How smart were the hominids who inhabited our planet 1.5 millions years ago? Did the Phoenicians destroy the Mediterranean port of Dor? Until recently, you wouldn’t have expected Weizmann Institute research to throw light on such questions, but today’s Institute scientists are involved in a number of archaeological studies, including several conducted in an unlikely venue - a physics lab.

Prehistoric axes and pieces of ancient pottery began to appear in Weizmann’s physics building about three years ago, after Prof. Uzy Smilansky celebrated his 60^th birthday by taking his family to work at an archaeological dig in Ein Gedi. Smilansky, of the Physics of Complex Systems Department, had been fascinated by archaeology ever since he volunteered at the excavation of Massada in the 1960s during his army service. Returning to this lifelong interest, he set out to develop an objective, computerized method for analyzing large amounts of archaeological data.

One area of archaeology where computers might prove invaluable is the study of pottery - which provides a wealth of information about past civilizations, helping to date excavated layers, reveal social customs and trace trade relations. Sorting and classifying pottery finds is, however, an overwhelming task. Excavations generally churn up thousands of pieces of broken clay pots. Moreover, the use of artists to hand-draw the pottery shards potentially introduces a bias. Smilansky attacked these problems together with two archaeologists, Drs. Ayelet Gilboa of the University of Haifa and Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and graduate student Avshalom Karasik, who has a joint bachelor’s degree in archaeology and mathematics.

To produce objective digital images of pottery pieces, the scientists used a profilograph, a device that traces the outline of an object and transmits it to a computer. Next, they analyzed the resulting images using a mathematical algorithm that sorts the objects according to their curvature.

Initial results have proven promising. One of the studies examined findings from Dor - today a popular beach north of Tel Aviv, but in the distant past a bustling Mediterranean port and commercial hub.

Dor was excavated for two decades under the direction of Hebrew University’s Prof. Ephraim Stern and is now being explored under the guidance of Gilboa and Sharon. The digging had revealed layers belonging to the 12^th and 11^th centuries BCE, separated by a thick layer of debris.

Archaeologists assumed that the debris signaled a sweeping change in population: The Phoenicians, who conquered Dor from the Sea People in the 11^th century BCE, had apparently wrought widespread destruction. However, a computer analysis revealed that the pottery had undergone a continuous evolutionary change during the 12^th and 11^th centuries BCE, thus putting into question the effect of the Phoenician conquest on the local population. “Obviously, you can’t draw sweeping conclusions from this finding, but it does support the notion of cultural continuity. At the very least, the art of pottery continued to be passed on from father to son,” says Gilboa.

Another study offers a look into the brain power of our prehistoric ancestors by examining early Stone Age handaxes, found in abundance in Israel. The ones studied by the scientists were apparently left behind about 1.5 million years ago by Homo erectus migrating from Africa to Asia and Europe.

Smilansky, Karasik and Sharon, working with postdoctoral fellow and prehistorian Dr. Idit Saragusti, found that at three of the sites studied, the axes showed enhanced symmetry and smoothness over time - a finding that suggests the evolution of cognitive skills, since the ability to generate symmetry requires a certain degree of sophistication.

Since word of the new method got out, Smilansky has been approached by archaeologists in Israel and abroad and is currently involved in half a dozen collaborative projects. If the method’s popularity continues to grow, archaeological exhibits are likely to become a routine fixture in the Institute’s physics building.

This research was supported by a Bikura Grant from the Israel Science Foundation and by the Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Archaeological Sciences at the Weizmann Institute. Prof. Smilansky’s research is supported by the J & R Center for Scientific Research and the Minerva Center for Nonlinear Physics of Complex Systems. He is the incumbent of the Professor Wolfgang Gentner Professorial Chair of Nuclear Physics.

When a stone tablet containing a 15-line inscription apparently written by a Biblical king of Israel in the 9th century B.C.E turned up in the hands of an Israeli collector, it seemed a priceless treasure. An initial team of experts studying the "Jehoash tablet" declared it to be authentic. They based their conclusions on, among other things, radiocarbon dating conducted in a laboratory in Florida.

If one could imagine the history of humanity as an ascending staircase, then each step would be of a different material, reflecting the life of those living at that brief moment in time. From the Stone Age, to the Bronze Age, to the age of silicon and the birth of computers, and finally, to today's era of complex materials. This is how Dr. Sariel Shalev of Haifa University sees materials - as a mirror of culture.

Retracing life in the distant past calls for a highly scientific approach stresses Shalev, whose training includes bachelor's and master's degrees in Biblical archeology and a Ph.D. in archeological material sciences. 'Take early metals, for instance, which represent ancient hi-tech. Astute examination of early metal findings could tease out a world of information. Israel has many findings that are catalogued according to material, site, or estimated era. But most have not been analyzed for further key information. It's no more than a historic or intuitive assumption, for instance, to decide that a pot found in an archeological dig was used for cooking unless we perform a lipid analysis.' (Lipids are a diverse group of organic compounds that, among other functions, make up the cell walls of living organisms.) 'And the same goes for a metal dagger. How can one determine whether it was used for butchering or to cut vegetables? Maybe for both?

Holding an archeological finding, Shalev, currently working at the Weizmann Institute's Scientific Archeology Center headed by Prof. Steve Weiner, tells its history. It started out as a raw mineral, but after being artificially exposed to some form of thermal activity changed into a different substance with new mechanical and thermal properties. Despite its eye-catching shine this rock may have lain around for centuries - prior to the Chalcolithic period (4500-3500 B.C.) people had no clue that some rocks, rich in copper or arsenic, for instance, could be transformed into metal. But once this knowledge had been uncovered, it was widely used to craft metal objects. After several years of use this particular object was lost or buried, and since then it has interacted with its environment for thousands of years, during which it gradually corroded, changing back to a mineral state.

'By understanding the abilities and knowledge (chemical, physical, etc.) needed in tool-making, one can reconstruct essential parts of social and economic systems,' says Shalev. 'Metal findings, for example, offer a window to the social and cultural changes occurring in Israel during the transition from the fourth to the third millenium B.C., when urbanization began.'

At times however, solid scientific data can spoil quite a good story, Shalev admits. The British museum has a sword on display, known as the 'Philistine Sword,' which is more than a meter long. Found at an excavation site near today's Beit Dagan, it was long considered the only example ever found of a weapon produced by the legendary 'sea people,' who occupied Israel's southern coastal region toward the end of the second millenium B.C. Whoever wanted to demonstrate what David had to face in his epic fight against Goliath would make reference to this sword.

However, in his research, Shalev found that during the early Iron Age, when the Philistines lived in the region, all the copper based metals contained a certain amount of tin, ranging from small impurities to a deliberate addition of up to 13 percent. 'This is the era's reference stamp all over the ancient Near East,' says Shalev. 'But in analyzing the sword, we found that in addition to copper, it contained 5% arsenic and not tin - a practice belonging to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, more than one thousand years before the Philistines.' This finding also correlates with the sword's shape, which is very similar to swords and daggers from the intermediate period between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and proves that the sword has nothing to do with Goliath of the Philistines.

Shalev is currently focusing his attention on developing new archeological research tools, including a project with Dr. Oded Haver of the Institute's Particle Physics Department. The project targets the use of a particle accelerator, used today to study a range of questions at the forefront of physics research, to tap into the pulse of ancient societies still hidden in untold archeological findings.