ABSTRACT
The richness of Gilat's material culture, and its abundant ceramics set Gilat at the edge of several worlds. Situated of the edge of the arid Negev desert, the site had important interrelations with neighboring Mediterranean areas in Judea Mountains and the rolling hills of the Shephela that provided pottery vessels and perhaps olive oil for this formative sanctuary. Gilat emerged when dairying economies took root in Levantine societies for the first time during the Chalcolithic period. Thus, while Gilat's pottery assemblage was still embedded in a 'Neolithic tradition' it reflects technical innovations that characterize the pottery made somewhat later at the well-know Beersheva Chalcolithic sites. Finally, unlike most other Chalcolithic settlement sites, the ceramic assemblage from Gilat provides evidence for the segregation and coalescence of the profane and the sacred.
