Research from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and three other Israeli universities will enable archaeologists to identify burnt materials discovered in excavations and estimate their firing temperatures. The new technique can determine whether a certain item, such as a mud brick, underwent a firing event even at relatively low temperatures, from 200°C (about 400°F) and higher…. Read More
A new study from the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University (TAU) has found that the extinction of large prey, upon which human nutrition had been based, compelled prehistoric humans to develop improved weapons for hunting small prey, driving evolutionary adaptations. The study reviews the evolution of hunting weapons from… Read More
A close analysis of the remains of a carp-like fish found at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov archaeological site in Israel shows that the fish were cooked roughly 780,000 years ago, a collaborative study that included Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers says. Until now, the earliest evidence of cooking dated to approximately 170,000 years ago. The… Read More
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