Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:46:14.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Absolute Dating of the Late Bronze to Iron Age Transition and the Appearance of Philistine Culture in Qubur el-Walaydah, Southern Levant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Yotam Asscher ,
Gunnar Lehmann ,
Steven A Rosen ,
Steve Weiner  and
Elisabetta Boaretto
Yotam Asscher*
Affiliation:
Department of Structural Biology and the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. [email protected] Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Dangoor Research Mass Spectrometer D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Gunnar Lehmann
Affiliation:
Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
Steven A Rosen
Affiliation:
Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
Steve Weiner
Affiliation:
Department of Structural Biology and the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. [email protected]
Elisabetta Boaretto*
Affiliation:
Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology, Dangoor Research Mass Spectrometer D-REAMS Radiocarbon Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
*
∗Corresponding authors: [email protected]; [email protected].
∗Corresponding authors: [email protected]; [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age transition involves profound cultural and political changes in the southern Levant. The transition is dated to the 12th century BC, based on archaeological artifacts and historical documents. A more precise absolute date for this transition for the southern Levant based on radiocarbon is difficult since the 14C calibration curve reduces precision significantly due to wiggles that form an approximately 200-yr-long plateau. This article analyzes 14C samples from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age transition at Qubur el-Walaydah. To increase the resolution of 14C dates within the plateau, 14C samples were collected only from well-defined multilayered contexts. 14C dates from 11 contexts were obtained and these were analyzed using a Bayesian model that incorporated the stratigraphic information. Using this integrative approach we date the Late Bronze Age III levels at Qubur el-Walydah, containing the initial phase of locally produced Philistine pottery between 1185–1140 BC, and the Late Bronze to Iron Age transition between 1140–1095 BC.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , 2015 , pp. 77 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albright, WF. 1932. The Excavation of Tell Beit Mirsim: Vol. I: The Pottery of the First Three Campaigns. New Haven: Yale University Press, American Schools of Oriental Research.Google Scholar
Berna, F, Behar, A, Shahack-Gross, R, Berg, J, Boaretto, E, Gilboa, A, Sharon, I, Shalev, S, Shilstein, S, Yahalom-Mack, N, Zorn, JR, Weiner, S. 2007. Sediments exposed to high temperatures: reconstructing pyrotechnological processes in Late Bronze and Iron Age strata at Tel Dor (Israel). Journal of Archaeological Science 34(3):358–73.Google Scholar
Boaretto, E. 2007. Determining the chronology of an archaeological site using radiocarbon: minimizing uncertainty. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 56(2–4):207–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boaretto, E. 2009. Dating materials in good archaeological contexts: the next challenge for radiocarbon analysis. Radiocarbon 51(1):275–81.Google Scholar
Brandl, B. 2004. Scarabs and plaques bearing royal names of the early 20th Egyptian Dynasty excavated in Canaan - from Sethnakht to Ramesses IV. In: Bietak, M, Czerny, E, editors. Scarabs of the Second Millennium BC from Egypt, Nubia, Crete and the Levant, Chronological and Historical Implications. Papers of a Symposium, Vienna, 10–13 January 2002. Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie, Band 35: Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean 8. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. p 57–71.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Dee, MW, Higham, TFG, Harris, SA, Bronk Ramsey, C, Dee, MW, Higham, TFG, Harris, SA. 2010. Radiocarbon-based chronology for dynastic Egypt. Science 328(5985):1554–7.Google Scholar
Bullock, P, Fedoroff, N, Jongerius, A, Stoops, G, Tursina, T, Babel, U. 1985. Handbook for Soil Thin Section Description. Albrighton: Waine Research Publications.Google Scholar
Carmi, I, Ussishkin, D. 2004. Ussishkin D, editor. The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973–1994). Monograph Series of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. Tel Aviv 22:2508–13.Google Scholar
Chu, V, Regev, L, Weiner, S, Boaretto, E. 2008. Differentiating between anthropogenic calcite in plaster, ash and natural calcite using infrared spectroscopy: implications in archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(4):905–11.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. 1978. Qubur el-Walaydah. Israel Exploration Journal 28:194–5.Google Scholar
Cross, FM. 1980. Newly found inscriptions in old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 238:1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dothan, M. 1971. Ashdod II-III: The Second and Third Seasons of Excavations 1963, 1965. Atiqot 9–10.Google Scholar
Dothan, M, Ben-Shlomo, D. 2005. Ashdod VI: The Excavations of Areas H and K (1968–1969). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority Reports 24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dothan, M, Freedman, DN. 1967. Ashdod I: The First Season of Excavations 1962. Atiqot 7.Google Scholar
Dothan, M, Porath, Y. 1982. Ashdod IV: Excavation of Area M, the Fortifications of the Lower City. Jerusalem: Department of Antiquities and Museums.Google Scholar
Dothan, M, Porath, Y. 1993. Ashdod V: The Fourth-Sixth Seasons of Excavations 1968–1970. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Dothan, T, Gitin, S, Zukerman, A. 2006. The pottery in Tel Miqne-Ekron excavations, 1995–1996: Field INE East Slope, Iron Age I (Early Philistine Period). In: Meehl, MW, Dothan, T, Gitin, S, editors. Tel Miqne-Ekron Final Field Report Series 8. Jerusalem: W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and Institute of Archaeology Hebrew University of Jerusalem. p 71–175.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, I. 1995. The date of the settlement of the Philistines in Canaan. Tel Aviv 22(2):213–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelstein, I. 1998. Philistine chronology: high, middle or low? In: Gitin, S, Mazar, A, Stern, E, editors. Mediterranean Peoples in Transition: Thirteenth to Early Tenth Centuries BCE. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. p 140–7.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, I. 2007. Is the Philistine paradigm still viable? In: Czerny, E, Bietak, M, editors. The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. III. Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000 - 2nd EuroConference Vienna, 28th of May-1st of June 2003. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. p 517–24.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, I. 2009. Destructions: Megiddo as a case study. In: Schloen, JD, editor. Exploring the Longue Durée. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. p 113–26.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, I, Piasetzky, E. 2010. Radiocarbon dating the Iron Age in the Levant: a Bayesian model for six ceramic phases and six transitions. Antiquity 84(324):374–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelstein, I, Piasetzky, E. 2011. The Iron Age chronology debate: Is the gap narrowing? Near Eastern Archaeology 74(2):50–4.Google Scholar
Freu, J. 1988. La tablette RS 96. 2233 et la phase finale du royaumed'Ugarit. Syria 65:395–8.Google Scholar
Goldwasser, O. 1984. Hieratic inscriptions from Tel Sera' in southern Canaan. Tel Aviv 11:77–93.Google Scholar
Gophna, R. 1961. The development of pottery at the end of Iron Age I in the land of the Philistines and the Judean Shephelah [unpublished MA thesis]. Jerusalem: Hebrew University=.Google Scholar
Israel Department of Antiquities. 1976. Geographical List of the Record Files 1918–1948. Jerusalem: Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, Ministry of Education and Culture.Google Scholar
Kaniewski, D, Campo, EV, Lerberghe, KV, Boiy, T, Vansteenhuyse, K, Jans, G, Nys, K, Weiss, H, Morhange, C, Otto, T, Bretschneider, J. 2011. The Sea Peoples, from cuneiform tablets to carbon dating. PLoS ONE 6:e20232. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020232.Google Scholar
Katz, O, Cabanes, D, Weiner, S, Maeir, AM, Boaretto, E, Shahack-Gross, R. 2010. Rapid phytolith extraction for on-site analysis of phytolith concentrations and assemblages: an application at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(7):1557–63.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, HJ. 1982. Gaza in the Egyptian texts of the New Kingdom. Journal of the American Oriental Society 102:111–3.Google Scholar
Killebrew, AE. 2005. Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300–1100 B.C.E. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.Google Scholar
Killebrew, AE, Lehmann, G, editors. 2013. The Philistines and Other ‘Sea Peoples’ in Text and Archaeology. Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and Biblical Studies 15. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.Google Scholar
Krauss, R. 1994. Einwahrscheinlicher Terminus post quemfür das Ende von Lachisch VI. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 126:123–30.Google Scholar
Lehmann, G. 2011. Cooking pots and loomweights in a ‘Philistine’ village: preliminary report on the excavations at Qubur el-Walaydah, Israel. In: Karageorghis, V, Kouka, O, editors. On Cooking Pots, Drinking Cups, Loomweights and Ethnicity in Bronze Age Cyprus and Neighbouring Regions. An International Archaeological Symposium held in Nicosia, November 6th-7th 2010. Nicosia: Leventis Foundation. p 287–314.Google Scholar
Lehmann, G. 2013. Aegean-style pottery in Syria and Lebanon during Iron Age I. In: Killebrew, AE, Lehmann, G, editors. The Philistines and Other ‘Sea Peoples’ in Text and Archaeology. Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and Biblical Studies 15. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. p 265–328.Google Scholar
Manning, SW. 2006–2007. Why radiocarbon dating 1200 BC is difficult: a sidelight on dating the end of the Late Bronze Age and the contrarian contribution. Scripta Mediterranea 27–28:53–80.Google Scholar
Manning, SW, Weninger, B, South, AK, Kling, B, Kuniholm, PI, Muhly, JD, Hadjisavvas, S, Sewell, DA, Cadogan, G. 2001. Absolute age range of the Late Cypriot IIC period on Cyprus. Antiquity 75(288):328–40.Google Scholar
Martin, MAS. 2011. Egyptian-Type Pottery in the Late Bronze Age Southern Levant. Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean 29; Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie der Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften 69. Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Master, DM, Stager, LE, Yasur-Landau, A. 2011. Chronological observations at the dawn of the Iron Age in Ashkelon. Egypt and the Levant 21:261–80.Google Scholar
Mazar, A. 1985. The emergence of the Philistine culture. Israel Exploration Journal 35:95–107.Google Scholar
Mazar, A. 1990. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000–586 B.C.E. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Mazar, A. 2007. Myc IIIC in the land of Israel: its distribution, date and significance. In: Czerny, E, Bietak, M, editors. The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. III. Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000 - 2nd EuroConference Vienna, 28th of May-1st of June 2003. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. p 571–82.Google Scholar
Mazar, A, Mullins, RA, editors. 2007. Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean, 1989–1996: Volume II. The Middle and Late Bronze Age Strata in Area R. Beth-Shean Valley Archaeological Project Publication 2. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Meehl, MW, Dothan, T, Gitin, S. 2006. Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavations, 1995–1996: Field INE East Slope, Iron Age I (Early Philistine Period). Tel Miqne-Ekron Final Field Report Series 8. Jerusalem: W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and Institute of Archaeology Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Morris, EF. 2005. The Architecture of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt's New Kingdom. Probleme der Ägyptologie 22. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Oren, ED. 1984. ‘Governors's Residencies’ in Canaan under the New Kingdom: a case study of Egyptian administration. Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 14:37–56.Google Scholar
Panitz-Cohen, N, Mazar, A, editors. 2009. Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean, 1989–1996: Volume III. The 13th-11th Centuries BC (Areas S and N). Beth-Shean Valley Archaeological Project Publication 3. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Pearson, GW, Stuiver, M. 1986. High-precision calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, 500–2500 BC. Radiocarbon 28(2B):839–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rebollo, NR, Cohen-Ofri, I, Popovitz-Biro, R, Bar-Yosef, O, Meignen, L, Goldberg, P, Weiner, S, Boaretto, E. 2008. Structural characterization of charcoal exposed to high and low pH: implications for 14C sample preparation and charcoal preservation. Radiocarbon 50(2):289–307.Google Scholar
Regev, L, Poduska, KM, Addadi, L, Weiner, S, Boaretto, E. 2010. Distinguishing between calcites formed by different mechanisms using infrared spectrometry: archaeological applications. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(12):3022–9.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffman, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine 13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–87.Google Scholar
Rypkema, HA, Lee, WE, Galaty, ML, Haws, J. 2007. Rapid, in-stride soil phosphate measurement in archaeological survey: a new method tested in Loudoun County, Virginia. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(11):1859–67.Google Scholar
Sherratt, S, Mazar, A. 2013. ‘Mycenaean IIIC’ and Related Pottery from Beth Shean. In: Killebrew, AE, Lehmann, G, editors. The Philistines and Other ‘Sea Peoples’ in Text and Archaeology. Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and Biblical Studies 15. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. p 478–99.Google Scholar
Singer, I. 1985. The beginning of Philistine settlement in Canaan and the northern boundary of Philistia. Tel Aviv 12(2):109–22.Google Scholar
Singer, I. 1999. A political history of Ugarit. In: Watson, WGE, Wyatt, N, editors. Handbuch der Orientalistik, Erste Abteilung, Nahe und der Mittlere Osten 39. Leiden: Brill. p 603–734.Google Scholar
Sollins, P, Swanston, C, Kleber, M, Filley, T, Kramer, M, Crow, S, Caldwell, BA, Lajtha, K, Bowden, R. 2006. Organic C and N stabilization in a forest soil: evidence from sequential density fractionation. Soil Biology Biochemistry 38(11):3313–24.Google Scholar
Stager, LE. 1985. Merneptah, Israel and Sea Peoples: new light on an old relief. Eretz Israel 18:56–65.Google Scholar
Toffolo, MB, Maeir, AM, Chadwick, JR, Boaretto, E. 2012. Characterization of contexts for radiocarbon dating: results from the Early Iron Age at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):371–90.Google Scholar
Toffolo, MB, Arie, E, Martin, MAS, Boaretto, E, Finkelstein, I. 2014. The absolute chronology of Megiddo, Israel, in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages: high-resolution radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 56(1):221–44.Google Scholar
Toffolo, MB, Boaretto, E. 2014. Nucleation of aragonite upon carbonation of calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide at ambient temperatures and pressures: a new indicator of fire-related human activities. Journal of Archaeological Science 49. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.05.020.Google Scholar
Uehlinger, C. 1988. Der Amun-Tempel Ramses' III. in p3-Kn'n, seine südpalästinischen Tempelgüter und der Übergang von der Ägypter- zur Philisterherrschaft: Ein Hinweis auf einigewenigbeachtete Skarabäen. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 104:6–25.Google Scholar
Ussishkin, D. 1985. Levels VII and VI at Tel Lachish and the End of the Late Bronze Age in Canaan. In: Tubb, JN, editor. Palestine in the Bronze and Iron Ages: Papers in Honour of Olga Tufnell. London: Institute of Archaeology. p 213–30.Google Scholar
Ussishkin, D, editor. 2004. The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973–1994). Monograph Series of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Monograph 22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ussishkin, D. 2007. Lachish and the date of the Philistine settlement in Canaan. In: Czerny, E, Bietak, M, editors. The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. III. Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000 - 2nd EuroConference Vienna, 28th of May-1st of June 2003. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.p 601–8.Google Scholar
Weiner, S. 2010. Microarchaeology: Beyond the Visible Archaeological Record. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weippert, M. 2010. Historisches Textbuch zum Alten Testament. Grundrisse zum Alten Testament 10. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p 173–4.Google Scholar
Yasur-Landau, A. 2010. The Philistines and Aegean Migration at the End of the Late Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yizhaq, M, Mintz, G, Cohen, I, Khalaily, H, Weiner, S, Boaretto, E. 2005. Quality controlled radiocarbon dating of bones and charcoal from the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) of Motza (Israel). Radiocarbon 47(2):193–206.Google Scholar
Yon, M. 1992. The end of the Kingdom of Ugarit. In: Ward, WA, Joukowsky, MS, editors. The 12th Century B.C. from beyond the Danube to the Tigris. Dubuque, Iowa: Kandall/Hunt. p 111–22.Google Scholar