scholarly journals The visible dead: dolmens and the landscape in Early Bronze Age Jordan

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Fraser
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
Large Stone ◽  
Close Spatial Relationship ◽  
Rectangular Chamber ◽  
Over The Top

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.

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
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
Central Jordan

scholarly journals The Beginning of the Early Bronze Age in the North Jordan Valley: New14C Determinations from Pella in Jordan

Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 905-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Bourke ◽  
Ugo Zoppi ◽  
John Meadows ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Samantha Gibbins
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The North ◽  
Precursor Phase ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Early Phases ◽  
Ams Dates

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.

The domestication of water: water management in the ancient world and its prehistoric origins in the Jordan Valley

2010 ◽  
Vol 368 (1931) ◽  
pp. 5249-5274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Mithen
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
The World ◽  
Ancient Civilizations

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.

Grapes or raisins? An early Bronze Age larder under the microscope

Antiquity ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 77 (296) ◽  
pp. 345-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline R. Cartwright
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Conclusive Evidence ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
Plant Remains

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.

scholarly journals Varying Levels of the Dian Lakes and the Dian Lakes Culture

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Leslie Lustig ◽  
Li Kunsheng ◽  
Jiang Zhilong ◽  
Chen Guo
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Digital Elevation Model ◽  
The Other ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Dianchi Lake ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Settlement Site ◽  
Elevation Model

Historical records state that the Dian kingdom was based on thousands of square li of rich flat land around Dianchi Lake. However, through use of a digital elevation model of the area, it is found that this area was about 800 li2—substantially less. Even if the other major Dian Lakes—Fuxian, Xinyung and Qi Lu—are included, the area increases to only about 1,000 li2. In the process of checking the area stated in the historical records, some issues warranting further exploration have been brought to light: the possibility of a human role in the recurring floods of Dianchi Lake from the 13th c CE; the idea that the settlement site found near Wangjiadun village and tentatively assigned to the early Bronze Age, could be dated to at least 4,500 BP, well before; and that the Shizhaishan and Lijiashan elite cemeteries may have looked out over water to their east. The seemingly limited area of fertile land also suggests that other sources of wealth such as trade and minerals played a greater role, and that the population was relatively small. This calls into question the nature of the socio-political structure within the Dian lakes culture.

The Swedish Jordan Expedition 2013 at Tall Abu al-Kharaz. Preliminary results from Areas 9, 10 and 11

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Fischer ◽  
Teresa Bürge
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Jordan Valley ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Iron Age I ◽  
The City

The Swedish excavations at Tall Abu al-Kharaz, a twelve-hectare tell in the central Jordan Valley, continued in 2013 in order to shed further light on the Iron Age occupation of this city that was first settled around 3200 BC, corresponding to the conventional Early Bronze Age IB. The Iron Age occupation lasted from the 12th century BC until 732 BC, when the city was conquered by the Neo-Assyrians. From 2009 to 2012, excavations in Area 9 revealed an exceptionally well-preserved two-storey compound dating from Iron Age I (local Phase IX), i.e. around 1100 BC. The stone compound was exposed for a length of 46 m. It consists of 21 rooms, with walls still standing to a height of more than 2 m. Several hundred complete vessels and other objects point to the extensive contacts of a fairly rich society. Contacts with the Aegean and Cyprus, through offshoots of the Sea Peoples/Philistines, and with Egypt and Phoenicia, were ascertained. At the end of the 2012 season, the eastern limit of the compound was reached. In 2013, complementary excavations were carried out to the north and east of the compound. The eastern extension revealed a defence system which had originally been built in the Early Bronze Age IB/II around 3100 BC but had been reused as a part of the Iron Age I defence structures. Test trenches in the north-eastern part of Area 10 and in Area 11 north-east of Area 10, i.e. a hitherto unexplored area of the city, revealed remains from the Late Bronze Age and the Early and Late Iron Age.

Ultrastructural evidence for mast cell-macrophage interrelationships in the dura mater of the rat: Infrequent mast cell-nerve associations

1990 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-353
Author(s):  
Ruth V.W. Dimlich
Keyword(s):  
Mast Cell ◽  
Mast Cells ◽  
Dura Mater ◽  
Spatial Relationship ◽  
Potassium Phosphate ◽  
Plasma Extravasation ◽  
Close Spatial Relationship ◽  
Male Wistar Rats ◽  
Headache Pain ◽  
Relationship Of

Mast cells in the dura mater of the rat may play a role in cerebral pathologies including neurogenic inflammation (vasodilation; plasma extravasation) and headache pain . As has been suggested for other tissues, dural mast cells may exhibit a close spatial relationship to nerves. There has been no detailed ultrastructural description of mast cells in this tissue; therefore, the goals of this study were to provide this analysis and to determine the spatial relationship of mast cells to nerves and other components of the dura mater in the rat.Four adult anesthetized male Wistar rats (290-400 g) were fixed by perfusion through the heart with 2% glutaraldehyde and 2.8% paraformaldehyde in a potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) for 30 min. The head of each rat was removed and stored in fixative for a minimum of 24 h at which time the dural coverings were removed and dissected into samples that included the middle meningeal vasculature. Samples were routinely processed and flat embedded in LX 112. Thick (1 um) sections from a minimum of 3 blocks per rat were stained with toluidine blue (0.5% aqueous).

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