A joint study by Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Hebrew University has accurately dated 21 destruction layers at 17 archaeological sites in Israel by reconstructing the direction and/or intensity of the earth’s magnetic field recorded in burnt remnants. The new data verify the biblical accounts of the Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns… Read More
Researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) has found that the ancient copper industry at Timna three millennia ago was not managed in a sustainable manner, with overexploitation of local vegetation eventually leading to the disappearance of both the plants and the industry. Copper production was not renewed in this region until about a thousand years… Read More
A new study by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University (TAU), and The Weizmann Institute of Science has revealed the earliest known evidence of the use of the hallucinogenic drug opium, and psychoactive drugs in general, in the world. The opium residue was found in ceramic vessels discovered at Tel Yehud, in an excavation… Read More
A joint study by researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Hebrew University has unraveled the earliest evidence for domestication of a fruit tree. The researchers analyzed remnants of charcoal from the Chalcolithic site of Tel Zaf in the Jordan Valley and determined that they came from olive trees. Since the olive did not… Read More
After examining flint tools from one layer at the 500,000-year-old prehistoric site of Revadim in the south of Israel’s Coastal Plain, Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers surmise that prehistoric humans were collectors by nature and culture. The study suggests that they had an emotional urge to collect old human-made artefacts, mostly as a means for… Read More
A groundbreaking study in prehistoric archaeology at Tel Aviv University (TAU) provides evidence for high cognitive abilities in early humans who lived 170,000 years ago. They discovered that the early humans who occupied the cave had placed their hearth at an optimal location, enabling maximum utilization of the fire for their activities and needs while… Read More
A new Tel Aviv University (TAU) study has determined that, thanks to advanced management methods and impressive technological creativity, the Arava Valley’s copper industry managed to thrive and become the largest and most advanced smelting center in the ancient world about three thousand years ago. The study was conducted by graduate student David Luria of… Read More
A groundbreaking study by researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) tracks the development of early humans’ hunting practices over the last 1.5 million years as reflected in the animals they hunted and consumed. The researchers claim that at any given time early humans preferred to hunt the largest animals available in their surroundings, which provided… Read More