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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Hendrik J. Bruins  and
Johannes Van Der Plicht
Hendrik J. Bruins
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Social Studies Center, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, and Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Sede Boker Campus 84990 Israel
Johannes Van Der Plicht
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Social Studies Center, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, and Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Sede Boker Campus 84990 Israel
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Abstract

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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.

Type
Part 2: Applications
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 40 , Issue 2: 16th International Radiocarbon Conference June 16-20, 1997 Part 2: Applications, Conference Editors: Willem G. Mook Johannes van der Plicht , 1997 , pp. 621 - 628
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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