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The discovery of an Early Upper Palaeolithic rockshelter, Nahal Rahaf 2, in the southern Judean Desert revives the debate about whether the Levantine Aurignacian extended into the arid regions of the Southern Levant.

Abstract The Hula Valley, a gateway from Syria and Lebanon to the southern Levant, was dominated in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages by the city-state of Hazor. Following the desolation of the latter in the 13th century BCE, it seems that Abel Beth Maacah became the leading polity in the region, showing a remarkable sequence of Iron Age I architecture. We examine this regional power shift using a zooarchaeological sequence from Abel Beth Maacah, which suggests the economic impact of pastoral nomads on the region during the Middle Bronze Age, and a reversion to traditional, extensive agro-pastoralism in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages.

The recent discovery of a Late/Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B burial of an adult and two children associated with fox bones at the site of Motza, Israel, demonstrates the broader socio-cultural perspective, and possibly continued animistic world views, of Neolithic foragers at the onset of the agricultural revolution.