The submerged Pre-Pottery Neolithic water well of Atlit-Yam, northern Israel, and its palaeoenvironmental implications

Abstract

The recent discovery of a vertical open shaft, identified as a well of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, was found in a large submerged village off the Atlit promontory, northern Israel. This well indicates that the exploitation of groundwater through wells commenced at the beginning of the eighth millennium BP or possibly earlier. The well lies some 10 m below present sea level, a few hundred metres off the Carmel coast. It is almost 1.5 m in diameter, and some 5.7 m in depth, which proves that the top of the well has been around 5 m above the contemporaneous sea level, i.e., that sea level of the Carmel coast was some 16 m below present sea level at c. 7900 BP. Its fill provides evidence of the surrounding fauna and flora, and the material culture of coastal Neolithic communities. The prevailing hydrological conditions provide important information on ancient sea levels at the end of the post-last- glaciation transgression. Rates of sea-level rise at the period of the village occupation is estimated to be in the order of 15-20 mm yr-1, which is a high figure.