Prehistoric Economy in the Mount Carmel Area of Palestine: Site Catchment Analysis

Abstract

This study is concerned with the exploitation of resources by human groups in the Carmel area over a period of about 50,000 years. To this end an attempt is made to evaluate the changing economic potential of the ‘catchments’ of individual sites, for this enables us to make a comparative analysis of hunting-gathering and agricultural economies. Although the study of prehistoric sites is now usually complemented by some treatment of their setting, the situation in their immediate vicinity—the principal concern of the inhabitants—tends to be neglected or at any rate overshadowed by generalized statements regarding the physiographic, vegetational, climatic or kindred zones of which they form a (not necessarily typical) part. The difficulty that is encountered by attempts to harmonize the findings of the various specialists who nowadays contribute to archaeological studies may, in fact, be due to the limitations of a zonal approach, for the populations or phenomena with which each of them is concerned do not necessarily refer to a single ‘catchment’ area and may have little connection with the picture of the exploited territory that is imprinted on the site record.