Tel Yaqush—An Early Bronze Age Village in the Central Jordan Valley, Israel

2019 ◽  
Vol 381 ◽  
pp. 107-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Rotem ◽  
Mark Iserlis ◽  
Felix Höflmayer ◽  
Yorke M. Rowan
Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 905-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Bourke ◽  
Ugo Zoppi ◽  
John Meadows ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Samantha Gibbins

This article reports on 10 new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates from early phases of the Early Bronze Age at the long-lived settlement of Pella (modern Tabaqat Fahl) in the north Jordan Valley. The new AMS dates fall between 3400 and 2800 cal BC, and support a recent suggestion that all Chalcolithic period occupation had ceased by 3800/3700 cal BC at the latest (Bourke et al. 2004b). Other recently published Early Bronze Age14C data strongly supports this revisionist scenario, suggesting that the earliest phase of the Early Bronze Age (EBA I) occupied much of the 4th millennium cal BC (3800/3700 to 3100/3000 cal BC). As this EB I period in the Jordan Valley is generally viewed as the key precursor phase in the development of urbanism (Joffe 1993), this revisionist chronology has potentially radical significance for understanding both the nature and speed of the move from village settlement towards a complex urban lifeway.


Author(s):  
James Fraser

Overview:Dolmens are usually described as part of a regional megalithic phenomenon that spanned the 5th-2nd millennia BC. However, this presentation assumes that most ‘dolmens’ are mis-identified. When strictly defined, dolmens better reflect a local funerary tradition of the 4th millennium BC.Definitions:The term dolmen includes a variety of features whose only similarity is their use of large stone slabs. This presentation defines a dolmen as a freestanding,rectangular chamber formed by two upright orthostats along each long side, and a single roof slab over the top. Dolmens have often been conflated with cairns. This presentation defines a cairn as a large pile of small stones. Such features may have contained a low, cist burial chamber; others may simply be piles of field clearance.Distribution:Dolmens, as defined above, concentrate within a limited area of the east rift escarpment of the Jordan Valley, consistent with a local funerary tradition.Chronology: Recent dolmen excavations have yielded assemblages that date exclusively to the EB I (c.3700-3000 BC). This talk examines the close spatial relationship between dolmens and EB I settlement sites in a discrete geographical zone.


Author(s):  
Steven Mithen

The ancient civilizations were dependent upon sophisticated systems of water management. The hydraulic engineering works found in ancient Angkor (ninth to thirteenth century AD), the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan (thirteenth to fifteenth century AD), Byzantine Constantinople (fourth to sixth century AD) and Nabatean Petra (sixth century BC to AD 106) are particularly striking because each of these is in localities of the world that are once again facing a water crisis. Without water management, such ancient cities would never have emerged, nor would the urban communities and towns from which they developed. Indeed, the ‘domestication’ of water marked a key turning point in the cultural trajectory of each region of the world where state societies developed. This is illustrated by examining the prehistory of water management in the Jordan Valley, identifying the later Neolithic (approx. 8300–6500 years ago) as a key period when significant investment in water management occurred, laying the foundation for the development of the first urban communities of the Early Bronze Age.


Antiquity ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (296) ◽  
pp. 345-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline R. Cartwright

The sudden conflagration of an Early Bronze Age room at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh in the Jordan valley resulted in the preservation of a remarkable assemblage of plant remains. Using microscopy and experiment, the author was able to detect fruits previously sun dried for preservation. Grapes, figs, pomegranate, olives, cereals, legumes and capers provided the most conclusive evidence for the drying and preservation of food.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document