Radiocarbon, Gezer, and Egypt

The challenges of radiocarbon dating a multi-period tel such as Gezer are many. The Tandy expedition employed various methods to overcome problems by adhering to certain collection strategies and stratigraphic affiliations of the samples. Additionally, in order to overcome possible bias in the results, the Tandy expedition used a Bayesian model based only on the stratigraphic sequencing with no “historical or typological constraints.” The Egyptian historical record was considered when interpreting the results—and this will be the topic of my short entry. But before I delve into the Egyptian records, I must address the typological record, or the lack of it. The Late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age consist of subphases that have been proven to be of some importance for the historical reconstruction. It is therefore crucial to understand the relative chronology of the three Gezer strata that constitute the Iron I (10B, 10A, and 9) and the three strata that constitute the Iron IIA (8B, 8A, and 7). The lack of a detailed ceramic typology for these strata hinders the ability to correlate them with other sites and reduces the compatibility between these and historical events.