Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:22:41.816Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Chalcolithic Radiocarbon Record and Its Use in Southern Levantine Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Margie Burton  and
Thomas E Levy
Margie Burton
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, Department of Anthropology, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. Email: [email protected] and [email protected].
Thomas E Levy
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, Department of Anthropology, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, USA. Email: [email protected] and [email protected].
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Chalcolithic period (5th–4th millennium BCE) in the southern Levant was a time of significant settlement expansion and increasing social complexity. Important technological and social developments during this era set the stage for the later rise of fortified sites and nascence of urbanization in the Early Bronze Age. Controversy surrounding the chronology of Chalcolithic settlement and the reconstruction of social trajectories has stimulated an interest in building a database of radiocarbon dates to measure the tempo of change and help resolve these issues. To facilitate social evolutionary research, this paper reviews and updates published 14C data for the southern Levantine Chalcolithic. The now-substantial database supports the generally accepted time frame for this archaeological period and allows synchronic comparisons across diverse geographic subregions in the southern Levant. In addition, it helps to temporally place the emergence of sophisticated technologies and the development of complex social institutions within the Chalcolithic period. However, radiometrically based attempts at pan-regional internal periodization of the Chalcolithic and fine-tuning of protohistoric events such as site establishment and abandonment are frustrated by the lack of precision in 14C dates, which limits their ability to resolve chronological sequence. Improved delineation of Chalcolithic social trajectories can be achieved most effectively by focussing research efforts on stratigraphic and typological investigations of deeply-stratified settlement sites such as Teleilat Ghassul and Shiqmim within their local contexts.

Type
Near East Chronology: Archaeology and Environment
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 43 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 3 of 3) , 2001 , pp. 1223 - 1246
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Aardsma, GE. 2001. Redating the Cave of the Treasure Mat. Radiocarbon. This issue.Google Scholar
Adams, R, Genz, H. 1995. Excavations at Wadi Fidan 4: a Chalcolithic village complex in the Copper Ore District of Feinan, southern Jordan. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 127:8–20.Google Scholar
Aharoni, Y. 1962. Expedition B–the Cave of Horror. Israel Exploration Journal 12:186–99.Google Scholar
Alon, D, Levy, TE, editors. In press. Archaeology, anthropology, and cult: the sanctuary at Gilat (Israel). London: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Avner, U. 1984. Ancient cult sites in the Negev and Sinai Deserts. Tel Aviv 11:115–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avner, U. 1998. Settlement, agriculture and paleoclimate in 'Uvda Valley, Southern Negev Desert, 6th-3rd millennia BC. In: Issar, AS, Brown, N, editors. Water, environment and society in times of climatic change. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p 147–202.Google Scholar
Avner, U, Carmi, I, Segal, D. 1994. Neolithic to Bronze Age settlement of the Negev and Sinai in light of radiocarbon dating: a view from the Southern Negev. In: Bar-Yosef, O, Kra, RS, editors. Late Quaternary chronology and paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean. Tucson: Radiocarbon, The University of Arizona Board of Regents. p 265–300.Google Scholar
Bar-Adon, P. 1980. The Cave of the Treasure: the finds from the caves in Nahal Mishmar. Jerusalem: The Israel Exploration Society.Google Scholar
Bourke, SJ. 1997. The “Pre-Ghassulian” sequence at Teleilat Ghassul: Sydney University excavations 1975–1995. In: Gebel, HGK, Kafafi, Z, Rollefson, GO, editors. The prehistory of Jordan, II: perspectives from 1997. Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence, and Environment 4. Berlin: ex oriente . p 395–417.Google Scholar
Bourke, S, Lawson, EM, Lovell, J, Hua, Q, Zoppi, U. 2001. The chronology of the Chalcolithic Period in the Southern Levant: new 14C determinations from Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan. Radiocarbon. This issue.Google Scholar
Braun, E. 1996. Cultural diversity and change in the Early Bronze I of Israel and Jordan. Doctoral dissertation. Tel Aviv University.Google Scholar
Carmi, I. 1987. Rehovot radiocarbon measurements III. Radiocarbon 29(1):100–14.Google Scholar
Carmi, I. 1996. Radiocarbon dates. In: Gopher, A, editor. The Nahal Qanah Cave: earliest gold in the Southern Levant. Jerusalem: Graphit Press, Ltd. p 205–8.Google Scholar
Carmi, I, Segal, D. 1992. Rehovot radiocarbon measurements IV. Radiocarbon 34(1):115–32.Google Scholar
Carmi, I, Segal, D. 1998. 14C dates from Chalcolithic sites in the Golan. In: Epstein, C, editor. The Chalcolithic culture of the Golan. IAA Reports, No. 4. Jerusalem: The Israel Antiquities Authority. p 343.Google Scholar
Dollfus, G, Kafafi, Z. 1993. Recent researches at Abu Hamid. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 37:241–63.Google Scholar
Dothan, M. 1959. Excavations at Horvat Beter (Beersheva). 'Atiqot 2:1–71.Google Scholar
Gal, Z, Smithline, H, Shalem, D. 1997. A Chalcolithic burial cave in Peqi'in, Upper Galilee. Israel Exploration Journal 47(3–4):145–54.Google Scholar
Gal, Z, Smithline, H, Shalem, D. 1999. New iconographic aspects of Chalcolithic art: preliminary observations on finds from the Peqi'in Cave. 'Atiqot 37:1–16.Google Scholar
Gilead, I. 1988. The Chalcolithic period in the Levant. Journal of World Prehistory 2(4):397–443.Google Scholar
Gilead, I. 1994. The history of the Chalcolithic settlement in the Nahal Beer Sheva area: the radiocarbon aspect. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 296:1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopher, A, Gophna, R. 1993. Cultures of the eighth and seventh millennia BP in the Southern Levant: a review for the 1990s. Journal of World Prehistory 7(3):297–353.Google Scholar
Gopher, A. 1996. The Nahal Qanah Cave: earliest gold in the Southern Levant. Jerusalem: Graphit Press, Ltd.Google Scholar
Gophna, R. 1998. Early Bronze Age Canaan: some spatial and demographic observations. In: Levy, TE, editor. The archaeology of society in the Holy Land. 2nd edition. New York: Facts on File, Inc. 269–81.Google Scholar
Hedges, REM, Housley, RA, Bronk, CR, van Klinken, GJ. 1992. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system. Archaeometry 34:337–57.Google Scholar
Henry, DO. 1992. Seasonal movements of fourth millennium pastoral nomads in the Wadi Hisma, Southern Jordan. In: Zaghloul, M, 'Amr, K, editors. History and archaeology of Jordan. Vol. 4. Amman: Department of Antiquities. p 137–43.Google Scholar
Henry, DO. 1995. Prehistoric cultural ecology and evolution: insights from Southern Jordan. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Housley, RA. 1994. Eastern Mediterranean chronologies: the Oxford AMS contribution. In: Bar-Yosef, O, Kra, RS, editors. Late Quaternary chronology and paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean. Tucson:Radiocarbon, The University of Arizona. p 55–73.Google Scholar
Joffe, AH, Dessel, JP. 1995. Redefining chronology and terminology for the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant. Current Anthropology 36(3):507–18.Google Scholar
Jull, AJT, Donahue, DJ, Carmi, I, Segal, D. 1998. Radiocarbon dating of finds. In: Schick, T, editor. The Cave of the Warrior: A fourth millennium burial in the Judean Desert. IAA Reports, No. 5. Jerusalem: The Israel Antiquities Authority. p 110–2.Google Scholar
Kaplan, J. 1969. 'Ein el Jarba: Chalcolithic remains in the Plain of Esdraelon. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 194:2–39.Google Scholar
Kozloff, B. 1974. A brief note on the lithic industries of Sinai. Museum Haaretz Yearbook 15–16: 35–49.Google Scholar
Lee, J. 1973. Chalcolithic Ghassul: new aspects and master typology. Doctoral dissertation. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Levy, TE, Adams, RB, Witten, AJ, Anderson, J, Arbel, Y, Kuah, S, Moreno, J, Lo, A, Wagonner, M. In press. Early metallurgy, interaction, and social change: the Jebal Hamrat Fidan (Jordan) research design and 1998 archaeological survey: preliminary report. In: Bisheh, G. editor. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on the Archaeology of Jordan. Copenhagen 1998. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan.Google Scholar
Levy, TE, Alon, D. 1987. Excavations in the Shiqmim Village. In: Levy, TE, editor. Shiqmim I: studies concerning Chalcolithic societies in the Northern Negev Desert, Israel. Oxford: BAR International Series 356(i). p 373–411.Google Scholar
Levy, TE, Alon, D, Grigson, C, Holl, A, Goldberg, P, Rowan, Y, Smith, P. 1991. Subterranean Negev settlement. National Geographic Research & Exploration 7(4):394–413.Google Scholar
Levy, TE, Alon, D, Rowan, Y, van den Brink, ECM, Grigson, C, Holl, A, Smith, P, Goldberg, P, Witten, AJ, Kansa, E, Moreno, J, Yekuteili, Y, Porat, N, Golden, J, Dawson, L, Kersel, M. 1997. Egyptian-Canaanite interaction at Nahal Tillah, Israel (ca. 4500–3000 BCE): an interim report on the 1994–1995 excavations. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 307:1–51.Google Scholar
Lovell, J, Kafafi, Z, Dollfus, G. 1997. A preliminary note on the ceramics from the basal levels of Abu Hamid. In: Gebel, HGK, Kafafi, Z, Rollefson, GO, editors. The Prehistory of Jordan, II. Perspectives from 1997. Studies in Early Near Eastern production, subsistence, and environment 4. Berlin: ex oriente. p 361–370.Google Scholar
Marcus, J, Feinman, GM. 1998. Introduction. In: Feinman, GM, Marcus, J, editors. Archaic states. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. p 3–14.Google Scholar
Mellaart, J. 1979. Egyptian and Near Eastern chronology: a dilemma? Antiquity 53:6–19.Google Scholar
Najjar, M, Abu Dayya, A, Suleiman, E, Weisgerber, G, Hauptmann, A. 1990. Tell Wadi Feinan: the first pottery Neolithic Tell in the south of Jordan. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 34:27–56.Google Scholar
Perrot, J. 1987. Introduction. In: Commenge-Pellerin, C. La poterie d'Abou Matar et de l'Ouadi Zumeili (Beersheva) au IVe millenaire avant l'ere Chretienne. Les Cahiers du Centre de Recherche Francais de Jerusalem 3. Paris: Association Paleorient. p 15–7.Google Scholar
Rosen, SA. 1984. Kvish Harif: preliminary investigation at a Late Neolithic site in the central Negev. Paleorient 10(2): 111–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothenberg, B, Glass, J. 1992. The beginnings and the development of early metallurgy and the settlement and chronology of the western Arabah, from the Chalcolithic Period to Early Bronze Age IV. Levant 24: 141–57.Google Scholar
Schick, T, editor. 1998. The Cave of the Warrior: a fourth millennium burial in the Judean Desert. IAA Reports, No. 5. Jerusalem: The Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Segal, D, Carmi, I. 1996. Rehovot radiocarbon date list V. 'Atiqot 29:79–106.Google Scholar
Segal, D, Carmi, I, Gal, Z, Smithline, H, Shalev, D. 1998. Dating a Chalcolithic burial cave in Peqi'in, Upper Galilee, Israel. Radiocarbon 40(2):707–12.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Beck, JW, Burr, GS, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, van der Plicht, J, Spurk, M. 1998. INTCAL98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24,000-0 BP Radiocarbon 40(3): 1041–84. (http://depts.washington.edu/qil)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein, JM. 1984. Radiocarbon dating in the Southern Levant. Radiocarbon 26(3):297–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar