Safadi Overview

Frederic Guyot
This application is presented for the final publication of the excavations conducted from 1952 to 1960 by Jean Perrot at Abu Matar and Safadi, two early 4th millennium sites (“chalcolithic”) located near Beersheba, Israel.

Safadi and Abu Matar, excavated during ten years, have provided the main part of our knowledge concerning what is commonly designed as the “Beersheba Culture”. These sites, as well as Shiqmim, 20km west from Beersheba, have revealed settlements of an ancient agro-pastoral civilization in what is now the semi-arid northern Negev. The study of these settlements offers a good opportunity to reconsider the development of South Near East at the turn of the 4th millennium, from a technical, socio-economical, anthropological and cultural point of view.

Most of the archaeological material from Abu Matar and Safadi are either published (ceramics, copper and ivory objects) or studied and waiting for publication (lithic industry and stone objects). Meanwhile the architectural features have been only partially published although the subterranean dwellings represent one of the most peculiar aspects of the “Beersheba Culture”. Therefore, a final report is highly expected.

The project submitted here is to produce a precise study of the architecture from Safadi and Abu Matar. It intends to analyse the stratigraphic sequences of both sites and then the various ways the dwellings were built as well as the organization of the settlements. A comparative study between the dwellings from Abu Matar and Safadi will be made. Their results will be compared to the neighbouring sites of Shiqmim and K. el Bitar. The preparation of the publication will also require a treatment of the graphic documentation (redrawing of some of the plans, digitalization of the pictures, etc.). This work is to be accomplished under the direction of Jean Perrot who asks for its quick achievement as he will write the concluding synthetic chapter. The volume (ca. 300 pages), will be published by FATON Press in the Cahiers et Mémoires du Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem series, of which it ensures the current distribution.