{
  "abstract": "Iron Age industrial complexes in the Southern Levant are frequently perceived as static, mono-functional spaces. This study challenges such perceptions by reconstructing the dynamic life history of the 8th-century BCE level of the industrial compound at Tel Shiqmona, the largest known Iron Age purple-dye factory in the Mediterranean and a state-controlled economic asset of the Kingdom of Israel. We conducted a high-resolution investigation of the site’s industrial complexity using micro-geoarchaeological methods, including FTIR spectroscopy, sediment micromorphology, and quantification of micro-remains. The results demonstrate that these spaces were used for a diverse, non-simultaneous range of activities, and they support a model in which this use was structured by the seasonal cycle: olive pressing in late autumn, livestock sheltering in winter, and textile production in spring. Purple-dye production was most probably integrated into this cycle during complementary temporal windows. Additionally, the sequences show evidence of periodic floor management, where wood ash was used as a neutralizing agent to maintain the industrial space between seasonal shifts. We argue that this documented multi-functionality was a manifestation of the sophisticated management and optimization of the kingdom’s economic assets. Ultimately, these findings reveal that the economy of the Kingdom of Israel relied on advanced space-time management, where high-prestige industries and agricultural needs were interwoven into a singular, highly efficient economic machine. More broadly, these findings highlight a systematic interpretive distortion: the archaeological characterization of industrial spaces tends to privilege their most visible activity, even when that activity was constrained to a narrow seasonal window. The operational logic of ancient economic spaces — how they were managed, repurposed, and sustained across the full annual cycle — is recoverable only through high-resolution archaeological analysis in which micro-geoarchaeological methods provide a critical additional layer of resolution that conventional macroscopic analysis alone cannot supply.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Interdisciplinary Centre for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal",
    "Department of Anthropology, Anthropology Laboratory of MicroArchaeology (ALMA), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey, United States of America",
    "The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, Department of Maritime Civilizations, School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa, Israel",
    "Zinman Institute of Archaeology, School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel",
    "Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom",
    "Haifa Center for Mediterranean History, University of Haifa, Israel"
  ],
  "article_type": "Research Article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Isaac Ogloblin Ramirez"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Golan Shalvi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Sonia Pinsky"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Madeline Jacobson"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Roni Zuckerman-Cooper"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Ayelet Gilboa"
    },
    {
      "name": "David E. Friesem"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3av36t18168rm.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0355104",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "3av36t18168rm",
  "issns": [
    "1932-6203"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0355104",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1204|Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Biology and life sciences/Organisms/Eukaryota/Plants/Fruits/Olives"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Earth sciences/Geology/Petrology/Sediment"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Earth sciences/Geology/Sedimentary geology/Sediment"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Earth sciences/Mineralogy/Clay mineralogy"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Earth sciences/Mineralogy/Minerals/Aragonite"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Earth sciences/Mineralogy/Minerals/Calcite"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Earth sciences/Mineralogy/Minerals/Quartz"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials physics/Microstructure"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Physical sciences/Physics/Materials physics/Microstructure"
    ],
    [
      "plos",
      "/Social sciences/Archaeology"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214185212",
  "pdf_url": "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0355104&type=printable",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-24",
  "publisher": "Public Library of Science",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3av36t18168rm.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
      "native_id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0355104",
      "source": "plos",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0355104"
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  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "plos:geology",
      "subfield": "geology-geochemistry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Seasonal and multi-functional use of industrial space at Iron Age Tel Shiqmona, Israel",
  "title_text": "Seasonal and multi-functional use of industrial space at Iron Age Tel Shiqmona, Israel",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:43Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3av36t18168rm",
  "venue": "PLOS One",
  "versions": []
}