Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer, Naomi Porat, and Uri Davidovich NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 77:4 (2014) 267 View of the lower canyon of Nahal Mishmar, as seen from the mouth of the Cave of the Treasure. Photograph by B. Langford. PERSONAL ORNAMENTS AT THE NAHAL MISHMAR CAVE OF THE TREASURE T he Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant (ca. 4500– 3800 b.c.e.) witnessed a few major social, economic, and cultural developments in comparison to preceding Neolithic cultures (e.g. Rowan and Golden 2009). Sedentary populations increased greatly and settlements flourished in areas previously only sparsely occupied, including the northern Negev and the lower Jordan valley, the latter housing the type-site of Teleilat Ghassul, after which the cultural horizon Ghassulian is named. Subsistence of permanent villages was based on intensi- fied agricultural production, including horticulture and animal husbandry, the latter of which were exploited not only for flesh, but also for secondary products, such as milk and hair. Increased specialization is attested in pottery and lithic production, stone working, and ivory carving. Innovation is observed in a large variety of material spheres and in artistic representations with metallurgy being the most innovative of all crafts (Golden 2008). Late Chalcolithic metallurgy became world-renowned in 1961 due to the discovery of a hoard containing over 400 objects, inside a natural cave in Nahal Mishmar, a dry canyon in the Judean Desert (Bar-Adon 1980; figs. 1 and 2). While the hoard from the “Cave of the Treasure,” as it came to be known, was the focus of numerous investigations pertaining to its metal- lurgic technology, artistic milieu, and socio-cultural attribution (Sebanne et al. 2014 and references therein; Goren's article in this issue); other artifactual categories found in the cave, as well as the cave’s environment and stratigraphy, were only briefly discussed in the excavation report (Bar-Adon 1980). he Cave of the Treasure constitutes an integral part of the Ghassulian Chalcolithic presence in hard-to-access caves located in the clifs of the Dead Sea escarpment in the eastern margins of the Judean Desert, investigated during the last 60 years (Da- vidovich 2013). Two main interpretations for this phenomenon were suggested over the years. Some scholars view the caves as herders’ shelters or storage installations related to seasonal move- ments of semi-nomadic pastoral groups (e.g. Gates 1992), while others believe that the caves served as a temporary refuge place for groups of people leeing from the sedentary areas in turbu- lent times (e.g. Ussishkin 1980). A recent regional inspection of this phenomenon, conducted by one of the authors (Davidov- ich 2008), supports the refuge model based on the spatial and morphological traits of the clif caves. he Cave of the Treasure contains the most diverse and abundant remains of all the caves and was a major site for the population that led to the Judean Desert, which may have been the reason for the concealment of the hoard in this particular cave. he hoard itself is viewed as the accumulated wealth of a community, possibly stored in a shrine This journal was published by the American Schools of Oriental Research and is available on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5615/neareastarch.77.issue-4. You may receive the journal through an ASOR membership or subscription. See http://www.asor.org/membership/individual.html for more information.