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.