Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T18:19:20.235Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Early Bronze Age Chronology: Radiocarbon Dates and Chronological Models from Tel Yarmuth (Israel)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Johanna Regev*
Affiliation:
The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel Radiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Laboratory, Kimmel Center of Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
Pierre De Miroschedji
Affiliation:
UMR 7041 (HAROC) - Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité, Maison de l'archéologie et de l'ethnologie, Boîte 17, 21, allée de l'Université, 92023 Nanterre cédex, France
Elisabetta Boaretto
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Laboratory, Kimmel Center of Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
*
Corresponding author. Email: [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.

Over the years, 40 radiocarbon samples (charcoal and seeds) have been measured from the site of Tel Yarmuth. These samples originate from 3 major archaeological periods: Final Early Bronze Age (henceforth EB) I, EB II, and EB IIIB-C. The samples are further on divided into 8 separate archaeological phases. Bayesian modeling analyses were performed on the data. Separate models were run with seeds and charcoals to detect a possible old-wood effect. Outliers were detected, and finally models with gaps were run to account for the lack of samples from 2 archaeological layers. The results suggest that at Tel Yarmuth the end of the EB II occurred ∼2950–2880 BC, and that the EB III ended at the latest ∼2450 BC, perhaps before 2500 BC. Although these dates are somewhat earlier than traditionally assumed, they are in close accordance with the new analysis of other 14C dates for the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant (Regev et al., these proceedings).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Aufderheide, AC, Nissenbaum, A, Cartmell, L. 2004. Radiocarbon date recovery from bitumen-containing Egyptian embalming resins. Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 31:8796.Google Scholar
Ben-Tor, A. 1975. The first season of excavations at Tell Yarmuth: August 1970. Qedem (Monographs of the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jérusalem) 1:5587.Google Scholar
Ben-Tor, A. 1991. New light on the relations between Egypt and southern Palestine during the Early Bronze Age. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 281:310.Google Scholar
Ben-Tor, A. 1992. The Early Bronze Age. In: Ben-Tor, A, editor. The Archaeology of Ancient Israel. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 81125.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):1023–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Dee, MW, Rowland, JM, Higham, TFG, Harris, SA, Brock, F, Quiles, A, Wild, EM, Marcus, ES, Shortland, AJ. 2010. Radiocarbon-based chronology for Dynastic Egypt. Science 328(5985):1554–7.Google ScholarPubMed
de Miroschedji, P. 1999. Yarmuth, the dawn of city-states in southern Canaan. Near Eastern Archaeology 62(1):219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Miroschedji, P. 2000. An EB III pottery sequence for southern Israel. In: Philip, G, Baird, D, editors. Ceramics and Change in the Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. p 315–45.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, P. 2003. The Late EB III Palace B1 at Tel Yarmuth: a descriptive summary. Eretz Israel 27:153–70.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, P. 2008. Jarmuth Tel. In: Stern, E, editor. The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Volume 5, Supplementary Volume. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. p 1792–7.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, P. In press a. Early Bronze Age (Israel, Palestinian territories). In: Killebrew, A, Steiner, M, editors. Oxford Handbook of Archaeology of the Levant (ca. 8000–332 bce). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, P. In press b. Egypt and southern Canaan in the Third Millennium BCE: Uni's Asiatic campaigns revisited. In: Lehmann, G, Gruber, MI, Ahituv, S, Talshir, Z, editors. All the Wisdom of the East. Studies in Near Eastern Archaeology and History in Honor of Eliezer D. Oren. Orbis biblicus et orientalis XXX. Fribourg: Fribourg Academic Press.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, P, Davis, S, Goldberg, P, Kermorvant, A, Nodet, E, Rosen, S, London, G. 1988. Yarmouth 1, rapport sur les trois premières campagnes de fouilles à Tel Yarmouth (Israël), 1980–1982. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les civilisations.Google Scholar
Hennessy, JB. 1967. The Foreign Relations of Palestine during the Early Bronze Age. Colt Archaeological Institute Publication. London: B. Quaritch.Google Scholar
Hornung, E, Kraus, R, Warburton, DA. 2006. Ancient Egyptian Chronology. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jimenez Serrano, A. 2007. Los Primeros Reyes y la Unifacacion de Egipto. Jaén: Universidad de Jaén.Google Scholar
Kitchen, KA. 1991. The chronology of ancient Egypt. World Archaeology 23(2):201–8.Google Scholar
Mazar, A. 1990. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible 10,000–586 B.C.E. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Regev, J, de Miroschedji, P, Greenberg, R, Braun, E, Greenhut, Z, Boaretto, E. 2012. Chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant: new analysis for a High Chronology. Radiocarbon, these proceedings.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.Google Scholar
Shaw, I, editor. 2000. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sowada, KN. 2009. Egypt in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Old Kingdom, An Archaeological Perspective. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 237). Fribourg: Fribourg Academic Press.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–63.Google Scholar
van den Brink, ECM, Levy, TE. 2002. Interaction models, Egypt and the Canaanite periphery. In: van den Brink, ECM, Levy, TE, editors. Egypt and the Levant, Interrelations from the 4th through the Early 3rd Millennium BCE. london: Leicester University Press. p 338.Google Scholar
Wenke, RJ. 2009. The Ancient Egyptian State, the Origins of Egyptian Culture (c.8000–2000 BC). 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):193206.Google Scholar