Jericho and the Chronology of Palestine in the Early Bronze Age: a Radiometric Re-Assessment

Radiocarbon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Nigro ◽  
Lucio Calcagnile ◽  
Jehad Yasin ◽  
Elisabetta Gallo ◽  
Gianluca Quarta
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Cautious Approach ◽  
Major Revision ◽  
Complete Sequences ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
University Of Rome

ABSTRACTThe absolute chronology of Early Bronze Age in the Levant has been the object of a major revision (Regev et al. 2012a), which implied an increase of at least two centuries in respect of traditional chronology. Such a shift back was based upon two sites (Tel Yarmouth, Megiddo) which were the backbone of the “reform,” but actually do not offer complete sequences for the whole EBA. This was the weakest stone of the revision, together with a partial understanding of stratigraphy/contexts from where samples were taken. Tell es-Sultan/Jericho in Palestine was included in this study, as this prominent archaeological site provided well stratified 14C dates for EBA. Its stratigraphy, established by Kathleen M. Kenyon in the 1950s, was reappraised by the Sapienza University of Rome–Palestinian MOTA-DACH joint Expedition (1997–2018). Published 14C dates were reanalyzed along with new samples from carefully stratified and published archaeological contexts, measured by the CEDAD Laboratory (University of Salento, Lecce, Italy). They provided absolute dates connected with stratigraphy useful to double-check the proposed High Chronology. EBA stratigraphic periodization at Jericho suggests a more cautious approach and keeps a multi-based chronology more consistent with a comprehensive historical reconstruction of the Early Bronze Age in Syria-Palestine and Egypt.

Wessex without Mycenae

1968 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 277-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Renfrew
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
European Development ◽  
The Absolute

The absolute chronology for the Early Bronze Age of Central and Northern Europe, including that for the Wessex culture of southern Britain, is not yet reliably established. This point was emphasized by V. Gordon Childe in his Retrospect, and the following words were indeed the very last which he wrote. Speaking of ‘the urgency of establishing a reliable chronology’, he stated: ‘a great deal of the argument depends on a precise date for the beginning of Unétice, that is at best very slightly the most probable out of perfectly possible guesses ranging over five centuries’.At that time the basis for the absolute chronology of the Early Bronze Age was, as it largely remains today, a framework of synchronous links built up across Europe to the Mycenaean world of the Aegean Late Bronze Age. The assumption was made—and Childe stressed that it was an assumption—that European development and chronology were to be viewed in terms of ‘the irradation of European barbarism by Oriental civilisation’. Possible links for the European Early Bronze Age with Mycenae and indeed the Near East were eagerly sought in an attempt to build up a coherent chronology founded on this assumption.

Revision of the Age of Construction Phases of a Mound Dated to the Late Copper–Early Bronze Age in Eastern Hungary Relying on14C-Based Chronologies

Radiocarbon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1403-1412
Author(s):  
Gábor Szilágyi ◽  
Pál Sümegi ◽  
Sándor Gulyás ◽  
Dávid Molnár
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Susceptibility ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Geochemical Analyses

ABSTRACTEcse Mound is a burial mound in the Hortobágy region of eastern Hungary. Built by prehistoric nomadic peoples from the east, it now stands on the border between two modern settlements. The construction of the mound was assumed to be related to representatives of the Pit Grave Culture populating the area between the Late Copper and Bronze Ages. This theory considered similarities in shape, orientation, and stratigraphy of this mound with other absolute-dated ones in the Hortobágy region alone. The mound comprises two construction layers as indicated by magnetic susceptibility and on-site stratigraphic observations. According to detailed sedimentological, geochemical analyses of samples taken from the bedrock, artificial stratigraphic horizons, and the overlying topsoil, there is a marked similarity between the soil forming the body of the mound in both artificial horizons and the underlying bedrock soil. In contrast the pedological, geological character of the modern topsoil is utterly different. According to our dating results, the uppermost stratigraphic horizon is coeval with the absolute-dated mounds in the region, assigning it to the period of the Pit Grave Culture. However, the lower anthropological horizon is older and dates to between the Early and Late Copper Ages.

Tools and souvenirs: the shells from Kilise Tepe (1994–1998)

2010 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofie Debruyne
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Freshwater Mussels ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Southern Turkey ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
The Mediterranean

AbstractIn the summers of 1994–1998 a rescue excavation took place at Kilise Tepe, an archaeological site occupied from the Early Bronze Age to the Byzantine period, located in the Göksu valley in Cilicia in southern Turkey. This article analyses the shell finds from environmental and archaeological perspectives. Three categories of molluscs are identified: terrestrial, freshwater and marine. The first two are the remnants of local fauna that lived on or near the site; the marine shells came from the Mediterranean shore adjacent to the Göksu delta and the delta itself. There are indications that freshwater mussels served as tools. Marine shells were worn as ornaments.

Evidence of a short-lived episode of olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivation during the Early Bronze Age in western Mediterranean (southern Italy)

The Holocene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessia D’Auria ◽  
Mauro Paolo Buonincontri ◽  
Emilia Allevato ◽  
Antonio Saracino ◽  
Reinhard Jung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Olea Europaea ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Olive Cultivation ◽  
Olive Trees ◽  
Olea Europaéa

Anthracological analysis was carried out in the archaeological site of Punta di Zambrone on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria in southern Italy. Archaeological excavation documented at the site settlement deposits dated mainly to Early Bronze Age (EBA, 21st–18th century BC) and the Recent Bronze Age (RBA, 13th to early 12th century BC). In the phase of the EBA village, the high frequency of Olea europaea in the charcoal data suggests the tree may well have been cultivated by favouring the spread of the scant olive trees growing wild. Comparison with existing archaeobotanical data indicates that olive cultivation spread over a large portion of southern Italy from the EBA and the early Middle Bronze Age (MBA, 17th–15th century BC), thus calling into question the hypothesis of its first cultivation related to the interaction between Mycenaean Greece and local cultures in southern Italy. The early domestication event at Punta di Zambrone supports the idea of multiple independent primary events of olive domestication throughout the Mediterranean basin. In the following phase of the fortified settlement dated to the RBA, the frequency of olive charcoal diminished and the expansion of a more or less dense forest dominated by Quercus was judged to be a consequence of human depopulation that characterises the end of MBA and also a different land use of RBA. This forest increase, also recorded by other archaeobotanical proxies in the central and southern Italian peninsula, is found to be related to the diffusion in southern Calabria of the Subapennine culture, spreading from more northerly areas of Italy and bringing different economic systems and agronomic knowledge. These far-reaching changes appear to have brought to a halt the first event of olive cultivation recorded at Punta di Zambrone.

scholarly journals Absolute Dating of Copper and Early Bronze Age Levels at the Eponymous Archaeological Site Bubanj (Southeastern Serbia)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 1047-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Bulatović ◽  
Marc Vander Linden
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
Southeastern Serbia

AbstractThis paper reports the first radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained for the Eneolithic/Bronze Age site of Bubanj, Serbia. Despite featuring prominently in the existing typo-chronological schemes for southeastern Europe, the history of research and recent large-scale destruction of the site had prevented so far the acquisition of samples from secure archaeological contexts. We fill this documentary gap by presenting 10 new14C dates, covering the late 5th, 4th, and 3rd millennia cal BC. These dates are compared to the existing documentation from the literature, in order to assess the placement of Bubanj within its wider archaeological context.

Mesolithic Sites at Malham Tarn and Great Close Mire, North Yorkshire

1987 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 363-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Williams ◽  
J. A. Richardson ◽  
R. S. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The West ◽  
Base Camp ◽  
Forest Clearance ◽  
Minor Site ◽  
The 1950S

The occurrence of mesolithic artefacts around Malham Tarn and Great Close Mire has been noted from the 1920s onwards. Pollen analysis at Tarn Moss to the west of Malham Tarn in the 1950s indicated that forest clearance had begun during Zone VI (c. 7000–5500 bc). Between 1972 and 1982, five prolific flint sites and a sixth, minor site were located in this area. The sites are of ‘Narrow Blade’ affinities and may have formed a summer base camp for hunter/gatherer groups operating in the Craven Pennines. Some artefacts of neolithic date have been found on the sites and this may indicate continuity. There is evidence for forest clearance and settlement in the later neolithic and this was well established by the Early Bronze Age.

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