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Abstract

The two burial sites are located in the Sharon plain, south and north of Naḥal Alexander. The kidney-shaped cave at Ma‘abarot was hewn in the kurkar sandstone. All the burials in the cave were secondary. Of the 63 burials identified, 42 were placed in three types of ceramic vessels—house-shaped ossuaries, chest-shaped ossuaries and large domestic kraters—and 21, in ‘bone heaps’. The finds consisted of pottery vessels typical of the Chalcolithic period, e.g., V-shaped bowls and fenestrated bowls and bottles, and a flake from a flint digging tool. At Tel Ifshar, two burial places were discovered, both damaged by infrastructure work. The finds included a chest-shaped ossuary, decorated in a red-painted net pattern, fragments of a house-shaped ossuary and a few sherds of a V-shaped and a fenestrated bowl. The two sites served the local communities living along the lower basin of Naḥal Alexander.

Keywords

Sharon plain, cemetery, ossuary production, technology, art

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