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‘Atiqot 53 (2006)
ISBN 2948-040X
A Chalcolithic Burial Cave at Et-Taiyiba
(pp. 1–44)
Eli Yannai and Yosef Porath
Keywords: Sharon, cemetery, Chalcolithic culture, art
The cave, hewn in soft limestone, is of an irregular oval shape, with high margins that served as benches. A minimum of 38 ossuaries were found in the cave, some open and box-shaped, others closed and house-shaped; ossuary jars and kraters were also found. The ossuaries were decorated with plastic ornamentation, depicting pegs, noses, eyes and rope decoration, as well as painted ornamentation in various patterns, e.g., triangles, lines and arches. Funerary goods included only pottery vessels characteristic of the Chalcolithic period: V-shaped bowls, cornets, amphoriskoi, fenestrated pedestal bowls and cylindrical stands. It seems that the people buried in the cave inhabited one of the Chalcolithic settlements on the soft-limestone hills on the eastern margins of the Sharon.