Jacob Kaplan’s Excavations of Protohistoric Sites, 1950s-1980s

Customers in Israel buy here.

Kaplan played an important role in shaping the archaeological sequence of the late prehistory of Israel, especially due to his discovery and description in the early 1950s of the Wadi Rabah culture—a major entity in the late Pottery Neolithic period. On a broader scale, Kaplan incorporated the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in Israel into the sequences of the late prehistory of the Levant and touched on the question of the end of the Neolithic period—one of the most intensive, creative, and transformative eras in human history. His views on some of the basic chronological and cultural issues of these periods endure to this very day.

This two-volume collection accords Kaplan the full recognition he deserves as an original, leading investigator of the late prehistory of Israel.

Avi Gopher is Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University.

Ram Gophna is Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University.

Ruth Eyal is a research assistant at Tel Aviv University.

Yitzhak Paz is a senior researcher at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Volume I

“Preface” Avi Gopher

Part I: Jacob Kaplan’s Archaeological Legacy

1. “Introduction” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

2. “Kaplan and the Wadi Rabah Culture: The Discovery and Search for its Sources” Ram Gophna

Part II: Pottery Neolithic Sites

3. “Kaplan’s Three Seasons of Excavation at Ha-Bashan Street, Tel Aviv (1950–1951)” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

4.1. “The Ritter-Kaplan Excavation at Ha-Bashan (Bodenheimer) Street, Tel Aviv (1979)” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

4.2 “The Archaeozoological Finds from Ha-Bashan Street, Tel Aviv (1979)” Moshe Sade

5. “Kaplan’s Excavations at Lod (1951-1952)” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

6.1 “The Yarmukian and Lodian/Jericho IX Excavations of the Pottery Neolithic Period at Tel Lod: Layer VI of Area C, Neve Yaraq” Eli Yannai

Appendix A: List of Loci, Area C

Appendix B: Area C: Count of Neolitic Sherds by Loci and Baskets

6.2 “The Flint Tool Assemblage from Strata VII-V of Area C at Tel Lod (Neve Yaraq)” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

7. “Kaplan’s Excavation at Wadi Rabah (1952)” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

8. “Kaplan’s Excavations at Teluliyot Batasḥi (1955)” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

Appendix: Faunal Remains from Teluliyot Batashi” Moshe Sade

Volume II

9. “Looking North—Kaplan’s Excavations at Kefar Gil>Adi (1957 and 1962)” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

“Appendix A: Assemblages by Excavated Squares” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

“Appendix B: Archaeozoological Finds from Kefar Gil>Adi” Moshe Sade

10. “Renewed Excavations at >Ein Ruweihina (>En Hashomer)—Near Kaplan’s Excavation (2003)” Ofer Marder, Dmitry Yegorov, and Howard Smithline

11.1. “Hamadiya in the Central Jordan Valley: A Yarmukian Potter Neolothic Site (1964)” Yosef Gafinkel, Talia Goldman, Danny Rosenberg, Anna Eirikh-Rose, and Zinovi Matskevich

11.2. “Pottery Neolitich (Yarmukian) Faunal Remains from Hamadiya” Liora Kolska Horowitz

Appendix: Faunal Measurements (in mm)

12. “Kaplan’s Excavation at >Ein El-Jarba (1966)” Katharina Streit, Rinat Favis, and Yosef Garfinkel

Part III: Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Sites

13. “Excavations at Slaughterhouse Hill (Giv>At Beit Ha-Mitbahaim), Tel Aviv (1950, 1952) and Nordau Boulevard, Tel Aviv (1950)” Ram Gophna, Yitzhak Paz, and Jacob Kaplan (with a contribution by Eliot Braun)

“Appendix A: A Note on the Lithics of Slaughterhouse Hill” Avi Gopher

“Appendix B: The Archaeozoological Finds from Slaughterhouse Hill” Moshe Sade

14. “Jacotinsky Street (Jamassin) Excavations, Tel Aviv (1950–1951)” Jacob Kaplan, Ram Gophna, and Yitzhak Paz

“Appendix A: The Lithic Assemblage from Jacotinsky Street (Jamassin)” Avi Gopher

15. “The Early Bronze Age Remains from Ha-Bashan Street, Tel Aviv (1950–1951)” Ram Gophna and Yitzhak Paz

16. “Excavations at Rishpon 4, Tel Aviv (1978–1990)” Ram Gophna and Yitzhak Paz

“Appendix: The Lithic Assemblage of Rishpon 4” Avi Gopher

17. “Early Bronze Age Remains at Teluliyot Batashi (1955): Ram Gophna and Yitzhak Paz

18. “Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Groundstone Tool Assemblages from Kaplan’s Excavations in Tel Aviv” Danny Rosenberg

19. “Summary: Chalcolithic Sites in the Vicinity of Tel Aviv and the Settlement System in the Western Ayalon Basin” Ram Gophna and Yitzhak Paz

20. “Summary: Early Bronze Settlement in the Western Yarqon-Ayalon Basins” Yitzhak Paz and Ram Gophna

Part IV: Overview

21. “Discussion and Summary of J. Kaplan’s and H. Ritter-Kaplan’s Pottery Neolithic Excavations” Avi Gopher and Ruth Eyal

“Epilogue” Avi Gopher

Appendix to Chapter 3: Hafirot B’Rehov Ha-Bashan, Tel Aviv