Prehistoric village uses same unique construction “recipe” for 600 years

   JERUSALEM, Feb. -- A prehistoric village has adopted the same construction standard for all its homes for 600 years, using the same self-made mudbricks, the University of Haifa (UH) in northern Israel reported on Wednesday.
   The unique phenomenon, included in research conducted by an international team led by UH researchers and published in the journal Plos One, was discovered in Tel Tsaf site in the Jordan Valley.
   This village existed between 5,200 and 4,600 BC (the Middle Chalcolithic period), when the transition from agricultural to more urban societies has begun.
   The researchers examined, chemically and microscopically, hundreds of mudbricks preserved from buildings in Tel Tsaf and found that throughout its existence there was a single technology for producing the mudbricks.
   It was also found that all bricks were dried in the sun during their production process, instead of being burned in a furnace.
   Furthermore, most of the walls were built using similar methods and covered with light plaster to protect them from weather and small animals.
   This contrasts with other mudbrick settlements throughout history, where bricks were made in different ways, with each family having a different recipe at the same village.
   The researchers believe that Tel Tsaf's unique method marks the beginning of the development of a social elite -- an important family or group of people who have managed to gain enough economic power and use it for social influence.
   "When people approached Tel Tsaf 7,000 years ago, they saw a white settlement in the distance, shining on the horizon, a bit like the villages in Greece," the researchers concluded. Xinhua