MIS 2 speleothem record from Sandkraal Cave on the South African Cape south coast
We present new stable oxygen and carbon isotope composite records (δ 18 O, δ 13 C) of speleothems from Sandkraal Cave 1 (SK1) on the South African south coast for the time interval between 104 and 18 ka (with a hiatus between 48 and 41 ka). Statistical comparisons using kernel-based correlation analyses and semblance analyses based on continuous wavelet transforms inform the relationships of the new speleothem records to other proxies and their c…
Climatic and environmental conditions in the Western Galilee, during Late Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods, based on speleothems from Manot Cave, Israel
Late Pleistocene records of speleothem stable isotopic compositions from Pinnacle Point on the South African south coast
Highly resolved, well-dated paleoclimate records from the southern South African coast are needed to contextualize the evolution of the highly diverse extratropical plant communities of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) and to assess the environmental impacts on early human hunter-gatherers. We present new speleothem stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios (δ 18 O c and δ 13 C) from two caves at Pinnacle Point, South Africa, covering the t…
Before the massive modern human dispersal into Eurasia: A 55,000-year-old partial cranium from Manot Cave, Israel
The earliest modern humans outside Africa
Earliest modern humans out of Africa Recent paleoanthropological studies have suggested that modern humans migrated from Africa as early as the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, 120,000 years ago. Hershkovitz et al. now suggest that early modern humans were already present outside of Africa more than 55,000 years earlier (see the Perspective by Stringer and Galway-Witham). During excavations of sediments at Mount Carmel, Israel, they found a fos…
Evidence for a humid interval at ∼56-44 ka in the Levant and its potential link to modern humans dispersal out of Africa
Dust clouds, climate change and coins: Consiliences of palaeoclimate and economy in the Late Antique southern Levant
The climate factor has become a focus of much historical and archaeological investigation, encouraged recently by improvements in palaeoclimatic techniques and interest in global climate change. This article examines correlations between climate and history in the Byzantine southern Levant (c. 4th–7th centuries AD). A proposed 5th century economic downturn attested to by numismatic trends is shown to coincide with palaeoclimatic evidence for drou…
Cal BP: From Early Agriculture to Angkor
We take up the question of “why” cultivation was adopted by the end of the Younger Dryas by reviewing evidence in the Levant, a sub-region of southwestern Asia, from the Late Glacial Maximum through the first millennium of the Holocene. Based on the evidence, we argue that the demographic increase of foraging societies in the Levant at the Terminal Pleistocene formed the backdrop for the collapse of foraging adaptations, compelling several groups…
Ancient Environment and Human Interaction at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath
An archaeological site is an integral part of its surrounding landscape. This is one of the main novel approaches in the long-term archaeological project of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath. The site has interacted with its surrounding for more than three thousand years. It was impacted by the ancient environment, but also had an impact on both the ancient environment and current conditions. The following is a summary of environmental research that has been car…
Climatic changes and social transformations in the Near East and North Africa during the ‘long’ 4th millennium BC: A comparative study of environmental and archaeological evidence
This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in the Near East and surrounding regions (Anatolia, central Syria, southern Israel, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and eastern and central Sahara) during the ‘long’ 4th millennium (∼4500–3000) BC. Twenty terrestrial and 20 marine climate proxies are used to identify long-term trends in humidity involving transitions from humid to arid conditions and vice versa. The f…
Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans
A new research strategy for integrating studies of paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropologists (scientists studying human origins) universally recognize the evolutionary significance of ancient climates and environments for understanding human origins. Even those scientists working in recent phases of human evolution, when modern humans evolved, agree that hunter-gatherer adaptations are tied to the way that climate and environment shape the food and technological resource base. The result is a long tradition of paleoa…
Speleothem evidence for late Holocene climate variability and floods in Southern Greece
We present stable isotope data (δ 18 O, δ 13 C) from a detrital rich stalagmite from Kapsia Cave, the Peloponnese, Greece. The cave is rich in archeological remains and there are reasons to believe that flooding of the cave has directly affected humans using the cave. Using a combination of U–Th and 14 C dating to constrain a site-specific correction factor for ( 232 Th/ 238 U) detrital molar ratio, a linear age model was constructed. The age mod…
Using palaeo-environmental proxies to reconstruct natural and anthropogenic controls on sedimentation rates, Tell es-Safi/Gath, eastern Mediterranean
In-situ dating of ancient quarries and the source of flowstone (‘calcite-alabaster’) artifacts in the southern Levant
The 2010 and 2011 Seasons of Excavation at Raqefet Cave
DANI NADEL, AURORE LAMBERT, GABRIELLE BOSSET, FANNY BOCQUENTIN, DANNY ROSENBERG, REUVEN YESHURUN, LIOR WEISSBROD, ALEXANDER TSATSKIN, NOGA BACHRACH, MIRYAM BAR-MATTHEWS, AVNER AYALON, YOSSI ZAIDNER, RON BEERI, HARRIS GREENBERG, דני נדל, אורורה למברט, גבריאלה בוסט, פאני בוקונטין, דני רוזנברג, ראובן ישורון, ליאור ויסברוד, אלכסנדר טסטקין, נגה בצ'רץ, מרים בר-מתיוס, אבנר איילון, יוסי זיידנר, רון בארי, האריס גרינברג, עונות החפירה 2010-2011 במערת רקפת /…
Mid-Holocene climate variations revealed by high-resolution speleothem records from Soreq Cave, Israel and their correlation with cultural changes
Mid-Holocene (7000—4000 yr BP) paleoclimate conditions were reconstructed for the eastern Mediterranean region through a high-resolution (3—20 yr) oxygen and carbon isotopic record in a speleothem from Soreq Cave, Israel. Mid-Holocene climate change is characterized by sinusoidal cycles lasting ~1500 years, that represent changes of ~400 mm (between ~700 and ~300 mm) in annual rainfall, coincident with major cultural changes. Two major cultural c…
Archaeological horizons and fluvial processes at the Lower Paleolithic open-air site of Revadim (Israel)☆
Middle and Late Pleistocene paleoscape modeling along the southern coast of South Africa
A high resolution and continuous isotopic speleothem record of paleoclimate and paleoenvironment from 90 to 53 ka from Pinnacle Point on the south coast of South Africa
The chronology of the late Lower Paleolithic in the Levant based on U–Th ages of speleothems from Qesem Cave, Israel
The stratigraphy of the Middle Stone Age sediments at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Mossel Bay, Western Cape Province, South Africa)
Climate deterioration in the Eastern Mediterranean as revealed by ion microprobe analysis of a speleothem that grew from 2.2 to 0.9 ka in Soreq Cave, Israel
Analysis of oxygen isotope ratios (δ 18 O) by ion microprobe resolves a sub-annual climate record for the Eastern Mediterranean from a Soreq Cave stalagmite that grew between 2.2 and 0.9 ka. In contrast to conventional drill-sampling methods that yield a total variation of 1.0‰ in δ 18 O calcite values across our sample, the methods described here reveal up to 2.15‰ variation within single annual growth bands. Values of δ 18 O measured by ion mic…
Paleoenvironment of Jawa basalt plateau, Jordan, inferred from calcite speleothems from a lava tube
This paper explores the environmental conditions that faced the people of ancient Jawa during the Holocene, as well as previous prehistoric periods of the mid-late Pleistocene. Calcite speleothems in a lava tube are dated using the U-Th method, to marine oxygen isotope stage 7 from ∼ 250 to 240 ka and from ∼ 230 to ∼ 220 ka; and the stage 5/4 transition between ∼ 80 and 70 ka. The available evidence indicates general aridity of the Black Desert d…
Desert speleothems reveal climatic window for African exodus of early modern humans
One of the first movements of early modern humans out of Africa occurred 130-100 thousand years ago (ka), when they migrated northward to the Levant region. The climatic conditions that accompanied this migration are still under debate. Using high-precision multicollector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) U-Th methods, we dated carbonate cave deposits (speleothems) from the central and southern Negev Desert of Israel, locat…
Evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic: Site-formation processes at Qesem Cave, Israel
The stratigraphy of the Middle Stone Age sediments at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Mossel Bay, Western Cape Province, South Africa)
Mid-Holocene climate variations revealed by high-resolution speleothem records from Soreq Cave, Israel and their correlation with cultural changes
Mid-Holocene (7000—4000 yr BP) paleoclimate conditions were reconstructed for the eastern Mediterranean region through a high-resolution (3—20 yr) oxygen and carbon isotopic record in a speleothem from Soreq Cave, Israel. Mid-Holocene climate change is characterized by sinusoidal cycles lasting ~1500 years, that represent changes of ~400 mm (between ~700 and ~300 mm) in annual rainfall, coincident with major cultural changes. Two major cultural c…
Archaeological horizons and fluvial processes at the Lower Paleolithic open-air site of Revadim (Israel)☆
Climatic and environmental conditions in the Western Galilee, during Late Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods, based on speleothems from Manot Cave, Israel
In-situ dating of ancient quarries and the source of flowstone (‘calcite-alabaster’) artifacts in the southern Levant
Before the massive modern human dispersal into Eurasia: A 55,000-year-old partial cranium from Manot Cave, Israel
Evidence for a humid interval at ∼56-44 ka in the Levant and its potential link to modern humans dispersal out of Africa
Using palaeo-environmental proxies to reconstruct natural and anthropogenic controls on sedimentation rates, Tell es-Safi/Gath, eastern Mediterranean
Petrography, strontium, barium and uranium concentrations, and strontium and uranium isotope ratios in speleothems as palaeoclimatic proxies: Soreq Cave, Israel
The reconstruction of the palaeoclimate of the eastern Mediterranean region for the last 60 ka BP is based on theδ 18 O andδ 13 C variations of speleothems from Soreq Cave, Israel. Climatic conditions during most of the time interval between 60 and 17 ka BP (the period equivalent to the last glacial) were relatively cold and dry, while they were warmer and wetter from 17 ka BP to the present. At ~17 ka BP, there was a major climatic change with a…
Authenticity examination of the inscription on the ossuary attributed to James, brother of Jesus
Late Quaternary Paleoclimate in the Eastern Mediterranean Region from Stable Isotope Analysis of Speleothems at Soreq Cave, Israel
The eastern Mediterranean continental paleoclimate during the past 25,000 years was determined by a high-resolution petrographic, stable isotopic, and age study of speleothems from Soreq Cave, Israel. δ 18 O–δ 13 C trends indicate that all speleothems older than 7000 yr formed under conditions that differ from those of today. The period from 25,000 to 17,000 yr B.P. was characterized by the highest δ 18 O and δ 13 C values, which indicate deposit…
Petrography, strontium, barium and uranium concentrations, and strontium and uranium isotope ratios in speleothems as palaeoclimatic proxies: Soreq Cave, Israel
The reconstruction of the palaeoclimate of the eastern Mediterranean region for the last 60 ka BP is based on theδ 18 O andδ 13 C variations of speleothems from Soreq Cave, Israel. Climatic conditions during most of the time interval between 60 and 17 ka BP (the period equivalent to the last glacial) were relatively cold and dry, while they were warmer and wetter from 17 ka BP to the present. At ~17 ka BP, there was a major climatic change with a…
Paleoclimate reconstruction based on the timing of speleothem growth and oxygen and carbon isotope composition in a cave located in the rain shadow in Israel
High-resolution 230 Th/ 234 U ages and δ 18 O and δ 13 C compositions of speleothems in Ma’ale Efrayim Cave located to the east of the central mountain ridge of Israel enable us to examine the nature of the rain shadow aridity during glacial and interglacial intervals. Speleothem growth occurred during marine glacial isotopic periods, with no growth during the two last marine isotope interglacial intervals and during the peak of the Last Glacial …
Authenticity Examination of the Jehoash Inscription
A black stone tablet bearing an engraved Hebrew inscription in ancient Phoenician script has been attributed to the period of King Jehoash of Judah's repairs of the First Temple in Jerusalem. The results of a previous mineralogical and geochemical study suggested that the inscription could have been genuine, leading to the hypothesis that the tablet is a royal inscription that was placed in the Temple. However, a majority of philologists, palaeog…
Authenticity examination of the inscription on the ossuary attributed to James, brother of Jesus
Desert speleothems reveal climatic window for African exodus of early modern humans
One of the first movements of early modern humans out of Africa occurred 130-100 thousand years ago (ka), when they migrated northward to the Levant region. The climatic conditions that accompanied this migration are still under debate. Using high-precision multicollector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) U-Th methods, we dated carbonate cave deposits (speleothems) from the central and southern Negev Desert of Israel, locat…
Evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic: Site-formation processes at Qesem Cave, Israel
Paleoenvironment of Jawa basalt plateau, Jordan, inferred from calcite speleothems from a lava tube
This paper explores the environmental conditions that faced the people of ancient Jawa during the Holocene, as well as previous prehistoric periods of the mid-late Pleistocene. Calcite speleothems in a lava tube are dated using the U-Th method, to marine oxygen isotope stage 7 from ∼ 250 to 240 ka and from ∼ 230 to ∼ 220 ka; and the stage 5/4 transition between ∼ 80 and 70 ka. The available evidence indicates general aridity of the Black Desert d…
Climate deterioration in the Eastern Mediterranean as revealed by ion microprobe analysis of a speleothem that grew from 2.2 to 0.9 ka in Soreq Cave, Israel
Analysis of oxygen isotope ratios (δ 18 O) by ion microprobe resolves a sub-annual climate record for the Eastern Mediterranean from a Soreq Cave stalagmite that grew between 2.2 and 0.9 ka. In contrast to conventional drill-sampling methods that yield a total variation of 1.0‰ in δ 18 O calcite values across our sample, the methods described here reveal up to 2.15‰ variation within single annual growth bands. Values of δ 18 O measured by ion mic…
Middle and Late Pleistocene paleoscape modeling along the southern coast of South Africa
A high resolution and continuous isotopic speleothem record of paleoclimate and paleoenvironment from 90 to 53 ka from Pinnacle Point on the south coast of South Africa
The chronology of the late Lower Paleolithic in the Levant based on U–Th ages of speleothems from Qesem Cave, Israel
The stratigraphy of the Middle Stone Age sediments at Pinnacle Point Cave 13B (Mossel Bay, Western Cape Province, South Africa)
Mid-Holocene climate variations revealed by high-resolution speleothem records from Soreq Cave, Israel and their correlation with cultural changes
Mid-Holocene (7000—4000 yr BP) paleoclimate conditions were reconstructed for the eastern Mediterranean region through a high-resolution (3—20 yr) oxygen and carbon isotopic record in a speleothem from Soreq Cave, Israel. Mid-Holocene climate change is characterized by sinusoidal cycles lasting ~1500 years, that represent changes of ~400 mm (between ~700 and ~300 mm) in annual rainfall, coincident with major cultural changes. Two major cultural c…
Archaeological horizons and fluvial processes at the Lower Paleolithic open-air site of Revadim (Israel)☆
The 2010 and 2011 Seasons of Excavation at Raqefet Cave
DANI NADEL, AURORE LAMBERT, GABRIELLE BOSSET, FANNY BOCQUENTIN, DANNY ROSENBERG, REUVEN YESHURUN, LIOR WEISSBROD, ALEXANDER TSATSKIN, NOGA BACHRACH, MIRYAM BAR-MATTHEWS, AVNER AYALON, YOSSI ZAIDNER, RON BEERI, HARRIS GREENBERG, דני נדל, אורורה למברט, גבריאלה בוסט, פאני בוקונטין, דני רוזנברג, ראובן ישורון, ליאור ויסברוד, אלכסנדר טסטקין, נגה בצ'רץ, מרים בר-מתיוס, אבנר איילון, יוסי זיידנר, רון בארי, האריס גרינברג, עונות החפירה 2010-2011 במערת רקפת /…
In-situ dating of ancient quarries and the source of flowstone (‘calcite-alabaster’) artifacts in the southern Levant
Speleothem evidence for late Holocene climate variability and floods in Southern Greece
We present stable isotope data (δ 18 O, δ 13 C) from a detrital rich stalagmite from Kapsia Cave, the Peloponnese, Greece. The cave is rich in archeological remains and there are reasons to believe that flooding of the cave has directly affected humans using the cave. Using a combination of U–Th and 14 C dating to constrain a site-specific correction factor for ( 232 Th/ 238 U) detrital molar ratio, a linear age model was constructed. The age mod…
Using palaeo-environmental proxies to reconstruct natural and anthropogenic controls on sedimentation rates, Tell es-Safi/Gath, eastern Mediterranean
Levantine cranium from Manot Cave (Israel) foreshadows the first European modern humans
A new research strategy for integrating studies of paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropologists (scientists studying human origins) universally recognize the evolutionary significance of ancient climates and environments for understanding human origins. Even those scientists working in recent phases of human evolution, when modern humans evolved, agree that hunter-gatherer adaptations are tied to the way that climate and environment shape the food and technological resource base. The result is a long tradition of paleoa…
Climatic changes and social transformations in the Near East and North Africa during the ‘long’ 4th millennium BC: A comparative study of environmental and archaeological evidence
This paper explores the possible links between rapid climate change (RCC) and social change in the Near East and surrounding regions (Anatolia, central Syria, southern Israel, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and eastern and central Sahara) during the ‘long’ 4th millennium (∼4500–3000) BC. Twenty terrestrial and 20 marine climate proxies are used to identify long-term trends in humidity involving transitions from humid to arid conditions and vice versa. The f…
Dust clouds, climate change and coins: Consiliences of palaeoclimate and economy in the Late Antique southern Levant
The climate factor has become a focus of much historical and archaeological investigation, encouraged recently by improvements in palaeoclimatic techniques and interest in global climate change. This article examines correlations between climate and history in the Byzantine southern Levant (c. 4th–7th centuries AD). A proposed 5th century economic downturn attested to by numismatic trends is shown to coincide with palaeoclimatic evidence for drou…
Cal BP: From Early Agriculture to Angkor
We take up the question of “why” cultivation was adopted by the end of the Younger Dryas by reviewing evidence in the Levant, a sub-region of southwestern Asia, from the Late Glacial Maximum through the first millennium of the Holocene. Based on the evidence, we argue that the demographic increase of foraging societies in the Levant at the Terminal Pleistocene formed the backdrop for the collapse of foraging adaptations, compelling several groups…
Ancient Environment and Human Interaction at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath
An archaeological site is an integral part of its surrounding landscape. This is one of the main novel approaches in the long-term archaeological project of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath. The site has interacted with its surrounding for more than three thousand years. It was impacted by the ancient environment, but also had an impact on both the ancient environment and current conditions. The following is a summary of environmental research that has been car…
Archaeology (31 works) · Geography (25 works) · Cave (20 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (19 works) · Geology (19 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (19 works) · Paleontology (19 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (17 works) · Geology (13 works) · Physical geography (13 works)