Bedrock features include a range of rock-hewn features, mainly cupmarks and mortars used primarily in food processing. The project focuses on tracking the evolution of these permanent archaeological features in the southern Levant and linking them to shifting trends in food processing activities.

Related publications:

Filin, S., Miller, V., Rosenberg, D., and Nadel, D. 2017. Intra- and inter-site geometrical high-resolution analyses of deep Natufian bedrock features. Quaternary International 439:94–107.

Liu, L., Wang, J., Rosenberg, D., Zhao, H., Lengyel G., and Nadel, D. 2018. Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel: Investigating Natufian ritual feasting. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 21:783–793.

Liu, L., Wang, J., Rosenberg, D., Zhao, H., Lengyel G. and Nadel, D. 2019. Response to comments on archaeological reconstruction of 13,000-y old Natufian beer making at Raqefet Cave, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 38:1–6.

Miller, V., Filin, S., Rosenberg, D., and Nadel, D. 2014. 3D Characterization of bedrock features: A Natufian case study. Near Eastern Archaeology 77(3):214–218.

Nadel, D. and Rosenberg, D. (eds.). 2017. Guest-editing of Quaternary International 439, special issue, titled: “Documentation, analysis and interpretation of bedrock features”.

Nadel, D. and Rosenberg, D. 2010. New insights into Late Natufian bedrock features (mortars and cupmarks). Journal of Eurasian Prehistory 7(1):65–87.

Nadel, D. and Rosenberg, D. 2015. (Early) bedrock features. In: Bescherer Metheny, K. and Beaudry, M.C. (eds.), Archaeology of Food – An Encyclopaedia, pp. 45–46. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Nadel, D. and Rosenberg, D. 2016. A grid-like incised pattern inside a Natufian bedrock mortar, Raqefet Cave, Israel. Journal of Lithic Studies 3(3):337–357.

Nadel, D., Filin, S., Rosenberg, D., and Miller, V. 2015. Prehistoric bedrock features: recent advances in 3D characterization and geometrical analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science 53:331–344.

Nadel, D., Rosenberg, D., and Yeshurun, R. 2009. The deep and the shallow: The role of Natufian bedrock features at Rosh Zin, Central Negev, Israel. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 355:1–29.

Rosenberg, D. and Nadel, D. 2011. Characterization and distribution of bedrock features at Ornit Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 41:37–69.

Rosenberg, D. and Nadel, D. 2011. On floor level: PPNA indoor cupmarks and their Natufian forerunners. In: Healy, E., Maeda, O., and Campbell, S. (eds.), The State of the Stone: Terminologies, Continuities and Contexts in Near Eastern Lithics: Proceedings of the 6^th PPN Conference, University of Manchester, Manchester (Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment 13), pp. 99–108. Berlin: Ex Oriente.

Rosenberg, D. and Nadel, D. 2017. "Down to bedrock" – A general perspective on bedrock features. Quaternary International 439:1–4.

Rosenberg, D. and Nadel, D. 2017. The significance of the morphometric and contextual variation in stone hewn mortars during the Natufian–PPNA transition in the southern Levant. Quaternary International 439:83–93.