Chapter 5: Neolithic 3 Tell Turmus (Page 355-356)

Pre-History and Archaeology Glossary

Excerpts and Definitions and Addendums

Tell Turmus is a small mound perhaps about 300 square metres in area on one of the tributaries of the Jordan a little to the east of Hagosherim. The site was occupied in two periods, during the Neolithic (strata 3 to 6) and again in the Chalcolithic (strata 1 and 2). Several stone walls, paved areas and floors were found in the Neolithic levels together with many potsherds and flint implements.

Both thick coarse wares and thinner-walled finer vessels were used in the Neolithic levels. The fabric of these pots was tempered with grits and some straw which was then fired to produce a range of surface colour from pink to brown or even black. The vessels were all of simple shapes such as hole-mouth jars or collared jars some of which had handles. A few were decorated with incised lines in herringbone patterns or loops filled with stab marks and some vessels were burnished. This pottery is somewhat like pottery from Kfar Giladi and Hagosherim while the incised patterns are like designs used at Byblos in Neolithique Ancien. Tell Turmus would thus appear to be another site at the headwaters of the Jordan occupied in Neolithic 3 ...

The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium