scholarly journals Early Bronze Jericho: High-Precision 14C Dates of Short-Lived Palaeobotanic Remains

Radiocarbon ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 621-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik J. Bruins ◽  
Johannes Van Der Plicht
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Analysis ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Gibbs Sampling ◽  
High Precision ◽  
Near East ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates

Reliable series of high-precision radiocarbon dates in a stratified archaeological context are of great importance for interdisciplinary chronological and historical studies. The Early Bronze Age in the Near East is characterized by the beginning of the great civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as by urbanization in the Levant. We present stratified high-precision dates of short-lived material of Tell es-Sultan (Jericho), covering Late Proto-Urban/EB I, EB II and EB III layers from Trench III. Our calibrated dates, refined by Bayesian sequence analysis involving Gibbs sampling, are ca. 150–300 yr older than conventional archaeological age assessments. The corpus of 14C dates measured in the first decades after the discovery of 14C dating should not be taken too seriously. The 14C dates of Jericho measured by the British Museum 14C laboratory in 1971 appear to be erroneous.

Palestinian radiocarbon dating: a reply to James Mellaart

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (210) ◽  
pp. 21-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Weinstein
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Near East ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
As If

James Mellaart’s attempt to demonstrate a ‘high’ chronology for Egypt and the Near East for the period of c. 4000-1500 BC will undoubtedly stimulate much discussion among historians and archaeologists. He has forcefully pointed out various problems which have arisen in trying to reconcile the standard historical chronologies established between and within individual countries. It is probably true that some scholars have treated the so-called ‘middle’ chronology as if it was almost sacred, and certainly some individuals have ignored radiocarbon dates (especially calibrated dates) if they appeared to be in conflict with results obtained from traditional historical and archaeological sources. But neither these faults, nor others pointed out by the author, justify his own methods of trying to demolish the middle chronology in favour of a significantly higher one. Since elsewhere in this issue Barry Kemp is presenting a critical review of Mellaart’s Egyptian historical data, and has included some remarks on the Egyptian radiocarbon dates, I will restrict my own remarks here largely to the Palestinian radiocarbon materials, and will only comment on the Egyptian C14 dates as they pertain to Palestinian Early Bronze Age chronology.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon Challenges Archaeo-Historical Time Frameworks in the Near East: the Early Bronze Age of Jericho in Relation to Egypt

Radiocarbon ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 1321-1332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik J Bruins ◽  
Johannes van der Plicht
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Near East ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Time Estimates ◽  
The 1960S

Our stratified radiocarbon dates from EB Jericho (Trench III) on short-lived material are significantly older than conventional archaeo-historical time frameworks. The calibrated 14C date of Stage XV Phase li-lii (Early to Middle EB-I Kenyon) is 100–450 years older. Stage XVI Phase lxi-lxii (Early EB-II Kenyon) is 200–500 years older. Stage XVI Phase lxii-lxiii (destructive end EB-II) is 200–300 years older. Stage XVII Phase lxviii a – lxix a (Early EB-III) is 100–300 years older than conventional archaeo-historical time estimates. As the beginning of the Chalcolithic in the Near East has “become” a 1000 years older, from about 4000 in the 1960s to about 5000 BC in current perception based on 14C dating, it should not be surprising that the Early Bronze Age and related Egyptian Dynasties also yield 14C dates that are older by a few hundred years than current archaeo-historical time frameworks. Egyptian chronology should not be regarded as ultimately fixed. Egyptologists in the first half of the 20th century gave much older dates for the earlier Dynasties. The new 14C evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of an older Early Bronze Age and older dates for Dynasties 1–6.

Dairy Queen. Churns and milk products in the Aegean Bronze Age

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah P. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Dairy Products ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Specific Function ◽  
Milk Products ◽  
The Third ◽  
Household Processing

This article assembles examples of an unusual vessel found in domestic contexts of the Early Bronze Age around the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean. Identified as a “barrel vessel” by the excavators of Troy, Lesbos (Thermi), Lemnos (Poliochni), and various sites in the Chalkidike, the shape finds its best parallels in containers identified as churns in the Chalcolithic Levant, and related vessels from the Eneolithic Balkans. Levantine parallels also exist in miniature form, as in the Aegean at Troy, Thermi, and Poliochni, and appear as part of votive figures in the Near East. My interpretation of their use and development will consider how they compare to similar shapes in the archaeological record, especially in Aegean prehistory, and what possible transregional relationships they may express along with their specific function as household processing vessels for dairy products during the third millennium BC.

First archaeological investigations of barrows in the Bačka region and the question of the Eneolithic/Early Bronze Age barrows in Vojvodina

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-375
Author(s):  
Jovan Koledin ◽  
Urszula Bugaj ◽  
Paweł Jarosz ◽  
Mario Novak ◽  
Marcin M. Przybyła ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Western Region ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Funeral Ritual ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
National Science ◽  
Steppe Communities ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
Two Stages

AbstractIn various prehistoric periods, the territory of Vojvodina became the target of the migration of steppe communities with eastern origins. The oldest of these movements are dated to the late Eneolithic and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. There are at least two stages among them: I – dated to the end of the fourth millennium BC / beginning of the third millennium BC and II – dated from 3000 to 2600 BC and combined with the communities of the classical phase of the Yamnaya culture. The data documenting these processes have been relatively poor so far – in comparison with the neighboring regions of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. A big drawback was the small number of systematically excavated mounds, providing comprehensive data on the funeral ritual of steppe communities. This poor database has been slightly enriched as a result of the design of the National Science Centre (Cracow, Poland) entitled “Danubian route of the Yamnaya culture”. Its effect was to examine the first two barrows located on the territory of Bačka – the western region of Vojvodina. Currently, these burial mounds are the westernmost points on the map of the cemeteries of the Yamnaya culture complex. Radiocarbon dates obtained for new finds, as well as for archival materials, allow specifying two stages of use of cemeteries of Yamnaya culture: I – around 3000–2900 BC and II – around 2800–2600 BC. Among the finds from Banat, there were also few materials coming probably from the older period, corresponding to the classical phase of Baden – Coţofeni I–II. The enigmatic nature of these discoveries, however, does not allow to specify their dating as well as cultural dependencies.

Figurines of the Anatolian Early Bronze Age: the assemblage from Koçumbeli-Ankara

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 85-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çiğdem Atakuman
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Social ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Social Concerns ◽  
Third Millennium Bc

AbstractThrough analysis of a figurine assemblage from the site of Koçumbeli-Ankara, this study aims to re-evaluate the origins, meanings and functions of the Early Bronze Age (third millennium BC) anthropomorphic figurines of Anatolia. Conventional typological approaches to figurines are often focused on their origins and sex; however, such approaches hinder an understanding of the context of the norms of production, display and discard within which the figurines become more meaningful. Following an examination of breakage patterns and the decorative aspects of the Koçumbeli assemblage, a comparative review of figurine find contexts, raw materials and abstraction scales in Anatolia is provided, so that the social concerns underlying the use of these figurines can be explored. It is concluded that the origins of the figurines are difficult to pinpoint, due to the presence of similar items across a variety of regions of the Near East from the later Neolithic onwards. The sex of the figurines is equally ambiguous; while some human sexual features can be discerned, it is difficult to decide whether these features are ‘male’, ‘female’, both or beyond classification. Alternatively, the decoration, breakage and find contexts of the figurines suggest that the imagery was embedded in more complex perceptions of social status, death and social regeneration. The need for materialisation of these concerns in the form of the figurines could be related to the development of a new social landscape of interaction leading to political centralisation by the second millennium BC. Furthermore, the figurines were produced through a meaningful linking of particular raw materials and particular abstraction scales to particular use contexts, which seems to have shifted during the centralisation process.

scholarly journals Southern Palestinian Chronology: Two Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Bronze Age at Tell El-Hesi (Israel)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger W Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates

Several articles reporting radiocarbon dates of Early Bronze Age (EB) material from excavations in the southern Levant have been published over the last 30 yr. The excavations conducted at Tell el-Hesi have produced material from which 2 additional 14C dates have been extracted to date. The 2 samples confirm the EB dating of Field VI material and suggest EB III settlement at Hesi might be earlier than previously reported based on pottery typology.

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.

DEATH BY COMBAT AT THE DAWN OF THE BRONZE AGE? PROFILING THE DAGGER-ACCOMPANIED BURIAL FROM RACTON, WEST SUSSEX

2017 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 65-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Needham ◽  
James Kenny ◽  
Garrard Cole ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Mandy Jay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North West ◽  
Limited Efficacy ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
Protein Rich ◽  
Left Humerus ◽  
The Bronze Age

A previously unresearched Early Bronze Age dagger-grave found in 1989 at Racton, West Sussex, is profiled here through a range of studies. The dagger, the only grave accompaniment, is of the ‘transitional’ Ferry Fryston type, this example being of bronze rather than copper. Bayesian analysis of relevant radiocarbon dates is used to refine the chronology of the earliest bronze in Britain. While the Ferry Fryston type was current in the earlier half of the twenty-second centurybc, the first butt-riveted bronze daggers did not emerge until the second half. The Racton dagger is also distinguished by its elaborate rivet-studded hilt, an insular innovation with few parallels.The excavated skeleton was that of a senior male, buried according to the appropriate rites of the time. Isotopic profiling shows an animal-protein rich diet that is typical for the period, but also the likelihood that he was brought up in a region of older silicate sedimentary rocks well to the west or north west of Racton. He had suffered injury at or close to the time of death; a slice through the distal end of his left humerus would have been caused by a fine-edged blade, probably a dagger. Death as a result of combat-contested leadership is explored in the light of other injuries documented among Early Bronze Age burials. Codified elite-level combat could help to explain the apparent incongruity between the limited efficacy of early dagger forms and their evident weapon-status.

scholarly journals Chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant: New Analysis for a High Chronology

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 525-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Regev ◽  
Pierre De Miroschedji ◽  
Raphael Greenberg ◽  
Eliot Braun ◽  
Zvi Greenhut ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Bayesian Modeling ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Given

The chronology of the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in the southern Levant and the synchronization between the sites, considering seriation and radiocarbon dates, have shown large inconsistencies and disagreement. We have assembled 42014C dates, most of them previously published and a few provided directly by the excavators. The dates have been re-evaluated on the basis of their archaeological context and using analytical criteria. Bayesian modeling has been applied to the selected dates in relation to the given seriation of the EBA subperiods (EB I, II III, IV). Sites with 2 or more sequential sub-phases were individually modeled in order to define the transitions between the subperiods. The new chronology indicates that the EB I–II transition occurred site-dependently between 3200–2900 BC, with EB II–III around 2900 BC, and EB III–IV ∼2500 BC.

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