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.

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.

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.

An Early Bronze Age Cremation Cemetery at Beggarwood Lane, Basingstoke, Hampshire

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-35
Author(s):  
Ray Kennedy ◽  
Richard Massey ◽  
Sharon Clough ◽  
Katie Marsden ◽  
E R McSloy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Unknown Function ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
Related Material ◽  
Single Feature ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Field Boundaries ◽  
Excavation Area

An archaeological excavation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology in February 2016, on land at Beggarwood Lane, Basingstoke, Hampshire. The excavation area was targeted on archaeological features identified by evaluation.<br/> Excavation identified a small Early Bronze Age cremation cemetery, comprising twenty-three pits containing deposits of cremated bone or pyre debris, seven of which were associated with urns. The identified vessels included both collared urn and 'food vessel' types, which are well-represented in cremation cemeteries of this date elsewhere in Hampshire. Cremated human bone was recovered from only nine features, of which three were associated with urns and six were unurned.<br/> Two pits contained possible evidence of post settings, and a small number of undated features had no association with cremation-related material, and were of unknown function.<br/> A single feature, of Roman date, contained a deposit of iron nails which, together with charred plant remains, suggested settlement or agricultural activity in proximity to the site. A number of ditched field boundaries of post-medieval date were identified during the evaluation.<br/> The Early Bronze Age cremation cemetery represents a rare example of its type in southern England, and one of at least regional importance.

An Early Neolithic Grave and Occupation, and an Early Bronze Age Hearth on the Thames Foreshore at Yabsley Street, Blackwall, London

2008 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 215-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Coles ◽  
Steve Ford ◽  
Andy Taylor ◽  
Sian Anthony ◽  
Rowena Gale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Natural Sand ◽  
Peat Deposits ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Marked Decline ◽  
Sand And Gravel

Excavation on the Thames floodplain in London revealed traces of Early Neolithic occupation and burial on a sand and gravel bar beneath alluvium. A large expanse of peat also buried by alluvium was recorded between these finds and the modern river Thames suggesting that the occupation was situated on or close to the foreshore. A single grave cut into the natural sand contained a poorly preserved crouched inhumation, possibly of a woman. The burial was accompanied by a fragment of carinated bowl, a flint knife, and other struck flints. A radiocarbon date from an oak retaining plank within the grave of 5252±28 BP (4220–3970 cal BC: KIA20157) makes this burial one of the earliest from the British Isles and the earliest known for London. A scatter of struck flint and pottery predominantly of Early Neolithic date was recovered from adjacent areas of the sand. A nearby hearth contained fragments of Early Bronze Age pottery pointing to later prehistoric activity nearby. Charred plant remains indicate both the collection of wild plant foods and cultivated cereals in the Early Neolithic. Radiocarbon dating of the adjacent peat deposits indicated their rapid growth within the Middle Bronze Age with a marked decline in woodland cover at the start of the sequence and a rise in grassland and herb species. Cereal pollen then briefly became a significant component of the sequence before declining to more modest levels.

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.

Charred plant remains from neolithic–bronze age Platia Magoula Zarkou, Thessaly

1993 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glynis Jones ◽  
Paul Halstead
Keyword(s):  
Hordeum Vulgare ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Triticum Dicoccum ◽  
Bitter Vetch ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

Charred plant remains of middle neolithic to middle bronze age date indicate the processing for storage or consumption of emmer (Triticum dicoccum), hulled six-row barley (Hordeum vulgare), bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia) and acorns (Quercus sp.). Samples of emmer, barley, and bitter vetch from an early bronze age destruction level are valuable evidence for economic diversification at a household level.

Early Bronze Age Plant Remains from İmamoğlu Höyük, Se Turkey

1997 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 173-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Oybak ◽  
Ş. Demirci
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Plant Material ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Se Turkey

İmamoğlu Höyük was situated in the Euphrates basin, ca. 15 km. northeast of Malatya in south east Turkey (Fig. 1). On account of the construction of a dam at Karakaya on the Euphrates, salvage excavations were carried out at the site from 1980 to 1987 under the direction of Edibe Uzunoğlu of İstanbul Archaeology Museums. In the 1986 excavation season, some Early Bronze Age remains (dated between 2300–2000 B.C.) were recovered. These remains included carbonised plant material, consisting principally of barley and pea. The five samples of plant remains were collected from the floors of buildings in squares 7H and 7I.

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