My Postdoctoral research deals with variations within the Ancient Egyptian language, and how these variations could be used to aid the understanding of Ancient Egypt. My current focus is on the study of variation in classification as part of the iClassifier project in the ArchaeoMind Lab.  The project mission is to create network mapping of the mind of ancient cultures (Egyptian, Sumerian, and ancient Chinese) according to the classifier systems of their scripts. Additionally, I do research in the field of hieroglyphic signs and sign-lists as part of the Thot Sign List and I have worked in Berkley in collaboration with Google on the upcoming hieroglyphic repertoire extension for Unicode.

Advisor: Prof. Orly Goldwasser

Research interests:

Middle Kingdom mortuary corpus of the Coffin Text, with forays into mortuary texts from other periods and temple inscriptions from the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt. Additionally, keen interest in digital humanities and how this can be used to further the field by employing methods from other disciplines.

Projects:

• The Thot Sign List. An open digital repertoire of hieroglyphic signs, Liege & Berlin, https://thotsignlist.org/

Identification and verification of Ptolemaic signs for Unicode proposal project, Berkely

Publications:

Jorke Grotenhuis, Mark-Jan Nederhof, Encoder les textes hiéroglyphiques; Encoding hieroglyphic texts, Guide des écritures de l'Egypte antique, IFAO; Handbook of Ancient Egyptian writing systems, IFAO, 2022 p. 180-181.

Stéphane Polis, Luc Desert, Peter Dils, Jorke Grotenhuis, Vincent Razanajao, Tonio Sebastian Richter, Serge Rosmorduc, Simon D. Schweitzer, Daniel A. Werning, Jean Winand, The Thot Sign List (TSL). An open digital repertoire of hieroglyphic signs, ENiM 14, 2021, p. 55-74.

Andrew Glass, Jorke Grotenhuis, Mark-Jan Nederhof, Stéphane Polis, Serge Rosmorduc, Daniel A. Werning, Additional control characters for Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, 2021, https://hdl.handle.net/2268/288563

Jorke Grotenhuis, Geographical verbal variation in Dendera: An exploratory study in verbal variation between east and west in offering texts from Graeco-Roman temples in Dendera, Lingua Aegyptia 27, 2019, p. 61-76.

Jorke Grotenhuis, Regional variation in the Coffin Texts, A study of sentence structure, verbal structure and graphical forms, unpublished PhD manuscript, 2021, http://hdl.handle.net/2268/256403

Jorke Grotenhuis, Visualisation of regional variation in the Coffin Texts: A case study of spell 75, ICYE 2019 proceedings, In Press.

Jorke Grotenhuis, Brilliant corruptions: scribal influence on transmission variation in the Coffin Texts. ZAeS, In Press.

Jorke Grotenhuis, First-person singular stative endings in the Coffin Texts: the case for regional conditioned variation, The Mortexvar Conference publication, In press.

Post-doctoral research fellow at the Computational Archaeology Laboratory

Research Project topic: Human population dynamics in the Middle Paleolithic Levant: A computer vision-based approach to mandibular analysis

Supervisor: Prof. Uzy Smilansky

In the framework of the current project, I am engaged with the development of a computer vision-based software for morphological analysis of hominin mandibles, with the aim of elucidating aspects of population dynamics in the Middle Paleolithic Levant. This computational tool will be based on analytical geometry principles to provide an objective, quantitative, and high-resolution morphological characterization of specific mandibular structures directly from 3D digital models. Among others, the tool will quantitatively express the symmetry, curvature, and topological aspects of anatomical regions such as the superior ramus area, dental arcade, and mental protuberance. Its application to fossil and modern samples of human mandibles will facilitate the association between specific patterns of morphological variability and different demographic, behavioral and taxonomic factors known to affect mandibular morphology. Applying the computational tool to specimens from the Middle Paleolithic Levant, commonly classified as either Neanderthals or anatomically modern humans (AMH), will provide a more reliable and precise characterization of their variability than is currently available from previous studies. Examination of the morphological variability in structures associated with different factors will allow to assess the degree to which it is associated with different taxonomies rather than differences in demographic or life-history factors.

Previous projects:

• Exploring Hominin Behavioral Patterns Through Time and Space: A Morpho-Techno-Functional Analysis of 3d Digital Models of Stone Handaxes
• Biface Morpho-Technological Variability at Gesher Benot-Ya‘aqov and its Significance to the Cultural, Social and Cognitive Evolution of Middle-Pleistocene Hominins in the Levant
• The Erq El-Ahmar paleontological site excavations
• Kaizer Hill PPNA quarry project

Recent publications:

• Zaidner, Y., Centi L., Prévost, M., Mercier, N., Falguères, C., Guérin, G., Valladas, H., Richard, M., Galy, A., Pécheyran, C., Tombret, O., Pons-Branchu, E., Porat, N., Shahack-Gross, R., Friesem, D.E., Yeshurun, R., Turgeman-Yaffe, Z., Frumkin, A., Herzlinger, G., Ekshtain, R., Shemer, M., Varoner, O., Sarig, R., May, H., Hershkovitz, I. 2021. Middle Pleistocene Homo behavior and culture at 140 - 120 ka suggest interactions with Homo sapiens. Science, 372: 1429-1433
• Hovers, E., Gossa, T., Asrat, A., Niespolo, E., Resom, A., Renne, P., Ekshtain, R., Herzlinger, G., Ketema, N., Martínez-Navarro, B. 2021. The expansion of the Acheulian to the Southeastern Ethiopian Highlands: Insights from the new early Pleistocene site-complex of Melka Wakena. Quaternary Science Reviews, 253: 106763
• Yahalom-Mack, N., Herzlinger, G., Bogdanovsky, A., Tirosh, O., Garfinkel, Y., Dugaw, S., Lipschits, O. 2020. Combining chemical and lead isotope analyses with 3-d geometric – morphometric shape analysis: A methodological case study of socketed bronze arrowheads from the Southern Levant. Journal of Archaeological Science, 118:105147
• Alperson-Afil, N., Goren-Inbar, N., Herzlinger, G., Wynn, T. 2020. Expert retrieval structures and prospective memory in the cognition of Acheulian hominins. Psychology, 11: 173-189.
• Novoselsky, I., Grosman, L., Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N. 2020. Limestone wedges: ad hoc quarrying tools of the Kaizer Hill quarry site. Lithic Technology, 45: 68-85.
• Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N. 2020. Beyond a cutting edge: a morpho-technological analysis of Acheulian handaxes and cleavers from Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 2: 1-26
• Rabinovich, R., Herzlinger, G., Calvo, R., Rivals. F., Mischke, S., Beiner, G. 2019. Erq el Ahmar Elephant Site – a mammoth skeleton at a rare and controversial Plio-Pleistocene site along the mammal migration route out of Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 221: 105885
• Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, 2019. Do a few tools necessarily mean a few people? A techno-morphological approach to the question of group size at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution, 128: 45-58
• Goren-Inbar, N., Aplerson-Afil, N., Sharon, G., Herzlinger, G. 2018. The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov volume IV: The lithic assemblages. Springer.
• Herzlinger, G., Grosman, L. 2018. AGMT3-D: A software for 3-D landmarks-based geometric morphometric shape analysis of archaeological artifacts. PLoS One, 13(11): e0207890

ArchaeoMind Lab, Manager and scientific coordinator. 

Projects:

• Researcher, Exploring the Minds of Ancient Egypt and Ancient China — A Comparative Network Analysis of the Classifier Systems of the Scripts,” ISF grant no.1704/22
•  Researcher, The Classification of Semitic Loanwords in Egyptian Script in New Kingdom Egypt;  ISF grant no. 735/17, 2017-2021

Publications:

• Harel, Haleli, Orly Goldwasser and Dmitry Nikolaev. 2022. ‘Mapping the ancient Egyptian mind: Introducing iClassifier, a new platform for systematic analysis of classifiers in Egyptian and beyond.’ In Ancient Egypt and New Technology: The Present and Future of Computer Visualization, Virtual Reality and other Digital Humanities in Egyptology. 29-30 March 2019 at Indiana University, Bloomington. Edited by J. A. Roberson, R. Lucarelli, and S. Vinson. Leiden: Brill.
• Harel, Haleli. 2022. A Network of Lexical Borrowings in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom: Organizing knowledge according to the classifier system. (Doctoral dissertation).
• Harel, Haleli. In press. ‘Comparing knowledge organization networks: Digitizing graphemic classifiers (Egyptian, Sumerian (cuneiform) and ancient Chinese) using the iClassifier research platform.’ In Language, semantics and cognition: Saying and conceptualizing the world from Ancient Egypt to modern times, ed. G. Chantrain.
• Harel, Haleli. In press. ‘Zooming in and out on Hoch Semitic word list.’ Journal of The Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, Special volume dedicated to James E. Hoch. 20 pages.

My post-doctoral project focuses on the analyses of the ground stone tool (GST) assemblages from the Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla. My research is combining technological, morphological, traceological and experimental approaches to identify the use of these percussion tools. The project aims at identifying and understanding subsistence strategies through different types of cultural remains that are rarely observed in abundance within Middle Paleolithic contexts.

Moreover, another aspect of the study is to compare the change in frequencies and types of GSTs throughout the different archaeological layers at the site, to identify if diachronic variations occurred, and if this is related to the change in site functions and/or length/intensity of occupations.

Advisor: Dr. Yossi Zaidner 

Projects:

• The open-air Middle Paleolithic site of Nesher Ramla
• The Tinshemet Cave project

Publications:

Zohar, I., Alperson-Afil, N., Goren-Inbar, N., Prévost, M., Tütken, T., Sisma-Ventura, G., Hershkovitz, I., Najorka, J. 2022. Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Zaidner, Y., Centi, L., Prévost, M., Mercier, N., Falguères, C., Guérin, G., Valladas, H., Richard, M., Galy, A., Pécheyran, C., Tombret, O., Pons-Branchu, E., Porat, N., Shahack-Gross, R., Friesem, D.E., Yeshurun, R., Turgeman-Yaffe, Z., Frumkin, A., Herzlinger, G., Ekshtain, R., Shemer, M., Varoner, O., Sarig, R., May, H., Hershkovitz, I.  2021. Middle Pleistocene Homo behavior and culture at 140 - 120 ka, and interactions with Homo sapiens. Science

Paixão, E., Marreiros, J., Dubreuil, L., Gneisinger, W., Carver, G., Prévost, M., Zaidner, Y. 2021. Functional analysis of the Middle Paleolithic Ground Stones Tools from Unit V of Nesher Ramla (Central Levant): the application of a multi-scale use-wear approach. Quaternary International

Paixão, E., Pedergnana, A., Marreiros, J., Dubreuil, L., Prévost, M., Zaidner, Y., Carver, G., Gneisinger, W. 2021. Using Mechanical experiments to study Ground Stone Tool use: exploring the formation of percussive and grinding wear traces on Limestone tools. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102971

Groman-Yaroslavski, I., Prévost. M., Zaidner. 2021. Tool Wielding and Activities at the Middle Paleolithic Site of Nesher Ramla, Israel: A Use-Wear Analysis of Major Tool Types from Unit III. Quaternary International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.03.041

Prévost, M., Groman-Yaroslavsk, I., Crater-Gershtein, I., Tejero, J-M., Zaidner, Y. 2021. Early evidence for symbolic behavior in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic: A 120 ka old engraved aurochs bone shaft from the open-air site of Nesher Ramla, Israel. Quaternary International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.01.002

Prévost, M. Centi, L. Zaidner, Y. 2020. The use of the lateral tranchet blow technique at Nesher Ramla (Israel): a new cultural marker in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic? Quaternary International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.11.008

Prévost, M., Zaidner, Y., 2020. New insights into early MIS 5 lithic technological behavior in the Levant: Nesher Ramla, Israel as a case study. PLOS ONE 15, e0231109. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0231109

Centi, L., Groman-Yaroslavski, I., Friedman, N., Oron, M., Prévost, M., Zaidner, Y. 2019. The bulb retouchers in the Levant: New insights into Middle Palaeolithic retouching techniques and mobile tool-kit composition. PLoS ONE 14(7): e0218859. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218859

Borvon, A., Bridault, A., Biton, R., Rabinovich, R., Prévost, M., Khalaily, H., Valla, F., 2017 Finding of trout (Salmo cf. trutta) in the Northern Jordan Valley (Israel) at the end of the Pleistocene: preliminary results. Journal of Archaeological reports. 18 (18), pp.59-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.01.008

Postdoctoral fellow and manager of the Computational Archaeology Laboratory.

Ph.D. Dissertation topic: "The use of shells as adornments among PPNB communities in the Mediterranean zone of the Southern Levant"

Supervisors: Prof. Nigel Goring-Morris and Dr. Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer.

Abstract: My Ph.D. dissertation involved performing archaeomalacological research on shell assemblages from PPNB sites found in the Mediterranean climatic zone of the Southern Levant. the purpose of the research was to examine the roles of shells, and especially shell beads, as means of personal and social representation in various contexts. The research encompassed taxonomic, taphonomic, and technological aspects, by employing macro- and microscopic methods of identifying manufacturing and use wear, spatial distribution and more. Connections between populations, as based on shared choices and uses of shell and shell bead types, were studied using multivariate analyses and other statistical methods. The results show that it is possible to define and distinguish between different Levantine Neolithic populations as based on their shell and bead choices and that they maintained constant and complex connection networks among them. The regional web of relationships was interpreted in terms of “widening circles of association”, effecting the emerging set of Neolithic social identities and the transition to a Neolithic life-way.

Publications

Schechter, H.C. 2024. Intentional obsidian depositional practices at the Late Neolithic TPC Area of Çatalhöyük. In: D. Guilbeau, B. Milić and A. Vinet (eds.), Strategies of obsidian procurement, knapping and use in the first farming societies from the Caucasus to the Mediterranean. EAA2018 conference proceedings. Pp. pending.

Smith, S., Schechter, H.C., Bar-Yosef Mayer, D.E. and S.J. Mithen. 2024. From seashore to Neolithic floor: Origins and spatial distribution patterns of shell bead assemblages at WF16, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A settlement in Southern Jordan. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 53: 104357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104357

Vardi, J., Parow-Souchon, H., Nagar, Y., Cipin, I., Rosenberg, D., Sapir-Hen, L., Galmor, S., Schechter, H.C., Caracuta, V. and Y. Paz. 2023. The Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of Aḥihud (western galilee israel) - preliminary observations. Shells from Ahihud. Paléorient, 49.2: 157-179.  

Barzilai, O., Ashkenazy, H., van den Brink, E.C.M., Fadida, A., Haklay, G., Liran, R., Marom, N., Reshef, H., Schechter, H.C. and J. Vardi. 2023. Naḥal Zippori 3 (Tel Mitzpe Zevulun North): A Proto-historic Site in the Lower Galilee, Israel. Mitkufat HaEven – Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 53: 83–207.

Schechter, H.C., Reese, D.S., Bar-Yosef Mayer, D.E. and A.N. Goring-Morris. 2023. Making ties and social identities: Drawing connections between PPNB communities as based on shell bead typology. PLoS ONE 18(11): e0289091. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289091

Schechter, H.C. 2023. Experimenting with Levantine Neolithic shell-bead production and use – A low magnification perspective. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 52 (2023) 104231. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104231.

Schechter, H.C. 2022. Chipped stone at the Late Neolithic TPC area, Çatalhöyük – on-site and beyond. In: Y. Nishiaki, O. Maeda, and M. Arimura (eds.), Tracking the Neolithic in the Near East. Lithic Perspectives on its Origins, Development and Dispersals. Sidestone Press: Leiden. Pp. 413-426.

Issavi, J., Bennison-Chapman, L., Bogaard, A., Der, L., Doyle, S., García Suárez, A., Haddow, S., Kabukcu, C., Pawłowska, C., Schechter, H.C., Tarkan, D., Tsoraki, C., Vasić, M., Veropoulidou, R. and R. Wolfhagen. 2021. Chapter 9. The complexity of open spaces at Çatalhöyük, in: I. Hodder and C. Tsoraki (eds.), Communities at Work: the making of Çatalhöyük. The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara: London. Pp. 115-146.

Schechter, H.C., Getzov, N., Khalaily, H., Milevski, I., Goring-Morris, A.N. and D.E. Bar-Yosef Mayer. 2021. Exceptional shell depositions at PPNB Yiftahel. Journal of Archaeological Science – Reports 37: 102944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102944

Ullman, M., Brailovsky, L., Schechter, H.C., Weissbrod, L., Zuckerman-Cooper, R., Toffolo, M.B., Caracuta, V., Boaretto, E., Weiner, S., Abramov, J., Bar-Yosef Mayer, D.E., Avrutis, V.W., Kol-Ya'kov, S. and A. Frumkin. 2021. The early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site at Nesher-Ramla Quarry, Israel. Quaternary International 624: 148-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.04.019

Schechter, H.C. and D.E. Bar-Yosef Mayer. 2020. Shells from EPPNB Nesher-Ramla (NRQN). In: M. Ullman (ed.), The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site at Nesher-Ramla Quarry (NRQN), Israel. The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa: Haifa. Pp. 149-168.

Schechter, H.C. and H.K. Mienis. 2020. A First Record of Eunaticina Linnaeana from the Mediterranean Coast of Israel (Gastropoda, Naticidae). Triton 40: 4-5.

Bocquentin, F., Khalaily, H., Boaretto, E., Dubreuil, L., Schechter, H.C., Bar-Yosef Mayer, D.E., Greenberg, H., Berna, F., Anton, M., Borrell, F., Le Bourdonnec, F.X., Davin, L., Noûs, C., Samuelian, N., Vieugué, J. and L.K. Horwitz. 2020. Between two worlds: the PPNB–PPNC transition in the Central Levant as seen through discoveries at Beisamoun. In: H. Khalaily, A. Re'em, J. Vardi and I. Milevski (eds.), The Mega Project at Motza (Moẓa): The Neolithic and Later Occupations up to the 20th Century, New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region, Supplementary volume. Israel Antiquities Authority: Jerusalem. Pp. 163-199.

Gopher, A., Eirikh-Rose, A., Ashkenazi, H., Marco, E., May, H., Makoviychuk, Y., Sapir-Hen, L., Galmor, S., Schechter, H.C., Ackerfeld, D., Haklay, G. and K. Zutovski. 2019. Nahal Yarmuth 38: A new and unique PPNB site in central Israel. Antiquity 93(371): e29. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.162

Schechter, H.C., Zutovski, K., Agam, A., Wilson, L. and A. Gopher. 2018. Refitting Bifacial Production Waste – the Case of the Wadi Rabah Refuse Pit from Ein Zippori, Israel. Lithic Technology 43(4): 228-244. https://doi.org/10.1080/01977261.2018.1514723

Schechter, H.C., Gopher, A., Getzov, N., Rice, E., Yaroshevich, A. and I. Milevski. 2016. The Obsidian Assemblages from the Wadi Rabah Occupations at Ein Zippori, Israel. Paléorient 42(1): 27-48. https://doi.org/10.3406/paleo.2016.5692

Agam, A., Walzer, N., Schechter, H.C., Zutovski, K., Milevski, I., Getzov, N., Gopher, A. and R. Barkai. 2016. Organized waste disposal in the Pottery Neolithic? A Bifacial Workshop Refuse Pit at Ein Zippori, Israel. Journal of Field Archaeology 41(6): 713-730. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2016.1240598

Schechter, H.C., Marder, O. Barkai, R., Getzov, N. and A. Gopher. 2013. The obsidian assemblage from Neolithic Hagoshrim, Israel: pressure technology and cultural influence. In: F. Borrell, J.J. Ibáñez, M. Molist (eds.) Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherers to Farming Societies in the Near East. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: Bellaterra. Pp. 509-528.

Gopher, A., Lemorini, C., Boaretto, E., Carmi, I., Barkai R. and H.C. Schechter. 2013. Qumran Cave 24, a Neolithic-Chalcolithic site by the Dead Sea: a short report and some information on lithics. In: F. Borrell, J. J. Ibáñez, M. Molist (eds.) Stone Tools in Transition: From Hunter-Gatherers to Farming Societies in the Near East. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: Bellaterra. Pp. 101-114.