© 2015 American Schools of Oriental Research. BASOR 374 (2015): 61–73. A Specialized Ceramic Assemblage for Water Pulling: he Middle Chalcolithic Well of Tel Tsaf, Israel Katharina Streit and Yosef Garfinkel he authors explore aspects of a well uncovered at Tel Tsaf, Israel, dating to the Middle Chal- colithic Period, ca. 4800 cal b.c. he well was uncovered in close proximity to the settlement of Tel Tsaf, shedding light on the hydraulic technology of the community. An exceptionally rich assem- blage of complete vessels has been found in situ at the bottom of the shat. he ceramics show two distinct typological features uncommon to other assemblages of the Middle Chalcolithic: double paired handles and the so-called beakers, a new ceramic shape dominant in this assemblage. We argue that the ceramic assemblage comprises task-speciic vessel shapes designed for drawing wa- ter from a well. he examples from Tel Tsaf are currently the earliest of their kind. Keywords: Middle Chalcolithic; wells; ceramics; radiocarbon dating; southern Levant Katharina Streit: he Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jeru- salem, Israel, katharin.streit@mail.huji.ac.il Yosef Garinkel: he Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusa- lem, Israel, garinkel@mail.huji.ac.il A ccess to artiicial, permanent water sources exploiting the groundwater table, sometimes referred to as the “domestication of water” (Gar- inkel, Vered, and Bar-Yosef 2006; Mithen 2010; Finlay- son et al. 2011), was essential for the development of large sedentary communities before the advent of urbanism. Settlements were typically founded in close proximity to natural water sources such as rivers, freshwater lakes, or springs. Around 8000 cal b.c., the irst wells—artiicial, permanent water sources accessing the groundwater table—were dug. he ability to access the water table was a signiicant step in the anthropogenic manipulation of the natural environment. he earliest wells uncovered to date are from the Neolithic (ca. 8000 cal b.c.) at Kissonerga-Mylouthkia in the southwestern part of Cyprus (Fig. 1) (Peltenburg 2003; Peltenburg et al. 2000; 2001) and at Parekklisia- Shillourokambos farther east, where three examples have been found (Guilaine and Briois 2001: 41, structures 2, 66, 114). All four of these wells were rock-cut, about 2 m in diameter, and estimated at up to 8 m deep. he earli- est examples in the Levant are three wells reported from ʿAtlit Yam (now below sea level) dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C, around 7000 cal b.c. (Galili 1993; Galili and Sharvit 1998; Galili et al. 2002), of which only one has been presented in some detail (Galili and Nir 1993). his example measured around 1.5 m in diameter and 5.7 m in depth, and was stone-lined to about 4.2 m. In 2013, an additional well dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C was uncovered at Ha-Yogev (Tepper 2013; 2014) but remains unpublished. A well dating to the Pottery Neolithic (ca. 6400–5800 cal b.c.) was also discovered at Shaʿar ha-Go- lan (Garinkel, Vered, and Bar-Yosef 2006; Garinkel and Vered 2009; Garinkel 2010). As with the ʿAtlit Yam well, the Shaʿar ha-Golan well was stone-lined (to ca. 2.5 m depth) and was 5.7 m deep. he well was located in the center of the settlement, at a distance of about 200 m from the present riverbed of the Yarmuk River. he sink- ing of the well at Shaʿar ha-Golan is evidence of commu- nity-level cooperation, both in the efort to excavate and line the well with stone, as well as in its use (Garinkel 2010: 41). Following the chronological scheme of Yosef Garin- kel (1999), the next stage in the chronological sequence This journal was published by the American Schools of Oriental Research and is available on JSTOR at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=bullamerschoorie. You may receive the journal through an ASOR membership or subscription. See http://www.asor.org/membership/individual.html for more information.