Papers by Zachary Dunseth
Journal of Field Archaeology, 2025
The introduction of sheep to the U.S. Southwest in A.D. 1598 and their embrace by non-colonized D... more The introduction of sheep to the U.S. Southwest in A.D. 1598 and their embrace by non-colonized Diné (Navajo) communities over the next 150 years represents a unique cultural shift in Indigenous North America whose effects can still be seen today. Because the early history of this process remains poorly understood, the Early Navajo Pastoral Landscape Project (ENPLP) was developed to explore incipient pastoralism's role in early Diné society. This paper reports a minimally invasive methodology for identifying Gobernador Phase (ca. A.D. 1625-1760) Navajo sheepherding sites in northwestern New Mexico through the identification of calcitic dung spherulites in archaeological soil samples associated with likely corral/pen enclosures. Dung spherulite-focused approaches have been successfully employed at dozens of sites worldwide, and the results of the ENPLP Phase 3 analyses suggest that this approach does work in the early Navajo context, although there are a series of potential limiting factors.
BASOR, 2023
This article provides the final assessment of a large-scale optically stimulated luminescence (OS... more This article provides the final assessment of a large-scale optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating project of water installations in the arid Negev Highlands, southern Israel. Results from five open reservoirs and five rock-cut cisterns are reported. By sampling spoil piles, feeding channels, and accumulation of sediments within reservoirs and cisterns, their construction and phases of maintenance and abandonment are dated. Conventional wisdom argued for progress from simpler open reservoirs in the Bronze or Iron Ages to the more sophisticated rock-cut cisterns of the Nabatean-Byzantine periods. It is shown that open reservoirs were dug throughout the history of the region, likely from the Early or Intermediate Bronze Ages until the medieval period, including periods with no stone-built remains in the region. The construction of subterranean cisterns, which calls for more resources and skill, characterize the Late Roman/Byzantine to Early Islamic period. The significance of these results for reconstructing the history of human activity in the region is also discussed.
Frontiers in Plant Science, 2023
The olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is one of the most important crop... more The olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is one of the most important crops across the Mediterranean, particularly the southern Levant. Its regional economic importance dates at least to the Early Bronze Age (~3600 BCE) and its cultivation contributed significantly to the culture and heritage of ancient civilizations in the region. In the southern Levant, pollen, pits and wood remains of wild olives (O. europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris) has been found in Middle Pleistocene sediments dating to approximately 780 kya, and are present in numerous palynological sequences throughout the Pleistocene and into the Holocene. Archeological evidence indicates the olive oil production from at least the Pottery Neolithic to Chalcolithic transition (~7600-7000 BP), and clear evidence for cultivation by, 7000 BP. It is hypothesized that olive cultivation began through the selection of local genotypes of the wild var. sylvestris. Local populations of naturally growing trees today have thus been considered wild relatives of the olive. However, millennia of cultivation raises questions about whether genuine populations of var. sylvestris remain in the region. Ancient olive landraces might thus represent an ancient genetic stock closer to the ancestor gene pool. This review summarizes the evidence supporting the theory that olives were first cultivated in the southern Levant and reviews our genetic work characterizing local ancient cultivars. The significance and importance of old cultivars and wild populations are discussed, given the immediate need to adapt agricultural practices and crops to environmental degradation and global climate change.
T&T Clark Handbook of Food in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel, 2022
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2021
The Negev Highlands (Israel) are characterized by a rich settlement history over the last millenn... more The Negev Highlands (Israel) are characterized by a rich settlement history over the last millennia. To sustain life in this arid environment, measures to collect and store water were introduced. Two types of installations to collect and store runoff water were built in the region: open reservoirs, and more elaborate subterranean rock-cut cisterns. This article focuses on the latter. Based on a few inscriptions found in rock-cut cisterns, it is assumed that the majority were constructed in the Hellenistic (Nabatean) to Byzantine period. To evaluate this age assessment, this study was carried out at the Borot Hazaz cisterns system, using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating together with micromorphological analyses. Both were applied to sediments that were relocated during the cistern's construction and usage and after the maintenance activities ended. Despite unfavourable conditions for resetting the OSL signal, including fluvial transport over short distances and sediment deposition by humans in large quantities, it was possible to reconstruct the life cycle of the cistern system. The present study places the construction of the system during the late Roman to Byzantine period, with utilization and longterm maintenance during the following centuries. Maintenance ceased at the Borot Hazaz cistern system gradually over the course of the last 500 years.
In this article we report the results of the second season of excavations at Kiriath-jearim (Deir... more In this article we report the results of the second season of excavations at Kiriath-jearim (Deir el->Azar). The following topics are emphasized: layout and date of the supposed monumental Iron IIB summit compound; nature of the Iron IIC settlement; date of the Hellenistic fortification; characteristics of the Early Roman period activity. An archaeo-historical analysis follows the presentation of the new data, including updates on past interpretations.
PLOS ONE, 2020
Sustainable resource management is of central importance among agrarian societies in marginal dry... more Sustainable resource management is of central importance among agrarian societies in marginal drylands. In the Negev Desert, Israel, research on agropastoral resource management during Late Antiquity emphasizes intramural settlement contexts and landscape features. The importance of hinterland trash deposits as diachronic archives of resource use and disposal has been overlooked until recently. Without these data, assessments of community scale responses to societal, economic, and environmental disruption and reconfigu-ration remain incomplete. In this study, micro-geoarchaeological investigations were conducted on trash mound features at the Byzantine-Early Islamic sites of Shivta, Elusa, and Nesanna to track spatiotemporal trends in the use and disposal of critical agropastoral resources. Refuse derived sediment deposits were characterized using stratigraphy, micro-remains (i.e., livestock dung spherulites, wood ash pseudomorphs, and plant phytoliths), and mineralogy by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Our investigations detected a turning point in the management of herbivore livestock dung, a vital resource in the Negev. We propose that the scarcity of raw dung proxies in the studied deposits relates to the use of this resource as fuel and agricultural fertilizer. Refuse deposits contained dung ash, indicating the widespread use of dung as a sustainable fuel. Sharply contrasting this, raw dung was dumped and incinerated outside the village of Nessana. We discuss how this local shift in dung management corresponds with a growing emphasis on sedentised herding spurred by newly pressed taxation and declining market-oriented agriculture. Our work is among the first to deal with the role of waste management and its significance to economic strategies and urban development during the late Roman Imperial Period and Late Antiquity. The findings contribute to highlighting top-down societal and economic pressures, rather than PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2019
This article presents a systematic methodological comparison of three archaeobotanical proxies (p... more This article presents a systematic methodological comparison of three archaeobotanical proxies (phytoliths, pollen and seeds) applied to an assemblage of dung pellets and corresponding archaeological refuse deposits from Early Islamic contexts at the site of Shivta. We set out with three main methodological questions: one, to evaluate the relative input of botanical remains from dung in refuse assemblages ; two, to evaluate each archaeobotanical dataset and to test whether they are comparable, complementary or contradictory in their interpretations from dung; and three, infer herding practices at the site during the Early Islamic period. Our findings show that ovicaprine dung accumulated in Early Islamic Shivta during at least two periods: mid-7themid-8th centuries CE, and late-8th - mid-10th centuries CE. Methodologically, we see incomplete and incompatible reconstructions arise when each method is considered alone, with each proxy possessing its own advantages and limitations. Specifically, the amount of preserved seeds in dung pellets is low, which restricts statistical analysis and tends to emphasize small or hard-coated seeds and vegetation fruiting season; yet this method has the highest taxonomic power; pollen preserves only in uncharred pellets, emphasizes the flowering season and has an intermediate taxonomic value; phytoliths have the lowest taxonomic value yet complete the picture of livestock feeding habits by identifying leaf and stem remains, some from domestic cereals, which went unnoticed in both seed and pollen analyses. The combined archaeobotanical reconstruction from samples of the mid-7th -mid-8th centuries suggests that springtime herding at Shivta was based on free-grazing of wild vegetation, supplemented by chaff and/or hay from domestic cereals. For the late-8th - mid-10th century samples, phytolith and pollen reconstruction indicates autumn-winter free-grazing with no evidence of foddering. Unlike the dung pellets, macrobotanical remains in the refuse deposits included domestic as well as wild taxa, the former mainly food plants that serve for human consumption. Plant remains in these refuse deposits originate primarily from domestic trash and are only partially composed of dung remains. The significance of this study is not only in its general methodological contribution to archaeobotany, but also to lasting discussions regarding the contribution of dung remains to archaeological deposits used for seed, pollen and phytolith analyses. We offer here a strong method for determining whether deposits derive from dung alone, are mixed, or absolutely do not contain dung. This has important ramifications for archaeological interpretation.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2018
This study presents new macro- and microarchaeological data on the subsistence economy of Early B... more This study presents new macro- and microarchaeological data on the subsistence economy of Early Bronze (c. 3500–2500 BCE) and Intermediate Bronze Age (c. 2500–1950 BCE) settlements in the arid Negev Highlands in southern Israel. The data originates from two sites: Nahal Boqer 66, a small Early Bronze/Intermediate Bronze site, and Ein Ziq, the largest central Intermediate Bronze Age settlement in the region. At Nahal Boqer 66 we identified ceramic evidence for mainly domestic cooking activities, clear microarchaeological evidence for spatial division of human activity and penning livestock, and no macro- or microarchaeological evidence for cereal agriculture. At Ein Ziq, the ceramic assemblage suggests a strong connection to trade networks and spatial division of activity, while the microarchaeological data shows no indication of direct food production—neither herding nor agriculture—and no trace of copper processing activities, previously considered an important supplemental subsistence strategy at many Negev Intermediate Bronze Age sites. We interpret the small Negev sites, such as Nahal Boqer 66, as representing the indigenous pastoral population, and the central sites as trading posts on the way to the coastal plain and Egypt. We explain the Early Bronze and Intermediate Bronze Age settlement patterns in the Negev Highlands on the background of contemporary geo-political transformations in the Levant and Egypt.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2018
Animal dung is increasingly a valuable resource for reconstructing ancient activity in archaeolog... more Animal dung is increasingly a valuable resource for reconstructing ancient activity in archaeology. One of the most common archaeological indicators of dung in caves and arid environments are calcitic dung spherulites that form in the digestive system of a variety of animals. Although many aspects of their formation and taphon-omy are understood, details of their mineralogy remain poorly-defined. Using the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) grinding curve method, we report here that archaeological sediments containing large amounts of dung spherulites can be differentiated from sediments composed of other forms of geogenic and pyrogenic calcites. We propose that this attribute can be used to rapidly identify well-preserved degraded dung deposits at archaeological sites with routine laboratory or on-site field FTIR analysis. This observation at a 5000-year-old open air site suggests that the grinding curve method also has potential to be used for assessing preservation of dung spherulites for future radiocarbon or stable isotope investigations.
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Papers by Zachary Dunseth