Characterization of Contexts for Radiocarbon Dating: Results from the Early Iron Age at Tell Es-Safi/Gath, Israel

Southern Palestinian Chronology: Two Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Bronze Age at Tell El-hesi (israel)

Several articles reporting radiocarbon dates of Early Bronze Age (EB) material from excavations in the southern Levant have been published over the last 30 yr. The excavations conducted at Tell el-Hesi have produced material from which 2 additional 14C dates have been extracted to date. The 2 samples confirm the EB dating of Field VI material and suggest EB III settlement at Hesi might be earli...

Being an “ass”: An Early Bronze Age burial of a donkey from Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel

Burials of domestic asses appear in the Early Bronze Age (EBA) of the Near East, yet there is little understanding of the nature and importance of such burials. Usually, they are treated relatively simplistically as the remains of adored pets (if carefully interred) or sick animals who have lost their usefulness (e.g. as beasts of burden). Also, the relationship between the burials and the surr...

Rewriting the Central European Early Bronze Age Chronology: Evidence from Large-Scale Radiocarbon Dating

The transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe has often been considered as a supra-regional uniform process, which led to the growing mastery of the new bronze technology. Since the 1920s, archaeologists have divided the Early Bronze Age into two chronological phases (Bronze A1 and A2), which were also seen as stages of technical progress. On the basis of the early...

Radiocarbon Dating in Near-eastern Contexts: Confusion and Quality Control

Near-Eastern archaeology has long remained oblivious to radiocarbon dating as unique historical calendars brought about a perception that 14C dating is superfluous. Circular chronological reasoning may occur as a result. There is now strong 14C evidence that the early part of Egyptian history seems older than age assessments currently in vogue among scholars. It is vital to apply systematic and...

Radiocarbon Dating.