קרית חרושת - בית קברות מתקופת הברונזה הקדומה בקרבת תל קשיש / Qiryat Ḥaroshet - An Early Bronze Age Cemetery in the Vicinity of Tel Qashish

The Early Bronze Age cemetery of Qiryat Ḥaroshet was uncovered in a small salvage excavation on the outskirts of the modern settlement of the same name, located in the northern Jezreel valley. Eleven small areas (caves and rock cavities) were excavated, four of which contained man-made burial caves. The find assemblage from the caves, though limited in scope, includes human bones, ceramics, copper alloy daggers, and carnelian beads, all dating from the Early Bronze Age Ia to III. The skeletal remains, found only in a single cave, suggest that these graves were used for multiple burials. The cemetery appears to coexist with a major part of the habitation sequence of the nearby Early Bronze Age settlement of Tel Qashish. The cemetery offers an additional perspective to the growing body of information on the rich fabric of the Early Bronze Age culture in the Jezreel Valley.