Of Stones and Social Complexity – The Shamir Dolmen Field and the Intermediate Bronze Age

By Uri Berger and Gonen Sharon

Dolmens - megalithic stone tombs - are among the earliest archaeological features documented in the Levant, first reported in 1817. In 1850 the French researcher De Saulcy first used the term "dolmen" to describe the megaliths at Adeimeh in Jordan. During the 1880s, C.R. Conder of the Palestine Exploration Fund laid the foundation for dolmen studies, mapping, describing, and drawing dozens of them from Syria, the Jordan Valley, the Upper Galilee, and the Golan Heights. Yet 200 years later dolmens remain among the less understood archaeological phenomena in the Levant. The precise definition of dolmens is under debate, as well as their use, significance, and geographical distribution. Above all, the precise chronology of the dolmens has yet to be established.

In recent years dolmen studies have been advanced primarily by researchers east of the Dead Sea Rift Valley. In addition, the growing number of dolmens excavated during construction and development in Israel has led to better understanding of these megaliths in the Galilee and Golan. More than 5600 megalithic structures were documented during the archaeological survey of the Golan, most of which are dolmens. Dolmens are so numerous that the term dolmen field had to be abandoned, as no margins could be observed separating the massive concentrations covering the central and south Golan. Much more awaits discovery.

Levantine dolmens are large structures, dominating the landscape, and many were either robbed or reused after their initial construction. The combination of this heavily disturbed history and poor preservation has resulted in the absence of reliable datable material from most excavated dolmens. Not a single radiocarbon date has been obtained. Levantine dolmens have been assigned chronologically to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (based on the absence of ceramics), the Chalcolithic, all stages of the Bronze Age, and to later periods.

Recent research suggests that east of the Jordan Rift Valley and south of the Yarmuk River dolmen burial was a common practice during the Early Bronze Age I (mid-4^th millennium BCE). This supports the suggestion that the dolmens of the Golan and Galilee should be distinguished from those east of the Jordan Rift Valley. The Golan dolmens differ from the southern dolmens in the type of rock used for construction (basalt vs. limestone and sandstone), in size (typically much larger), in their design (typically passage tombs covered by an earthen tumulus), building technology (unworked stones), and in their chronology. It seems that the Golan and Galilee dolmens find their cultural roots in the north, in the megalithic traditions of Syria and Anatolia. In all of the many dolmens excavated and surveyed in the Golan and its escarpments, the earliest material unearthed clearly belongs to the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA, ca. 2500-2000 BCE).

Structure and size. Dolmen 3 is the largest recorded in the Shamir Dolmen Field and one of the largest ever reported from the Levant. Its surrounding tumulus is 20 meters in diameter and the capstone covering the main chamber is estimated to weigh 50 tons. Tumuli of the same scale are reported from other parts of the Golan. The main chamber of Dolmen 3 is 3 by 2 meters in size, and the ceiling height is 1.6 meters. The size of the tumulus, the capstone, and the main chamber make Dolmen 3 exceptional.

Dolmen 3 is also unique in that it is a multi-chamber dolmen. Built into the giant tumulus are four additional, smaller chambers incorporated either during its initial construction or later. This is the first reported multi-chamber dolmen in the Levant.

Excavation of Chamber 3a exposed numerous poorly preserved human remains. The bones were concentrated in two sections of the excavated surface and included least three individuals, a young child and two adults, possibly a male and a female. Many ceramic sherds were found in the burial context, all dated to the IBA. 

Chronology. All finds to date from the Shamir Dolmen Field support dating to the IBA and Dolmen 3 is no exception. In Dolmen 3, numerous ceramic sherds were uncovered in the immediate context of the human bones, probably the remains of grave goods offered at burial. All of the sherds found in Dolmen 3 fall within the ‘north family’ defined for the Levantine IBA pottery. Dating the actual burials and its association with the building of the dolmen is less secure due to the presence of colorful beads of different sizes and shapes collected during the sieving of the sediments, as well as small metal pieces, possibly the remains of a fibula pin. Some of the beads can only be assigned to later periods suggesting they are later intrusions. Nevertheless, the overwhelming evidence suggests that the actual construction of Dolmen 3 is well-dated to the IBA.