Excavations at Wadi Fidan 4

The site of Wadi Fidan 4 can now be definitively dated as an extended village settlement of the Chalcolithic period. Excavation in Areas A, Band D as well as surface survey of the site indicate that the entire surface of the plateau was covered by buildings. At present no full botanical or faunal reports are available, and as a result little can be said about the subsistence economy. It is clear however from the metallurgical finds and mining picks found on the site, that this community was involved in the mining and smelting of copper. The extent of metal production is probably associated with small-scale domestic production ('household' or 'cottage industry'), as has also been attested on a number of other Chalcolithic sites such as Shiqmim (Levy et al. 1987), Tell Magass (Khalil 1988) and Tell Abu Matar (Perrot 1955). Contrary to later periods, ore was not smelted directly at the mine, but was transported and processed inside the domestic settlements. This seems to be characteristic for metallurgical practices of the Chalcolithic and beginning of the Early Bronze Age, and is paralleled by contemporary sites in Anatolia (Hauptmann and Weisgerber, forthcoming). Wadi Fidan 4 is the first site which is situated in a copper-producing area that shows indisputable evidence of Chalcolithic metallurgical activities.4 This site is not, however, an isolated settlement in the Fidan/Feinan region. Survey has revealed a concentration of Chalcolithic settlements in the Fidan/Feinan area (MacDonald 1992, 56 ff.), including a Chalcolithic cemetery directly opposite Wadi Fidan 4 on the north side of the Wadi Fidan (Adams (1991, 181), as well as a Chalcolithic phase at Tell Wadi Feinan (Najjar et at. 1990, 40). This is hardly surprising since recent work has attested extensive Chalcolithic mining activities in the area (Hauptmann, Weisgerber and Knauf 1985, 171ff.), marking it as one of the main sources for copper during the Chalcolithic period of the Southern Levant (Levy and Shalev 1989, 359; Shalev and Northover 1987, 357 and 362)

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bronze · Bronze Age · Chalcolithic · Copper · Copper mining · Excavation · Geography · Human settlement · Metallurgy · Settlement (finance · Smelting · Wadi · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts

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