Abstract
The Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in the Levant includes the appearance of new material culture that is similar in styles to the Aegean world. In the southern Levant, the distribution of early styles of Aegean-like pottery, locally produced, is limited to the coastal areas of Canaan, making synchronization with the rest of the region difficult. Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating provides a high-resolution absolute chronological framework for synchronizing ceramic phases. Here, absolute 14 C chronologies of the Late Bronze to Iron Age transition in the sites Tel Beth Shean, Tel Rehov, Tel Lachish, and Tel Miqne-Ekron are determined. Results show that the ranges of transitions vary in an absolute time frame by 50-100 years between different sites and that the range of the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in Canaan spans the 13th-11th centuries BC plateau. These chronologies, based on a site-by-site approach for dating, show that the change between early types of Aegean-like pottery (Monochrome) to developed types (Bichrome), occurred over 100 years in Canaan and that the transition occurred in southern sites prior to sites in the north. These ranges show that not only is the Late Bronze to Iron Age not contemporaneous, but also synchronization between sites based on their ceramic assemblages is problematic.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 13-37 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Radiocarbon |
Volume | 61 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Feb 2019 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona.
Keywords
- microarchaeology
- radiocarbon context
- southern Levant
- transition dating
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Archaeology
- General Earth and Planetary Sciences