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Fourth-millennium-BC ‘leopard traps’ from the Negev Desert (Israel)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Naomi Porat ,
Uzi Avner ,
Assaf Holzer ,
Rahamim Shemtov  and
Liora Kolska Horwitz
Naomi Porat
Affiliation:
1Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Israel Street, Jerusalem 95501, Israel (Email: naomi.porat@gsi.gov.il)
Uzi Avner
Affiliation:
2Arava Institute and the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, POB 3304, Eilat 88133, Israel
Assaf Holzer
Affiliation:
3Desert Studies Center, Kibbutz Samar, Hevel Eilot 88815, Israel
Rahamim Shemtov
Affiliation:
2Arava Institute and the Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, POB 3304, Eilat 88133, Israel
Liora Kolska Horwitz
Affiliation:
4National Natural History Collections, Faculty of Life Science, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
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Abstract

Stone-built installations known as ‘leopard traps’ are found throughout the deserts of the Middle East. They have generally been considered to be recent in date, and to have been built by Bedouin or other local communities to trap carnivores that threatened their flocks. But how much older might they be? Survey in the hyper-arid ‘Uvda Valley of the southern Negev Desert in Israel discovered 23 ‘leopard traps’, 19 of them clustered in a relatively small area. This study describes the architecture and function of these structures and presents the first optically stimulated luminescence ages for two of them. These results demonstrate that the traps are ancient and were already in use before the late fourth millennium BC, not long after the adoption of herding by the desert dwellers.

Keywords

IsraelNegev Desert‘Uvda Valleyleopard trapsArabian leopardOSL
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 337 , September 2013 , pp. 714 - 727
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

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