Seasonal and multi-functional use of industrial space at Iron Age Tel Shiqmona, Israel
6 affiliations
- 1Interdisciplinary Centre for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
- 2Department of Anthropology, Anthropology Laboratory of MicroArchaeology (ALMA), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey, United States of America
- 3The Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, Department of Maritime Civilizations, School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa, Israel
- 4Zinman Institute of Archaeology, School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
- 5Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- 6Haifa Center for Mediterranean History, University of Haifa, Israel
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.
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BibTeX
@article{ramirez2026seasonal,
title = {{Seasonal and multi-functional use of industrial space at Iron Age Tel Shiqmona, Israel}},
author = {Isaac Ogloblin Ramirez and Golan Shalvi and Sonia Pinsky and Madeline Jacobson and Roni Zuckerman-Cooper and Ayelet Gilboa and David E. Friesem},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0355104},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0355104},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Seasonal and multi-functional use of industrial space at Iron Age Tel Shiqmona, Israel
AU - Isaac Ogloblin Ramirez
AU - Golan Shalvi
AU - Sonia Pinsky
AU - Madeline Jacobson
AU - Roni Zuckerman-Cooper
AU - Ayelet Gilboa
AU - David E. Friesem
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0355104
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0355104
AB - 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.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -