Location and Environment

Ramat Saharonim is located in the eastern half of

the Makhtesh Ramon, a large erosional cirque

(35x7 km) located in the southern Negev

Highlands. The region is a rocky desert,

receiving roughly 75 mm of rainfall per year,

and characterized by sparse Saharo-Arabian

vegetation. Paleoclimatic sequences reconstructed

especially from Dead Sea levels, snail shell

isotope data, and cave travertine isotopes

indicate that during the Late Neolithic, the period

the shrine system was constructed, climatic was

similar or perhaps even slightly more arid than

today.

Culturally the area has been the exclusive realm

of pastoral nomadic societies, from the Azazmeh

Bedouin in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and

extending back to classical period nomads,

including the Nabateans, and earlier groups,

from the Bronze and Iron Ages, to the Neolithic

and Chalcolithic periods. It lies adjacent to the

Nabatean Spice route leading from Petra to Gaza.

Although intensive run-off irrigation farming was p

racticed in desert areas somewhat farther north, in

the Irano-Turanian zone, this region remained

unexploited agriculturally.

Ramat Saharonim Shrine 1

Secondary Structure

Introduction

As with the transition from hunting-gathering to farming, the rise of peripheral pastoralism entailed far-reaching

transformations in the basic cultural matrix of desert societies. This shift from hunting animals to herding them, this

essential transformation to a society based on ownership of basic means of subsistence, and the consequent need to preserve

those means, must incorporate profound concomitants in virtually every realm of society. Archaeologically it should come as

no surprise that the earliest evidence for elaborate shrines reflecting public ritual and mortuary cult in the southern Levantine

deserts, in the Late Neolithic ca. 5500-5000 BC, coincides with the infiltration and adoption of herd animals – sheep and

goat – replacing hunting as a primary subsistence base.

Survey and excavation at the desert shrine complex at Ramat Saharonim, in the Makhtesh Ramon (Crater) in the Central

Negev, provide insights into the rise of these early pastoral societies, and their associated symbol systems. Preliminary

indications suggest a chronological range from the late Neolithic through the Early Bronze Age, indeed coinciding with the

evolution of the earliest desert pastoral nomadic societies in the region.

Long Wall Long Wall Short Axis

Magnetic N True N True N

Shrine 1 32O

34 O

306 O

Shrine 2 32O

34 O

306 O

Shrine 3 30 O

32 O

304 O

Shrine 4 23 O

25 O

295 O

Setting sun

Summer Solstice 298 O

Shrine 3 with shadow on

solstice

Alignments

Alignments of the shrines were determined by both landscape features, most

notably a large black volcanic mountain in the distance and two small hills on

either side of the line of sight with it, and to accord generally with the setting

sun of the summer solstice, with azimuth deviations from only 2 degrees to 8

degrees. Calculations of the azimuth of the setting sun of the summer solstice

5000 BC show a shift of less than one degree, significantly less than the

variability between the shrines themselves. In the absence of a ‘gun-sight’

style alignment, as for example as Stonehenge, the imprecision in alignment

can be adjusted by small shifts along the back edge of the shrine.

t is possible to roughly compute the probability of the coincidence of the

alignment of the shrine and the summer solstice sunset azimuth as follows:

Assuming a poor precision of measurement of 5 degrees (higher precision

implies even less likelihood of coincidence), then the probability of the shrine f

alling into the 5 degree interval of 195-300 degrees is 360 (degrees in a circle)

divided by 5 (degree interval) = 1/72.

The angular variation of the setting sun over the course of the year varies from

298-242 degrees, a range of 56 degrees. If this is also divided by our 5 degree

interval of precision, then the range is divided into 11.09 intervals (of 5

degrees each). Thus the solstice interval of 293-298 degrees only occurs with

a frequency of 1:11.09.

Thus the chances of the shrine alignment coinciding with the solstice is (1/11.09)

x (1/72) = 1/798.48= 0.00125, statistically very unlikely. There can be little

doubt as to the intent of these alignments.

Radiocarbon Chronology

Sample Type 14C Age ± 1s Calibrated Context δ13C

Years BP Age BC

RTT 4663 charcoal 6180 +/- 40 BC 5210-5050 (68.2%); Shrine 4 Sq. 422F -24.6

BC 5280-4990 (95.4%)

RTT 4664 leather 2225 +/- 35 BC 380-200 (68.2%); Tum. 29, later burial -20.4

BC 390-200 (95.4%)

RTT 4665 charcoal 5945 +/- 45 BC 4910-4730 (68.2%); Shrine 4 Sq. 432E (-23)

BC 4940-4710 (95.4%) hearth

Sample Depth

(m)

K

(%)

U

(ppm)

Th

(ppm)

ext.

Ext.

γ

C o s . D e ( G y ) N o . o f

d i s c s

D o s e r a t e Age

Tumulus 28

RS-8 0.8 0.71 3.3 4.6 1025 747 190 11.61.0 9 181964 6,500700

RS-9 0.8 0.66 3.4 4.7 1006 751 190 14.01.5 10 196028 7,500700

Tumulus 29

RS-10 0.7 0.57 2.5 5.4 845 663 196 3.50.35 11 171426 2,000200

RS-11 0.7 0.56 2.3 5.3 810 634 196 3.00.27 12 165026 1,800180

Sample No. of

grains

De (Gy)

Main peak

Dose rate Age (ka)

RS-5 9/42 5.40.7 121876 4.80.8

RS-1 12/30 4.71.4 112266 4.21.3

RS-6 23/34 6.12.6 99323 6.12.6

RS-3 27/36 5.42.4 107123 5.02.2

RS-2 32/73 8.22.6 127324 6.42.1

RS-4 30/40 5.71.5 98060 5.81.6

Optical Stimulated

Luminescence Dates

Before Present