Editing History of Israel (section)

==Prehistory==
{{Further|Prehistory of the Levant}}
[[File:Skhul Cave.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Skhul Cave]]]]

The oldest evidence of [[early humans]] in the territory of modern Israel, dating to 1.5 million years ago, was found in [[Ubeidiya prehistoric site|Ubeidiya]] near the [[Sea of Galilee]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tchernov |first1=Eitan |title=The Age of 'Ubeidiya Formation (Jordan Valley, Israel) and the Earliest Hominids in the Levant |journal=Paléorient |date=1988 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=63–65 |doi=10.3406/paleo.1988.4455 | issn=0153-9345 }}</ref> Flint tool artefacts have been discovered at [[Yiron]], the oldest stone tools found anywhere outside Africa.{{dubious |Not accepted anymore, as far as I know. Source? |date= June 2024}} Other groups{{clarify |"Other" supposes some already mentioned, which isn't the case. What groups, what is even MEANT by "groups"?|date= June 2024}} include 1.4 million years old [[Acheulean]] industry,{{dubious |The Acheulean industry is anything but a "group". |date= June 2024}} the Bizat Ruhama group and [[Gesher Bnot Yaakov]]{{dubious |GBY as a "group"? Meaning what? GBY is a site. |date= June 2024}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ronen |first1=Avraham |title=The oldest human groups in the Levant |journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol |date=January 2006 |volume=5 |issue=1–2 |pages=343–351 |id={{INIST|17870089}} |doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2005.11.005 |bibcode=2006CRPal...5..343R }}</ref>

In the [[Mount Carmel]] area at [[Tabun, Israel|el-Tabun]], and [[Es Skhul]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.athenapub.com/8timelin.htm|title=Timeline in the Understanding of Neanderthals|access-date=13 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927231557/http://www.athenapub.com/8timelin.htm|archive-date=27 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Neanderthal]] and early modern human remains were found, showing the longest [[stratigraphy|stratigraphic record]] in the region, spanning 600,000 years of human activity,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~pjs1011/Pams.html |title=From 'small, dark and alive' to 'cripplingly shy': Dorothy Garrod as the first woman Professor at Cambridge |access-date=13 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228172528/http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~pjs1011/Pams.html |archive-date=28 February 2009}}</ref> from the [[Lower Paleolithic]] to the present day, representing roughly a million years of [[human evolution]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://arch.haifa.ac.il/excav.php |title=Excavations and Surveys (University of Haifa) |access-date=13 July 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313142646/http://arch.haifa.ac.il/excav.php |archive-date=13 March 2013}}</ref> Other notable [[Paleolithic]] sites include caves [[Qesem Cave|Qesem]] and [[Manot Cave|Manot]]. A 200,000-year-old fossil from [[Misliya Cave]] is the second-oldest evidence of [[anatomically modern human]]s found [[Recent African origin of modern humans|outside Africa]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Wade |first=Lizzie |date=10 July 2019 |title=Skull fragment from Greek cave suggests modern humans were in Europe more than 200,000 years ago |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/skull-fragment-greek-cave-suggests-modern-humans-were-europe-more-200000-years-ago |work=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |doi=10.1126/science.aay6927 |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> Around 10th millennium BCE, the [[Natufian culture]] existed in the area.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bar-Yosef |first1=Ofer |title=The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture |journal=Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews |date=1998 |volume=6 |issue=5 |pages=159–177 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::AID-EVAN4>3.0.CO;2-7 |s2cid=35814375 }}</ref> The [[Origins of agriculture in West Asia|beginning of agriculture in the region]] during the [[Neolithic Revolution]] is evidenced by sites such as [[Nahal Oren (archaeological site)|Nahal Oren]] and [[Gesher (archaeological site)|Gesher]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hershkovitz |first1=Israel |author-link1=Israel Hershkovitz |last2=Gopher |first2=Avi |author-link2=Avi Gopher |date=30 September 2008 |chapter=Demographic, Biological and Cultural Aspects of the Neolithic Revolution: A View from the Southern Levant |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225258426_Demographic_Biological_and_Cultural_Aspects_of_the_Neolithic_Revolution_A_View_from_the_Southern_Levant |title=The Neolithic Demographic Transition and its Consequences |location= |editor-last1=Bocquet-Appel |editor-first1=Jean-Pierre |editor-last2=Bar-Yosef |editor-first2=Ofer |editor-link2=Ofer Bar-Yosef |publisher=Springer Science+Business Media |page=465 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8539-0_17 |isbn= |access-date=20 April 2025}}</ref>

===Periodisation===
Here is one of the more common periodisations.
* [[Stone Age]] (pre-4500 BCE): hunter-gatherer societies, slowly evolving into farming and herding societies
** Palaeolithic
*** Epipalaeolithic
*** {{main|Epipalaeolithic Near East}}
**** Early
**** Middle
**** Late. See [[Natufian culture]] (15,000-11,500 BP)<ref>{{Cite book |last= Grosman |first= Leore |title= Natufian Foragers in the Levant: Terminal Pleistocene Social Changes in Western Asia |publisher= [[Berghahn Books]] |year= 2013 |isbn= 978-1-879621-45-9 |editor1= [[Ofer Bar-Yosef]] |editor2= François R. Valla |edition= 1 |location= New York |pages= 622–627 |chapter= The Natufian Chronological Scheme – New Insights and their Implications |doi= 10.2307/j.ctv8bt33h |jstor= j.ctv8bt33h |chapter-url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8bt33h |archive-date= 30 January 2022 |access-date= 20 June 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220130095803/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8bt33h |url-status= live }}</ref>
** Neolithic
*** Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN)
**** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic A]] (PPNA)
**** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic B]] (PPNB)
**** [[Pre-Pottery Neolithic C]] (PPNC)
*** Late Neolithic
**** Pottery Neolithic A (PNA)
***** [[Yarmukian culture]]
***** [[Lodian culture|Lodian (Jericho IX) culture]]
**** Pottery Neolithic B (PNB)
***** [[Wadi Rabah culture]]
***** [[Timnian culture]] in southern&nbsp;Negev&nbsp;(and&nbsp;Sinai); pastoralist, persists through to the Bronze Age
* [[Chalcolithic#Near East|Chalcolithic]] (4500–3500 BCE): early metal-working and farming; see [[Timna Valley]]