High-precision radiocarbon dating and historical biblical archaeology in southern Jordan.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Recent excavations and high-precision radiocarbon dating from the largest Iron Age (IA, ca. 1200-500 BCE) copper production center in the southern Levant demonstrate major smelting activities in the region of biblical Edom (southern Jordan) during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE. Stratified radiocarbon samples and artifacts were recorded with precise digital surveying tools linked to a geographic information system developed to control on-site spatial analyses of archaeological finds and model data with innovative visualization tools. The new radiocarbon dates push back by 2 centuries the accepted IA chronology of Edom. Data from Khirbat en-Nahas, and the nearby site of Rujm Hamra Ifdan, demonstrate the centrality of industrial-scale metal production during those centuries traditionally linked closely to political events in Edom's 10th century BCE neighbor ancient Israel. Consequently, the rise of IA Edom is linked to the power vacuum created by the collapse of Late Bronze Age (LB, ca. 1300 BCE) civilizations and the disintegration of the LB Cypriot copper monopoly that dominated the eastern Mediterranean. The methodologies applied to the historical IA archaeology of the Levant have implications for other parts of the world where sacred and historical texts interface with the material record.
منابع مشابه
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...
متن کاملThe Sea Peoples, from Cuneiform Tablets to Carbon Dating
The 13(th) century BC witnessed the zenith of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean civilizations which declined at the end of the Bronze Age, ∼3200 years ago. Weakening of this ancient flourishing Mediterranean world shifted the political and economic centres of gravity away from the Levant towards Classical Greece and Rome, and led, in the long term, to the emergence of the modern western civi...
متن کاملThe Remarkable Metrological History of Radiocarbon Dating [II]
This article traces the metrological history of radiocarbon, from the initial breakthrough devised by Libby, to minor (evolutionary) and major (revolutionary) advances that have brought (14)C measurement from a crude, bulk [8 g carbon] dating tool, to a refined probe for dating tiny amounts of precious artifacts, and for "molecular dating" at the 10 µg to 100 µg level. The metrological advances...
متن کاملشناسایی الیاف کاغذهای تاریخی جهت امکانسنجی تاریخگذاری نمونههای مجهول
Historical papers with all museum and aesthetic value have considerable cultural and scientific importance which represents how societies were during history improved. Studying historical papers is a way to discover the changes of human’s life in different cases such as economics, culture and politics. Between existing manuscripts prescriptions there are some, which are left unseen unfort...
متن کاملNew Evidence from Neolithic to Achaemenid Periods in North-Western Iran: Excavations at Kul Tepe (Hadishahr), Second Preliminary Report (2013)
The site of Kul Tepe is located near the city of Hadishahr, in Eastern Azerbaijan Province. It is an ancient multi-period mound, having an extension of about 6 hectares and rising 19 meters above the surrounding land. The second season of archeological excavations at the site, carried out in 2013, aimed at clarifying its chronology and its settlement organization. In the meantime it aimed at el...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
دوره 105 43 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2008