Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T16:31:05.210Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iron Age Agriculture in the Negev Highlands? Methodological and Factual Comments on Bruins and van der Plicht 2017a (Radiocarbon Vol. 59, Nr. 1)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2017

Ruth Shahack-Gross  and
Israel Finkelstein
Ruth Shahack-Gross*
Affiliation:
Department of Maritime Civilizations, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel
Israel Finkelstein*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
*
*Corresponding authors. Emails: [email protected]; [email protected].
*Corresponding authors. Emails: [email protected]; [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This is a reply to a rejoinder to our work in the Negev Highlands (Shahack-Gross and Finkelstein 2015) recently published by Bruins and van der Plicht in this journal (2017a). It addresses archaeological method and practice related to the way evidence for the timing of dry farming in the arid Negev Highlands, Israel, has been obtained. We highlight issues related to phytolith assemblages and livestock dung found in Negev Highlands sites as an indicator for presence/absence of cereal crops, and briefly discuss methods with which terraced agricultural plots in the region have been dated. We touch upon issues at the core of the scientific method, especially the need for proper controls and the importance of reporting full sets of data. Based on the new data presented by Bruins and van der Plicht (2017a, 2017b) we propose an alternative interpretation for their dating of a single terrace at Horvat Haluqim.

Keywords

Iron AgeNegev HighlandsOSLradiocarbonterrace agriculture
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 1227 - 1231
Copyright
© 2017 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

Avni, G. 2008. The Byzantine-Islamic transition in the Negev: an archaeological perspective. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 35:1–26.Google Scholar
Avni, G, Porat, N, Avni, Y. 2013. Byzantine-Early Islamic agricultural systems in the Negev Highlands: stages of development as interpreted through OSL dating. Journal of Field Archaeology 38:332–346.Google Scholar
Avni, Y, Porat, N, Avni, G. 2012. Pre-farming environment and OSL chronology in the Negev Highlands, Israel. Journal of Arid Environments 86:12–27.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 2017a. Iron Age agriculture – a critical rejoinder to “Settlement oscillations in the Negev Highlands revisited: the impact of microarchaeological methods”. Radiocarbon 59(1):1–16.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 2017b. Dating of Iron Age agriculture in the Negev Highlands: a response to Shahack-Gross and Finkelstein. Radiocarbon 59(4), 1233–1239.Google Scholar
Cabanes, D, Weiner, S, Shahack-Gross, R. 2011. Stability of phytoliths in the archaeological record: a dissolution study of modern and fossil phytoliths. Journal of Archaeological Science 38:2480–2490.Google Scholar
Cabanes, D, Gadot, Y, Cabanes, M, Finkelstein, I, Weiner, S, Shahack-Gross, R. 2012. Human impact around settlement sites: a phytolith and mineralogical study for assessing site boundaries, phytolith preservation, and implications for spatial reconstructions using plant remains. Journal of Archaeological Science 39:2697–2705.Google Scholar
Cabanes, D, Shahack-Gross, R. 2015. Understanding fossil phytolith preservation: the role of partial dissolution in paleoecology and archaeology. PLoS ONE 10(5):e0125532. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0125532.Google Scholar
Davidovich, U, Porat, N, Gadot, Y, Avni, Y, Lipschits, O. 2012. Archaeological investigations and OSL dating of terraces at Ramat Rahel, Israel. Journal of Field Archeology 37:192–208.Google Scholar
Gadot, Y, Davidovich, U, Avni, G, Avni, Y, Piasetzky, M, Faershtein, G, Golan, D, Porat, N. 2016. The formation of a Mediterranean terraced landscape: Mount Eitan, Judean Highlands, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 6:397–417.Google Scholar
Junge, A, Shahack-Gross, R, Finkelstein, I, Fuchs, M. Forthcoming. Chronology of open cisterns and the question of early farming in the Negev Highlands, Israel.Google Scholar
Porat, N, Davidovich, U, Avni, Y, Avni, G, Gadot, Y. In press. Using OSL measurements to decipher soil history in archaeological terraces, Judean Highlands, Israel. Land Degradation & Development. DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2729.Google Scholar
Rubin, R. 1990. The Negev as a Settled Land: Urbanization and Settlement in the Desert in the Byzantine Period. Jerusalem: Yad Yithak Ben Zvi. In Hebrew.Google Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R. 2007. Approaches to understanding formation of archaeological sites in Israel: materials and processes. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 56:73–86.Google Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R. 2011. Herbivorous livestock dung: formation, taphonomy, methods for identification, and archaeological implications. Journal of Archaeological Science 38:205–218.Google Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R. 2017. Archaeological formation theory and geoarchaeology: state-of-the-art in 2016. Journal of Archaeological Science 79:36–43.Google Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R, Boaretto, E, Cabanes, D, Katz, O, Finkelstein, I. 2014. Subsistence economy in the Negev Highlands: the Iron Age and the Byzantine/Early Islamic period. Levant 46:98–117.Google Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R, Finkelstein, I. 2008. Subsistence practices in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological investigation in an Iron Age site, the Negev Highlands, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 35:965–982.Google Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R, Finkelstein, I. 2015. The settlement oscillations in the Negev Highlands revisited: the impact of micro-archaeological methods. Radiocarbon 57(2):253–264.Google Scholar