Qa'aqir, Jebel
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QA˓AQIR, JEBEL (M.R. 145103). A mountain (Arabic, “Mountain of the Cairns”) situated on a ridge eight miles W of Hebron, near the modern village of Simiyeh, at an altitude of about 400 m. It is located just at the E edge of the Shephelah, where it borders upon the lower slopes of the central hills, in the inner reaches of the Wadi Lachish.
The one-period EB IV cemetery and settlement at Jebel Qa˓aqīr was discovered by tomb robbers in the summer of 1967 and thus came to the attention of archaeologists. It was excavated by W. G. Dever in 1967, 1968, and 1971, sponsored and funded by the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. The excavations revealed at least six different shaft-tomb cemeteries all around the base of the ridge near the valley floor. All belonged to the EB IV period, ca. 2300–2000 b.c., a largely nonsedentary interlude between the urban Early and Middle Bronze eras in Palestine. Cemetery B had been extensively robbed, but some 40 tombs were investigated and planned, and nearly 20 undisturbed tombs were excavated. Cemeteries C, D, E, and F produced another 20 tombs, but it is clear that dozens, probably hundreds, of others are present in the vicinity. The tombs were regularly laid out and spaced a few feet apart along several natural rock terraces down the slope, all oriented the same way. Typically, a round elliptical shaft, up to six feet deep, led to a round chamber, the doorway to which was blocked by a single large stone. Several tombs had shallow body shelves, lamp niches, graffiti, and other distinguishing features. Many tombs contained a single human burial; others two to four individuals. Most burials were accompanied by part of a sheep or goat carcass. In every case the burials were secondary, and the bones, even those of the animals, were disarticulated and completely disarrayed. The 47 adult and 2 children’s skeletons constitute an exceptionally large and well preserved sample for this period and reveal much about diet, disease, and longevity (Smith 1982). Although many tombs contained a pot or two and occasionally a copper weapon, more than half had no grave goods at all. The disproportionally large number of tombs, the decarnate bones, and the scant offerings all suggest that these are the remains of seminomadic pastoralists who migrated along a seasonal circuit and carried their dead with them for later burial at an ancestral burying ground (Dever 1980). The evidence from similar shaft tombs of numerous EB IV sites in Palestine points to the same conclusion. See JERICHO; DHAHR MIRZBÂNEH; BEER RESISIM.
Evidence of scattered domestic occupation on the nearly milelong S-shaped ridge above the cemeteries consisted only of a dozen or so enigmatic stone cairns (not burials); a rambling low boundary wall; a unique potter’s kiln; a single dolmen of the “table top” variety; and a half-dozen or more caves used as shelters. One cave, G26, produced a nearly complete domestic assemblage of some 30 restorable pots, flint blades, and ground-stone implements (Dever 1981). Another, G23, was apparently a pottery dump, which yielded fragments of nearly 1,800 vessels, none restorable (Gitin 1975). The vast domestic ceramic repertoire from Jebel Qa˓aqīr fills out our corpus of EB IV pottery, which was based until recently on the somewhat atypical assemblages from tombs. It helps not only to define further Dever’s “Family S”(= “Southern-sedentary”; 1980), but also gives us for the first time sufficient material on which to base an analysis of ceramic technology and decorative design (London 1985).
Bibliography
Dever, W. G. 1972. A Middle Bronze I Site on the West Bank of the Jordan. Arch 25: 231–33.
———. 1980. New Vistas on the EB IV (“MB I”) Horizon in Syria-Palestine. BASOR 237: 35–64.
———. 1981. Cave G 26 at Jebel Qa˓aqīr: A Stratified MB I Domestic Assemblage. EI 15: *22–*32.
Gitin, S. 1975. Middle Bronze I “Domestic Pottery” at Jebel Qa˓aqīr. A Ceramic Inventory of Cave G 23. EI 12: *46–*62.
London, G. 1985. Decoding Designs: The Late Third Millennium b.c. Pottery from Jebel Qa˓aqīr. Diss., Arizona.
Smith, P. 1982. The Physical Characteristics and Biological Affinities of the MB I Skeletal Remains from Jebel Qa˓aqīr. BASOR 245: 65–73.
William G. Dever
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (5:572). New York: Doubleday.
