An Intermediate Bronze Age Bead Assemblage from a Burial Cave at Givʿat Reḥelim (Tell es-Safa) in Northern Israel

Givʿat Reḥelim (Tell es-Safa) is located on the outskirts of Kibbutz Ayyelet HaShaḥar, in the southern part of the Hula Valley, in the northern part of modern-day Israel. About 50 caves were surveyed on the hill, including several intact burial caves dating to the Intermediate Bronze Age. A small excavation in one of the caves exposed a rich funerary assemblage, including dozens of beads made of carnelian, faience, red coral, and stone. Some of these materials are non-endemic to the southern Levant, and some of the beads were made using technologies that are foreign to the region; these facts indicate trade contacts with distant manufacturing centers. Determining their locations will shed more light on the complex international trade systems of the Intermediate Bronze Age (2500–2000 b.c.e.) in the Levant.