Sifting Through: The Characteristics and Significance of Ceramic Strainer-Vessels in the Chalcolithic Period of the Southern Levant EDWIN CORNELIS MARTINUS VAN DEN BRINK,RIVKA CHASAN, AND DANNY ROSENBERG A strainer is an autonomous utensil (sieve or colander) or an integral part ( filter) of a utensil de- signed to separate mixtures based on grain size. In the southern Levant, strainer vessels made of clay are known since the Early Chalcolithic period, albeit few in number. The onset of the Late Chalcolithic period reflects a significant increase in the numbers and distribution of these particular vessels even though their numbers per site remain relatively low. This paper surveys foremost Late Chalcolithic strainer vessels from the southern Levant, discussing their morphology, significance and possible role as straining and sifting devices for liquids (e.g., olive or other oils, herbal or botanical mixtures, and alcoholic beverages) and solid substances (e.g., fats and flour). While results from our ongoing organic residue analysis concerning this and other types of Late Chalcolithic vessels are yet to come, we can already suggest that these vessels entail a variety of tasks and that they were used in a number of dif- ferent contexts based on the variability of strainer vessel types and the strainer morphology. Keywords: strainer; sieve; colander; Late Chalcolithic; southern Levant; milk; alcoholic beverage; olive oil W hile a mixed farming subsistence economy, combining the cultivation of crops alongside the rearing of animals for meat or milk, was established during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B–C, it con- tinued to develop gradually during the Pottery Neolithic and subsequent Chalcolithic in the southern Levant (Ro- wan and Golden 2009: 3). This is apparent in seemingly sudden innovations during the Late Chalcolithic period (henceforth LC; ca. 4500–3800 cal. B.C.E.; for a discussion of the various chrono-cultural terminologies and defini- tions at hand, see, e.g., Joffe and Dessel 1995; Rowan and Golden 2009: 10–11), in particular the Ghassulian- Beersheva aspect of it, reflecting a rapidly changing society and social order (cf. Levy 1986; Gilead 1988; Bourke 2007; Rowan and Golden 2009 passim). These advances, often extending beyond the domestic sphere, can be observed in specialized craft production, such as metallurgy (e.g., Tadmor et al. 1995; Golden 2009), ceramics (e.g., Roux and Courty 1998; Roux, van den Brink, and Shalev 2013), chipped stone tools (e.g., Vardi and Gilead 2013: 112–16), ground stone tools (e.g., Rosenberg, Chasan, and van den Brink 2017; van den Brink, Rowan, and Braun 1999) and ivory carving (Rosenberg and Chasan in press), in mortuary practices (secondary burials in formal cemeteries away from the settlements; see, e.g., van den Brink 1998, 2005a) and in iconography/symbolic expression (e.g., Beck 1989; Gal, Smithline, and Shalem 2000; Shalem 2015). LC sustenance relied on a mixed farming subsistence, based on domesticated animals and plants (e.g., Grigson Edwin Cornelis Martinus van den Brink: Department of Ar- chaeological Research, Israel Antiquities Authority, P. O. Box 586, 91004 Jerusalem, Israel; edwincmvandenbrink@gmail.com Rivka Chasan: Laboratory for Ground Stone Tools Research, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khousy, Haifa, 3498838, Israel; rchasan@campus.haifa.ac.il Danny Rosenberg: Head of the Laboratory for Ground Stone Tools Research, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khousy, Haifa, 3498838, Israel; drosen@research.haifa.ac.il Electronically Published July 21, 2021. Bulletin of ASOR, volume 386, November 2021. © 2021 American Society of Overseas Research. All rights reserved. Published by The University of Chicago Press for ASOR. https://doi.org/10.1086/715578