The Upper Jordan River Prehistory Web Site
The goals of this web site are to present the current data about the key archaeological sites of the Hula Valley and, in particular, the prehistoric sites located on the banks of the Upper Jordan River on its outflow south of the Hula Valley.
The site will house a digital database for the Upper Jordan River prehistoric sites, making this data available for researchers and students in open access format.
This web site is supported by an Israel Science Foundation Grant number 819 /17 – Epipaleolithic cultural sequence, chronology and subsistence in the Hula Basin granted to Prof. Gonen Sharon.
Gonen Sharon is an associate professor at Tel-Hai College and the curator of the Upper Galilee Museum of Prehistory at Kibbutz Ma’ayan Barukh. Since 1995, as a staff member of the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (GBY) excavation, Prof. Sharon has gained 25 years of archaeological experience focused on the world-famous prehistoric sites on the banks of the Upper Jordan River. His Ph.D. dissertation compared the large flake bifacial tools of GBY to Acheulian assemblages worldwide, defining a new stage in the Acheulian technocomplex – the Large Flake Acheulian. Prof. Sharon discovered, excavated eight seasons, and directed the multidisciplinary project at the Middle Paleolithic site of Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet (NMO), a unique open-air, short-term and task specific hunting locality. Currently, Prof. Sharon directs the Epipaleolithic site Jorden River Dureijat (JRD) excavation project, leading a large team of researchers studying the uniquely preserved archaeological remains and environmental proxies unearthed at JRD.
Prof. Sharon earned his academic degrees at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 2010, he has been teaching at Tel-Hai College in the Hula Valley (the northernmost academic institute in Israel) where he established the Tel-Hai Prehistory Laboratory. At the Tel-Hai lab, the prehistory of the Hula Valley is studied in the Hula Valley by local and international researchers and students. He, himself, lives on Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan, a 10-minute drive from the Upper Jordan River sites.
