Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T00:57:33.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The End of the Chalcolithic Period in the South Jordan Valley: New 14C Determinations from Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Stephen Bourke ,
Ugo Zoppi ,
John Meadows ,
Quan Hua  and
Samantha Gibbins
Stephen Bourke*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Ugo Zoppi
Affiliation:
ANSTO, PMB1, Menai, New South Wales 2234, Australia.
John Meadows
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Quan Hua
Affiliation:
ANSTO, PMB1, Menai, New South Wales 2234, Australia.
Samantha Gibbins
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
*
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.

This article reports on 12 new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates from the latest phases of the Chalcolithic period occupation (late 5th millennium cal BC) at Teleilat Ghassul, type site for the south Levantine Ghassulian Chalcolithic culture. The new AMS dates from Teleilat Ghassul favor an amendment to a previous suggestion (Bourke et al. 2001), that all significant occupation at the site had ceased by 4000/3900 cal BC. This end-date should now be amended to 3900/3800 cal BC. Follow-up statistical modelling sourced to published 14C data drawn from a wide selection of south Levantine Chalcolithic period sites (Bourke 2001; Burton and Levy 2001) raises the possibility that Chalcolithic period occupation had ceased at virtually all major centers by 3800/3700 cal BC. This, in turn, suggests that the new data bearing on the end-date for occupation at Teleilat Ghassul may reflect a more widespread horizon of abandonment in the southern Levant.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 46 , Issue 1: Proceedings of the 18th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2), Conference Editors: Nancy Beavan Athfield, Rodger J Sparks , 2004 , pp. 315 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Ashmore, P. 1999. Radiocarbon dating: avoiding errors by avoiding mixed samples. Antiquity 73:124–30.Google Scholar
Blackham, M. 2002. Modeling Time and Transition in Prehistory: The Jordan Valley Chalcolithic (5500–3500 BC). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Bourke, S. 1997. The ‘pre-Ghassulian’ sequence at Teleilat Ghassul. In: Gebel, H-G, Kafafi, Z, Rollefson, G, editors. The Prehistory of Jordan II: Perspectives from 1997. Berlin: Ex Oriente. p 395–417.Google Scholar
Bourke, S. 2001. The Chalcolithic period. In: MacDonald, B, Adams, R, Bienkowski, P, editors. The Archaeology of Jordan. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. p 107–62.Google Scholar
Bourke, S, Lovell, J, Sparks, R, Seaton, P, Mairs, L, Meadows, J. 2000. Preliminary report on a second and third season of renewed excavations at Teleilat Ghassul by the University of Sydney, 1995/1997. Annual of the Department of Antiquities Jordan 44:37–89.Google Scholar
Bourke, S, Lawson, E, Lovell, J, Hua, Q, Zoppi, U, Barbetti, M. 2001. The chronology of the Ghassulian Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant: new 14C determinations from Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan. Radiocarbon 43(3):1217–22.Google Scholar
Braun, E. 2000. Area G at Afridar, Palmahim Quarry 3 and the earliest pottery of Early Bronze Age I: part of the “missing link.” In: Philip, G, Baird, D, editors. Ceramics and Change in the Early Bronze Age of the Southern Levant. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. p 113–28.Google Scholar
Braun, E. 2001. Proto, Early Dynastic Egypt and Early Bronze I–II of the southern Levant: some uneasy 14C correlations. Radiocarbon 43(3):1279–96.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. 1998. Probability and dating. Radiocarbon 40:461–74.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2000. Comment on ‘The use of Bayesian statistics for 14C dates of chronologically ordered samples: a critical analysis.’ Radiocarbon 42(2):199–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, T, Owen, D, Pike, A, Hedges, R. 2002. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: datelist 31. Archaeometry 44(3):1–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruins, H, van der Plicht, J. 2001. Radiocarbon challenges archaeo-historical time frameworks in the Near East: the Early Bronze Age of Jericho in relation to Egypt. Radiocarbon 43(3):1321–32.Google Scholar
Buck, C, Cavanagh, W, Litton, C. 1996. Bayesian Approach to Interpreting Archaeological Data. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Burton, M, Levy, T. 2001. The Chalcolithic radiocarbon record and its use in southern Levantine archaeology. Radiocarbon 43(3):1223–46.Google Scholar
Fink, D, Hotchkis, M, Hua, Q, Jacobsen, G, Smith, A, Zoppi, U, Child, D, Mifsud, C, van der Gaast, H, Williams, A, Williams, M. Forthcoming. The ANTARES AMS facility at ANSTO. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B. Google Scholar
Görsdorf, J. 2002. New 14C datings of prehistoric settlements in the south of Jordan. Orient Archäologie 5: 333–9.Google Scholar
Görsdorf, J, Dreyer, G, Hartung, U. 1998. New 14C dating of the archaic Royal Necropolis Umm al-Qaab at Abydos. Radiocarbon 40(2):641–7.Google Scholar
Hennessy, J. 1969. Preliminary report on a first season of excavations at Teleilat Ghassul. Levant 1:1–24.Google Scholar
Hennessy, J. 1982. Teleilat Ghassul and its place in the archaeology of Jordan. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan 1:55–8.Google Scholar
Hennessy, J. 1989. Ghassul, Teleilat. In: Homes-Fredericq, D, Hennessy, J, editors. Archaeology of Jordan. Vol. II.1 Field Reports. Surveys and Sites A-K. Leuven: Peeters. p 230–41.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Jacobsen, G, Zoppi, U, Lawson, E, Williams, A, Smith, A, McGann, M. 2001. Progress in radiocarbon target preparation at the ANTARES AMS Centre. Radiocarbon 43(2A):275–82.Google Scholar
Joffe, A, Dessel, J-P. 1995. Redefining chronology and terminology for the Chalcolithic of the southern Levant. Current Anthropology 36:507–18.Google Scholar
Lee, J. 1973. Chalcolithic Ghassul: New Aspects and Master Typology. [Unpublished PhD dissertation] . Jerusalem: Hebrew University Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Lovell, J. 2001. The Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods in the Southern Levant. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Meadows, J. Forthcoming. Early Farmers and Their Environment: Archaeobotanical Studies of Neolithic and Chalcolithic Sites in Jordan. [PhD dissertation] . Melbourne: La Trobe University.Google Scholar
Neef, R. 1988. Letter to J.B Hennessy, 28/4/88. Teleilat Ghassul Archive. Sydney: University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Neef, R. 1990. Introduction, development and environmental implications of olive culture. In: Bottema, S, Enjes-Nieborg, G, Van Zeist, W, editors. Man's Role in the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape. Rotterdam. p 295–306.Google Scholar
Stager, L. 1992. The Periodisation of Palestine from the Neolithic through Early Bronze times. In: Ehrich, R, editor. Chronologies in Old World Archaeology. 3rd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p 22–60.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. 1983. Business meeting: international agreements and the use of the new oxalic acid standard. Radiocarbon 25(2):793–5.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, P. 1993. Extended 14C database and revised CALIB 3.0 radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, P, Bard, E, Beck, J, Burr, G, Hughen, K, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, van der Plicht, J, Spurk, M. 1998. INTCAL98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24,000–0 cal BP. Radiocarbon 40(3):1041–83Google Scholar
Weinstein, J. 1984. Radiocarbon dating in the southern Levant. Radiocarbon 26(2):297–366.Google Scholar