The Algemeiner reports: JNS.org – A 7,200-year-old pottery vessel recently unearthed at the prehistoric site of Tel Tsaf in Israel’s Jordan Valley is the first evidence of the ritualistic and political significance of large-scale food storage in the ancient Near East, the University of Haifa reported on Wednesday.
Professor Danny Rosenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology heads the research project at Tel Tsaf along with Dr. Florian Klimscha of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. The site is notable for its preservation of architecture, organic materials and other types of material culture.
“Until now, discussions of the early transition to complex societies in this area have focused mainly on later periods and on the connection between the development of socioeconomic elites and the ability of certain individuals or families to store large quantities of food, beyond their own needs for survival,” Rosenberg explained.
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