An interdisciplinary project, focusing on the Middle Chalcolithic site of Tel Tsaf in the Jordan Valley, Israel, and the link between the establishment of complex societies in the near east, diet, technological innovation, and long-distance trade relations.

See the Tel Tsaf Excavations website [https://teltsaf.haifa.ac.il/index.php?lang=en] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064768296495]

Related publications:

Chasan, R., Klimscha, F., Spiteri, C., and Rosenberg, D. 2022. Foodways of an agro-pastoral community: organic residue analysis of pottery and stone vessels at the Middle Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf. Journal of Archaeological Science – Reports 43:103491.

Chasan, R., Spiteri, C., and Rosenberg, D. 2022. Dietary continuation in the southern Levant: A Neolithic-Chalcolithic perspective through organic residue analysis. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14:49.

Klimscha, F. and Rosenberg, D. 2019. The pace of progress: Technical innovations in the prehistory of the Dead Sea region and the Jordan Valley. In: Peilstöcker, M. and Wolfram, S. (eds.), Life at the Dead Sea: Proceedings of the International Conference held at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz (smac), February 21–24, 2018, Chemnitz (Ägypten und Altes Testament 96), pp. 173–187. Münster: Zaphon.

Liu, L., Levin. M., Klimscha, F., and Rosenberg, D. 2022. The earliest cotton fibers and Pan-regional contacts in the Near East. Frontiers in Plant Sciences 13:1045554.

Rosenberg, D., Elkayam, Y., Garfinkel, Y., Klimscha, F., Vučković, V., and Weiss, Y. 2022. Long-distance trade in the Middle Chalcolithic of the southern Levant: The case of the olivine beads from Tel Tsaf, Jordan Valley, Israel. PLoS ONE 17(8):e0271547.

Rosenberg, D., Garfinkel, Y., and Klimscha, F. 2017. Large scale storage and storage symbolism in the ancient Near East: A clay silo model from Tel Tsaf. Antiquity 91(358):885–900.

Rosenberg, D., Klimscha, F. 2018. Prehistoric dining at Tel Tsaf. Biblical Archaeological Review 44(4):54–55.

Rosenberg, D., Ktalav, I., Groman-Yaroslvski, I., and Klimscha, F. 2022. Unique Theodoxus jordani shell beads from the Middle Chalcolithic site of Tel Tsaf (ca. 5200–4700 cal BC), Jordan Valley, Israel. Archaeological Research in Asia 29:1–9.

Rosenberg, D., Levine, M.; Klimscha, F., Shalem, D. and Liu, L. 2021. From hangovers to hierarchies: Beer production and use during the Chalcolithic period of the southern Levant – New evidence from Tel Tsaf and Peqi‘in Cave. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 64:1­–17.

Rosenberg, D., Love, S., Hubbard, E., and Klimscha, F. 2020. 7,200 years old constructions and mudbrick technology: The evidence from Tel Tsaf, Jordan Valley, Israel. PLoS ONE 15(1):e0227288.

Rosenberg, D., Pinsky, S., Hruby, K., and Klimscha, F. 2023. Tel Tsaf, a Middle Chalcolithic site in the Jordan Valley: An interim report on the 2013–2022 excavation seasons. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 53. (Pending review)

Rosenberg, D., Rizzuto, B., Klimscha, F., and Carter, T. 2022. The obsidian beads from Middle Chalcolithic Tel Tsaf (ca. 5,200–4,700 cal. BC), Jordan Valley, Israel: Technology, provenance, and socio‑economic significance. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14:113.

Shooval, T. and Rosenberg, D. 2021. A new look at the Tel Tsaf pottery: The pottery of Room C70 as a test case. In: Covallo-Paran, K., Erlich, A., and Beeri, R. (eds.), New discoveries in the Archaeology of northern Israel. Proceedings of the University of Haifa–IAA annual meeting in Haifa – 2019, 11–30. Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem.

Shooval, T. and Rosenberg, D. 2021. What can one room tell us? The pottery assemblage of Room C70 in Building CI at Tel Tsaf, Middle Jordan Valley, Israel. In: Özbal, R. Erdalkıran, M., and Tonoike, Y. (eds.), Neolithic Pottery from the Near East: Production, Distribution and Use. Proceedings of the 2019 Third International Workshop (Antalya, Turkey), pp. 283–303. Istanbul: Koç University AKMED Publications.