An ongoing archaeological excavation at Neve Efrayim, 1.5 km west of Yehud, revealed an Intermediate Bronze Age (ca. 2,500-2000 BCE) cemetery with more than a thousand sealed shaft tombs in an area of 45 dunam. The site is located at the eastern edge of the Israeli coastal plain, along Ono stream within Ayalon drainage system.
The typical shaft tomb at site includes an oval shaft (up to 6 m. deep) dug into the local soil section, composed of vertisol, hamra and sand horizons. Aside it, in a slightly lower level, a burial chamber (1.5–2.5 m in diameter) was exposed connected by a passage. The burial chamber was dug in the compacted hamra horizon, while the chamber floor was levelled along the hamra and sand contact. Tombs carved into soil sections are exposed to a range of artificial and natural sedimentological processes. As a result, the site offers a unique opportunity to study the different processes operating on shaft tombs over the past 4,000-4,500 years.
Our results note for pre and post burial sedimentological processes operating at site, resulting from both human and natural processes. While the tombs formation resulted from human intervention, their post formation processes showed a natural gradual fill of sediments. We further note for fluvial processes that lead to a laminar filling of the burial chambers, this was suggested to result due to paleo drainage system.
This study highlights the unique appearance of shaft tombs carved in soil, proposes a potential methodology of uncovering processes operating on them, and outlines areas for future investigation. This research puts a significant newly discovered site on the map of shaft tombs and furthermore, advances our understanding of reconstructing paleo topography. Such an investigation may assist archaeologists in defining site formation using sedimentological tools.