Yiftahel is an archaeological site located in the Lower Galilee in northern Israel. Various salvage excavations took place here between 1992 and 2008. The best known periods of occupation are the Early Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 I and Pre-Pottery Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 B.

In the Early Bronze Age village ca. 20 oval and rounded structures were uncovered. This is regarded as the most typical village of its period in the southern Levant

Levant

The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

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The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village is characterized by rectangular architecture and plastered floors of burnt limestone. One of the most important processes underway during the Neolithic period was the shift from a hunter-gatherer economy to early agriculture. The finds from Yiftahel shed light on the domestication of both animals and plants. Yiftahel produced over 1,000,000 lentils, an enormous quantity, clearly indicating controlled cultivation. The most important agricultural finding here, however, is the earliest appearance of domesticated horsebean seeds.