The remains of three tumuli (F100, F102, F109) and a building (F112) were excavated on the Yeroham Ridge, comprising limestone hills separated by deep gullies. Past surveys in the area detected the remains of square and round buildings, tumuli, agricultural terraces, walls and surface scatters of potsherds and flint; these features were dated to the Early Bronze Age through the Early Islamic period (Nahlieli and Weinberger 2015; Rasiuk S-1002/2020). A previous excavation conducted immediately to the east of Road 224, about a kilometer south of the current excavation, uncovered building remains, rectangular tumuli and a few potsherds from the Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age II (Lender 2006 [Fig. 1: A-3709]).
 
Tumuli 100, 102 and 109 were built directly on a rocky outcrop. Each comprised a burial cell built on an east–west alignment and covered by a fill of fieldstones, which was enclosed by a wall. No finds were retrieved from the burial cells. The walls enclosing the three tumuli incorporated large stones, which may have served as burial stones. Tumulus 109 (Fig. 2), the best-preserved of the three tumuli, was round (diam. 4.8 m) with a central burial chamber (length 1.5 m) built of fieldstones, which had a fill of large and medium-sized fieldstones placed over it. This tumulus was enclosed by a wall built of two rows of stones; only one row of stones was preserved in the enclosing wall of Tumuli 100 and 102. The stone fills in Tumulus 100 yielded a fragment of an elliptical grinding stone made of sandstone. The tumuli yielded flint items (below).
 
Building 112 (Fig. 3). A building with at least five elliptical rooms built around a courtyard (L114; 4 × 4 m) was uncovered, which was probably used as a livestock pen. One room was excavated (L113; 3 × 4 m); its walls were built of two rows of large fieldstones and preserved to a height of two courses. The walls were partly founded on a soil layer (c. 0.1 m thick) and partly directly on the bedrock. Room 113 and the courtyard yielded flint items (below).
 
Flint Finds
Talia Abulafia
 
Most of the flint items were retrieved from the building. In Room 113 and in the building’s courtyard (L114), 163 flint items were collected (Table 1). They are well preserved, with sharp working edges, and are mostly devoid of patina. The items are made of a brown, thin-grained raw material that sometimes bears some gray patina. The main finds are flakes (average length 0.3 m). The cores were mostly intended for flake production, and there is a clear preference for cores with two striking platforms and for amorphous cores. Most of the cores (63.6%) are covered in patina. The average size of the cores (0.22 × 0.34 × 0.45 m) shows that most of them are exhausted. One of the cores was used until it was extremely small (0.1 × 0.2 m), when tiny bladelets were produced from it (Fig. 4:1). It thus appears that the bladelets that were recovered are a byproduct of the smaller flake cores. Also collected core trimming elements, a core tablet, a ridge and an overpass. Eleven tools were found (Table 3), most of which are notches made on flakes (ad hoc tool; Fig. 4:2). Scrapers (Fig. 4:3), a truncated bladelet (Fig. 4:4) and a truncated flake, a dihedral burin (Fig. 4:5) and a burin on a fragment and a denticulated tool were also retrieved.
Tumulus 100 yielded a core with a single striking platform used to produce flakes/bladelets (Fig. 5:1). Tumulus 109 yielded a blade with fine retouch on both sides (Fig. 5:2) and a scraper on a blade (Fig. 5:3).
The flint finds are typical of Bronze Age flints found in the south of Israel. They are characterized by a flake industry in which awls, notches and denticulates are prominently represented (Rosen 1997). The low level of standardization of the tools and the kind of knapping debris—flakes and few blades—indicate a lack of specialization in flint-tool knapping, a familiar phenomenon from flint assemblages of the period (Rosen and Vardi 2014).
 
Table 1. Flint Finds
Type
Room 113
Courtyard 114
Tumuli 100, 102, 109
N
%
N
%
N
%
Primary flake
12
10.53
3
6.12
-
-
Flake
56
49.12
22
44.90
11
28.21
Blade
6
5.26
2
4.08
1
2.56
Bladelet
2
1.75
1
2.05
-
-
Core trimming element
2
1.75
-
-
2
5.13
Core tablet
 -
-
1
2.04
-
-
Ridge
1
0.88
2
4.08
-
-
Overpass
 -
-
1
2.04
-
-
Core
7
6.14
4
8.16
1
2.56
Tools
5
4.39
7
14.29
2
5.13
Chips
12
10.53
1
2.04
15
38.46
Chunks
11
9.65
5
10.20
7
17.95
Total
114
100
49
100
39
100
  
Table 2. Cores from Building 112
Type
Flakes (N)
Bladelets (N)
Flakes/blades (N)
Total
N
%
Amorphous
2
1
1
4
36.36
Single striking platform
1
 -
 -
1
9.09
Two striking platforms
3
 -
1
4
36.36
Three striking platforms
 -
 -
1
1
9.09
Fragment
1
 -
1
9.1
Total
7
1
3
11
100
 
Table 3. Tools from Building 112
Type
N
%
Notch
4
36.36
Scraper
2
18.18
Truncate
2
18.18
Burin
2
18.18
Denticulate
1
9.1
Total
11
100
 
The excavated tumuli resemble hundreds of tumuli previously discovered along the Negev highland ridges. Nahlieli and Weinberger date the tumuli discovered while surveying the region to the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (Nahlieli and Weinberger 2015), although tumuli are known in the Negev from the Neolithic period (sixth millennium BCE) to the Middle Bronze Age. At times, the tumuli were used as burial places by nomadic societies passing through the region in later periods (Rosen et al. 2007). The burial cells in the excavated tumuli were devoid of finds, as in other excavations (Haiman 1992; Erickson-Gini and Porat 2018); they may have been robbed or otherwise not preserved. Although the tumuli yielded flint finds, these finds cannot be used to date them.
The livestock pen in Building 112 (L114) suggests an economy is based on grazing. Similar animal pens uncovered in the past date from the Late Neolithic period to the Middle Bronze Age—evidence of the transition to a pastoral lifestyle (Rosen 2017:43–49, 120–123).