Of Pots and Paradigms: Interpreting the Intermediate Bronze Age in Israel/Palestine (original) (raw)
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN POTTERY IN THE EARLY BRONZE I PERIOD IN ISRAEL "DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY"
Part 1 of the late Mikko Louhivuori's 1988 Ph D thesis for the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew U. of Jerusalem. This was a very thorough treatment of the pottery of this period at a time when very little was known of it from occupations and when there were few publications. It is now superseded by much more up to date works, but it was an excellent summary for its time. Students of the period will find information that is otherwise forgotten or ignored from earlier scholars' works.
Continuity and Change: a Survey of Medieval Ceramic Assemblages from Northern Israel
The archaeological approach to the study of medieval pottery from northern Israel and its division into four distinct pottery assemblages enables us to gain a better understanding of chronology, typology, production and distribution of ceramics in medieval Levant. The sets presented here date from the late Fatimid, the Crusader and the Mamluk periods (late 11th to 15th centuries). In the first stage they were defined on the basis of solid data from well-stratified archaeological excavations. In the second stage they were studied as a group and as individual pottery types. These ceramic assemblages sometimes show continuity in pottery types and at other times they indicate a change.
Ceramics, society and economy in the northern Levant
Levant
Contributions to the workshop One of the primary aims of the Computational Research on the Ancient Near East (CRANE), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is to create a framework for the integration and analysis of data from multiple archaeological projects working in the Orontes River watershed (Harrison 2018). This workshop, held under the auspices of CRANE, focused on ceramics, a sub-field that, in Levantine archaeology at least, has often struggled to move beyond typological concerns to address research questions designed to improve our understanding of past social and economic organization (Badreshany et al. 2019). In keeping with the initial geographical focus of CRANE, material from sites in the Orontes watershed in western Syria lay at the heart of the workshop. However, it proved possible to extend our coverage to include data emerging from new projects in Lebanon. For the Early Bronze Age (EBA) at least, this has allowed us to compare developments in western Syria (extending roughly from Homs and Hama to the Amuq), to those in the central Levant, an area adjacent to the Orontes, but in which both the ceramic types, and modes of production, appear quite different. The contribution by Sowada et al. (2020), which deals with material of Levantine origin found in Egypt, was a late addition to the volume, included because we felt that the topic was closely aligned to our wider themes, and sheds light on the longer-distance connections of our region of interest, critical to the themes of the volume. Our workshop sought to close the gap between: 1. the detailed site-specific presentations of ceramic evidence which dominate the ceramic literature, 2. generalized interregional ceramic studies, which are often focused upon typo-chronological comparisons, and 3. high level region/period syntheses.
Palestine Exploration Quarterly The Early Bronze Age at Tel Nagila
The excavations of R. Amiran and A. Eitan at the site of Tel Nagila are best known for the Middle Bronze Age remains exposed at the site. Yet Early Bronze remains were sporadically excavated in restricted locations where the excavators deepened their investigations below Middle Bronze strata. As such, a study of the albeit limited EB remains furnishes us with an opportunity to provide a more complete settlement history of the site, as well as a limited view of ceramic tradition that was common at the site. The following paper will present the stratigraphic and ceramic information available, and suggests a rather early date within Early Bronze III of the remains, as well as evidence for Early Bronze Age I occupation of the site.
Cultural Transformations Shaping the end of the Late Bronze Age in the Levant
Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient near East (10th ICAANE), Vienna, 25 April - 29 April 2016, 2018
The Carmel coast showed similar transformations to those noted at Ugarit and on the southern coast of Cyprus. The material culture of Tell Abu Hawam, Tel Nami and Tel Akko underwent detectable changes in the LB IIB phase, already during the 13th century BCE. Certain forms of ceramics, with changes, continued to be produced on Cyprus albeit, not necessarily in the same production centres. The ceramic variations in the coastal areas of the southern Levant (modern Israel), are traceable in inland sites, connected to the coast by terrestrial routes, such as Tel Megiddo, Tel Beth-Shean and Tell es-Sa’idiyeh (Trans-Jordan). This period ended with the final destruction of Ugarit, which coincides with that of Tel Nami and is traditionally ascribed to the beginning of the Iron Age at ca. 1180 BCE. We propose that the transitional period between ca. 1230 and 1180 BCE in the Carmel coast and its hinterland should be defined as Coastal LB IIC.
Ceramics in the Levantine Pre-Pottery Neolithic B: evidence from Kfar HaHoresh, Israel
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2014
This paper summarises typological and technological research on a small assemblage of pottery containers recovered at Kfar HaHoresh (KHH), a Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site in the Southern Levant. The majority of the sherds belong to a distinguishable fabric, composed of local marl matrix tempered with vegetal material originating from herbivore manure. Based on the scarcity and properties of the sherds, we propose that the pottery containers at KHH were rare vessels possibly produced for personal use or for use by distinctive individuals for very limited purposes.
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 2009
Smith and Levy (2008) have published an assemblage of pottery from the copper production centre of Khirbet en-Nahas in Jordan. Based on their interpretation of the 14C dates from the site and contra the accumulated knowledge on the ceramic typology of the Levant they argue that this pottery dates to the Iron I and Iron IIA, and that there was no later activity at the site. We show that much of the Khirbet en-Nahas pottery dates to the Iron IIB-C. We argue that the charcoal samples sent for radiocarbon dating originated from the waste of industrial activity at the site in the Iron I and Iron IIA, while the pottery came from a post-production activity in the Iron IIB-Can activity that included the construction of a fort on the surface of the site. We propose that the fort was built along the Assyrian Arabian trade route, at the foot of the ascent from the Arabah to the Assyrian headquarters of Buseirah.
NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM THE NEAR EAST PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND USE, 2021
This paper presents the results of a large-scale analytical program undertaken on Neolithic ceramics from the Homs region, the Beqaa, and Northern Lebanese Coast. Like other parts of the Northern Levant, a burnished ware tradition is found across these regions from the very introduction of ceramics to the area. Through the 6th and 5th millennia BCE, however, two distinct provinces form. To the south, in Lebanon and the Homs area, burnished wares continue to be produced, whereas to the north and east painted traditions take hold. What first appears a seemingly simple matter of local preference endures, and these areas are set on differing trajectories, resulting in the development during the Bronze Age of a fairly rigid stylistic and technological boundary between what have traditionally been termed ‘Syrian’ styles to the north and ‘Palestinian’ styles to the south. This study integrates an archaeometric approach with traditional macroscale studies to track the development of ceramic technologies, modes of production and decorative traditions in the Late Neolithic of the Central Levant. The resulting data provides deeper insight into key influences on the development of later ceramic traditions of the region which in turn enhances our understanding of the formation, maintenance and remodelling of distinct regional assemblages and their meaning in the pre-classical Levant.
ON SOME SOUTH LEVANTINE EARLY BRONZE AGE CERAMIC 'WARES' AND STYLES
Studies on pottery of the south Levantine Early Bronze Age (Early Bronze Ages I, II and III) often use terms such as 'wares' to designate specific types of ceramics identified with regional and chronological niches in the archaeological record. While some such designations appear to be valid, as they refer to groups of objects defined by very specific parameters, others represent broad categories with poorly defined parameters. This paper presents a proposal for some specifically defined groups, traditions of ceramic production called 'wares' and 'styles', with indications of their temporal and regional distributions. It further suggests abandoning some commonly used designations that offer too little specificity, thus making them less than useful for archaeological research and discussion.
Paléorient, vol. 39, n°1 , 2013
Modi’in, located in the centre of Israel, is one of the rare sites presenting a sequence of occupations covering the end of the 5th millenium and the fi rst half of the 4th millennium BC. The technological study of the ceramic assemblages enables us to re-examine the diffi cult question of continuity and/or discontinuity between the Late Chalcolithic and the earliest Early Bronze Age I cultures in this region. Results show that between the end of the Late Chalcolithic and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age I, there is continuity in the ways of making utilitarian vessels, but discontinuity in the ways of fashioning ceremonial vessels. Moreover, a new functional category of ceramics appears characteristic for the region and whose properties bring them closer to those of ceremonial vessels. Those features argue in favour of both a phylogenetic link between Northern Negev Ghassulian populations and people living in the Shephela (the western piedmont of the Judea-Samaria incline), and a reorganisation of those societies during a transitional period, including the post-Ghassulian (Late Chalcolithic 2) and the very beginning of the Early Bronze Age I.
Investigating Late Neolithic ceramics in the northern Levant: the view from Shir
This paper presents a review of the ceramic investigations at the Late Neolithic site of Shir. Situated in Western Syria the site occupies a central position in the so-called 'Levantine corridor', which linked the southern Levant, Central Anatolia, and Upper Mesopotamia in the Neolithic. The ceramic sequence covers a period of several centuries between c. 7000 and 6450 cal BC. The pottery analysis combined bulk processing in the field and archaeometric work in the laboratory to construct a viable ceramic categorization. This paper discusses long-term ceramic trends that follow the first appearance of pottery in the northern Levant, including the development of pottery containers for storage.
Ceramics International, 2019
The paper presents an archaeometric investigation of ancient ceramics from the archaeological site of Tell el-Far'ah North (West Bank), dated to the south-Levantine Early Bronze I-II (EB I-II, 3300-2700 BC). The application of mineralogical and chemical analyses by optical and scanning electron microscopy yielded the identification of petro-fabrics that allow the reconstruction of the raw material nature used in the manufacture as well as its provenance. The results indicate that the ceramics were produced using calcareous clays with inclusions of sedimentary rock fragments, calcite crystals, iron oxides and quartz. Two basic fabrics have been identified according to the presence or absence of coarse and angular calcite crystals. The optical activity of the matrix and the presence of calcareous inclusions indicate a maximum firing temperature lower than 850°C and in the range 700-850°C for those ceramics showing an initial decarbonation process of calcareous inclusions. The nature of the inclusions supports a local supply of raw materials. Moreover, the comparison between the ceramic material of the two subsequent occupational phases at the site allowed achieving important information about the development of the material and technological knowledge reached by its ancient potters, in the transition from the EB I community to the EB II urban centre.
Pp. 82-107 in Exploring the Narrative. Jerusalem and Jordan in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Papers in Honour of Margreet Steiner. (eds. Van der Steen, E., Boertien, J., and Mulder-Hymans, N.) The Library of Hebrew and Bible/Old Testament Studies 583. New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014