Images Documenting Ethnoarchaeology in the Environs of Tell Halif, Israel

Overview:

These images represent the archive of Field Photographs related to the Lahav Research Project’s 1976-1979 investigations at the early 20th century CE site of Khirbet Khuweilifeh near Kibbutz Lahav in southern Israel. They supplement materials published in Lahav VII: Ethnoarchaeology in the Tell Halif Environs, Excavations in Site 1, Complex A, 1976-1979. This volume is the seventh in a series of final reports on research by the Lahav Research Project at Tell Halif and its environs.

The remains at Khirbet Khuweilifeh provide evidence of the lifeways of Bedouin and their village Arab clients in southern Palestine from ca. 1900 to 1946. The Khuweilifeh settlement was formed in a series of cave-complexes scattered out on the terrace running east from the foot of Tell Halif. Each was formed utilizing one or more caves fronted by a walled courtyard. Ten such complexes (identified as A-J) were surveyed and documented and the remains at Complex A were excavated and more thoroughly studied. This work revealed 5 phases of development and occupation prior to the site’s abandonment in 1946. Ethnographic inquiries among regional Bedouin and Arab villagers provided details about the nature of social and economic relations between the respective Khuweilifeh residents including information about the family that had occupied the Complex A dwelling.

All photographs were taken by Patricia O’Connor-Seger.