Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T05:37:26.107Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Settlement Patterns in the Southern Levant Deserts During the 6th–3rd Millennia BC: a Revision Based on 14C Dating

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Uzi Avner
Affiliation:
Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, POB 3304, Eilat 88133, Israel. Email: [email protected].
Israel Carmi
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Kimmel Center for Archaeological Sciences, Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
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 surveys conducted in the Negev and Sinai during the 20th century were commonly interpreted as representing short settlement periods interrupted by long gaps. The time factor was usually based on archaeological estimates rather than comprehensive physical dating. For example, the perceived age and time duration of “hole-mouth” pottery sherds and tabular flint scrapers became a source of circular reasoning to “date” sites and their “duration.” Thus, desert sites became to be perceived as temporary, seasonal, short-lived, while the cultures of desert populations were somehow undervalued. However, radiocarbon dating of desert sites from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age IV presents a very different scenario. The deserts of the Southern Levant exhibit a full sequence of settlement, a longer life span of individual sites, and a higher level of activity and creativity of the desert people. This paper describes the controversy and presents the 14C data that form the basis for the revised view.

Type
Near East Chronology: Archaeology and Environment
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

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 127:820.Google Scholar
Avner, U. 1993. Mazzebot sites in the Negev and Sinai and their significance. In: Biran, A, Aviram, J, editors. Biblical Archaeology Today 1990, Proceedings, 2nd International Congress on Biblical Archaeology. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. p166–81.Google Scholar
Avner, U. 1998. Settlement, agriculture, and paleoclimate in Uvda Valley, southern Negev Desert, 6th-3rd millennia BC. In: Issar, A, Brown, N, editors. Water, environment, and society in times of climate change. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p147202.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, R, editors. Late Quaternary chronology and paleoclimates of the eastern Mediterranean. Tucson: Radiocarbon. p265300.Google Scholar
Avner, U. In press 1. Late Neolithic-Early Chalcolithic burial site in Eilat by the Red Sea. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquity Authority Reports.Google Scholar
Avner, U. In press 2. Cult and burial sites in Eastern Sinai, 6th-3rd millennia BC. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquity Authority Reports. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Avner, U. In press 3. Excavations of Mazzebot sites in the Uvda Valley, southern Negev. Atiqot. In Hebrew.Google Scholar
Avni, G. 1992. Map of Har Saggi Northeast (225). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O, Belfer-Cohen, A, Goren, A, Hershkovitz, I, Ilan, O, Mienis, HK, Sass, B. 1986. Nawamis and habitation sites near Gebel Gunna, southern Sinai. Israel Exploration Journal 36:121–67.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 1987. The prehistory of the Sinai Peninsula. In: Gvirtzman, G, Shmueli, A, Gradus, Y, Beit-Arieh, I, Har-El, M, editors. Sinai. Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defence. p559–78. In Hebrew.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O, Phillips, JL, editors. 1977. Prehistoric investigations in Gebel Maghara, northern Sinai. Qedem 7. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Beit-Arieh, I. 1977. South Sinai in the Early Bronze age. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Tel Aviv University. In Hebrew.Google Scholar
Beit-Arieh, I. 1982. An Early Bronze Age II site near the Feiran Oasis in southern Sinai. Tel Aviv 9:146–56.Google Scholar
Beith-Arieh, I. 1986. Two cultures in southern Sinai in the third millennium BC. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 243:3155.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2000. OxCal Program version 3.4. Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford. http://www.rlaha.ox.ac.uk/oxcal.Google Scholar
Carmi, I, Segal, D, Goring-Morris, AN, Gopher, A. 1994. Dating the prehistoric site Nahal Issaron in the southern Negev, Israel. Radiocarbon 36(3):391–8.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. 1981. Archaeological Survey of Israel: map of Sede Boqer east (168). Jerusalem. In Hebrew.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. 1985. Archaeological Survey of Israel: map of Sede Boqer west (167). Jerusalem. In Hebrew.Google Scholar
Cohen, R. 1999. Ancient settlement of the central Negev. Volume 1. The Chalcolithic period, the Early Bronze age, and the Middle Bronze age I. Jerusalem: The Israel Antiquities Authority (in Hebrew, with English summary and articles).Google Scholar
Conrad, HG, Rothenberg, B. 1980. Antikes Kupfer im Timna-Tal. Bochum, Der Anschnitt, Beiheft 1 aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum.Google Scholar
Eddy FW, Wendorf F, and Associates. 1999. An archaeological investigation of the central Sinai, Egypt. The American Research Center in Egypt & Boulder, Boulder: University of Colorado Press.Google Scholar
Forenbaher, S. 1997. A terminal Neolithic/Chalcolithic lithic assemblage from Har Harif (central Negev Highlands). Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 27:83100.Google Scholar
Genz, H. 1997. Problems in defining a Chalcolithic for southern Jordan. 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 4:441–8.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1986. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Hamran-Southwest (198). Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1989. Preliminary report of the western Negev Highlands emergency survey. Israel Exploration Journal 39:173–91.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1991. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Mizpe Ramon-Southwest (200). Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1993. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Hamran-Southeast (199). Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1999. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Ramon (203). Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Hauptmann, A. 2000. Zur frühen Metallurgie des Kupfers in Fenan/Jordanien. Bochum, Der Anschnitt, Beiheft 11, aus dem Deutschen Bergbau-Museum.Google Scholar
Henry, DO. 1995. Prehistoric cultural ecology and evolution. Insights from southern Jordan. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Holzer, A, Avner, U. 2000. Har Shahmon (Desert Kite). Excavations and Surveys in Israel 109:165.Google Scholar
Khalil, L, Eichmann, R. 1999. Archaeological survey and excavation at Wadi Al-Yutum and Tall Al-Magass area-Aqaba (Aseym). A preliminary report on the first season 1998. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 43:501–20.Google Scholar
Kirkbride, D. 1969. Ancient Arabian ancestor idols. Part II: the interpretation of the sanctuary at Risqeh. Archaeology 22:188–95.Google Scholar
Lender, Y. 1990. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Nafha (196). Jerusalem.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 34:2753.Google Scholar
Ramsey, C. 2000. Oxford Calibration Program 3.4. Website: http://www.rlhah.ox.ac.uk.Google Scholar
Rosen, S. 1984. Kvish Harif: preliminary investigation at a Late Neolithic site in the central Negev, Israel. Paleorient 10:111–21.Google Scholar
Rosen, S. 1994. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Makhtesh Ramon (203). Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Rothenberg, B. 1990. The ancient metallurgy of copper; research in the Arabah. London: Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies, Institute of Archaeology, University College London.Google 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
Rothenberg, B, Merkel, J. 1995. Late Neolithic copper smelting in the Arabah. IAMS 19:17.Google Scholar
Segal, D, Carmi, I. 1996. Rehovot radiocarbon date list V. Atiqot Supplement 29:79106.Google Scholar
Scharpenseel, H, Pietig, F, Schiffmann, H. 1976. Hamburg University radiocarbon dates I. Radiocarbon 18(3): 268–9.Google Scholar