Fantalkin, A., Kleiman, A., Mommsen, H. and Finkelstein, I. 2020. Aegean Pottery in Iron IIA Megiddo: Typological, Chronological and Archaeometric Aspects. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 20: 135–147. (original) (raw)
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Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry , 2020
The revival of economic and cultural contacts between Greece and the Levant during the early first millennium BCE has received much attention in scholarship, as Aegean imports found in the Eastern Mediterranean provide a reliable framework for interregional synchronization. In this article, we discuss Aegean sherds that were found in stratified Iron IIA contexts during recent excavations at Megiddo, one of the crucial sites for the establishment of Greek Protogeometric and Geometric chronology. An archaeometric analysis of these sherds suggests that some of them originated in Euboea. The specific Aegean provenance of the other fragments remains uncertain, but based on typological observations, two items, probably from the same vessel, appear to have originated from an Aegean milieu. The exposure of such imports at Megiddo, with its well-established stratigraphy, ceramic typology and radiocarbon dating system, is another contribution to the chronological synchronization of Greece and the Levant in the early first millennium BCE.
AEGEAN POTTERY IN IRON IIA MEGIDDO: TYPOLOGICAL, ARCHAEOMETRIC AND CHRONOLOGICAL ASPECTS
Alexander Fantalkin, Assaf Kleiman, Hans Mommsen and Israel Finkelstein, 2020
The revival of economic and cultural contacts between Greece and the Levant during the early first millennium BCE has received much attention in scholarship, as Aegean imports found in the Eastern Mediterranean provide a reliable framework for interregional synchronization. In this article, we discuss Aegean sherds that were found in stratified Iron IIA contexts during recent excavations at Megiddo, one of the crucial sites for the establishment of Greek Protogeometric and Geometric chronology. An archaeometric analysis of these sherds suggests that some of them originated in Euboea. The specific Aegean provenance of the other fragments remains uncertain, but based on typological observations, two items, probably from the same vessel, appear to have originated from an Aegean milieu. The exposure of such imports at Megiddo, with its well-established stratigraphy, ceramic typology and radiocarbon dating system, is another contribution to the chronological synchronization of Greece and the Levant in the early first millennium BCE.
Low Chronology and Greek Protogeometric and Geometric Pottery In the Southern Levant
Levant, 2001
"ABSTRACT The article deals with the absolute chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant and the Aegean world. It first discusses the chronological gap between the conventional dating of Protogeometric pottery in Greece and its appearance in the Southern Levantine assemblages. The question then asked is whether the Low Chronology recently proposed by Finkelstein will free us from the difficulties raised by the prevailing dating. A brief examination shows that one cannot use the accepted dating of Greek Protogeometric and Geometric pottery to support the 'Finkelstein correction', but rather his Low Chronology provides, for the first time a basis for the absolute chronology of the Dark Age in Greece. At the end the article proposes a common denominator to reconcile the differences of opinion between major chronological approaches. These may be explained by the differences in the length of existence of the relevant strata."
Greek pottery is the most visible archaeological evidence of social and economic relations between the Aegean and the Mediterranean during the Iron Age, a period of intense mobility. This book presents a holistic study of the earliest Greek pottery exchanged in Greek, Phoenician, and other Indigenous Mediterranean cultural contexts from multidisciplinary perspectives. It offers an examination of 362 Protogeometric and Geometric ceramic and clay samples, analysed by Neutron Activation, that Stefanos Gimatzidis obtained in twenty-four sites and micro-regions in eight countries. Bringing a macro-historical approach to the topic through a systematic survey of early Greek pottery production, exchange, and consumption, the volume also provides a micro-history of selected ceramic assemblages analysed by a team of scholars who specialise in Classical, Near Eastern, and various prehistoric archaeologies. The results of their collaborative archaeological and archaeometric studies challenge previous reconstructions of intercultural relations between the Aegean and the Mediterranean and call into question established narratives about Greek and Phoenician migration.
Archaeological data show that in the Eastem Mediterranean impressed pottery appears at the end of the Neolithic Period and disappears with the emergence of Halafian elements.Recently it became evident that this type of pottery appeared simultaneously on either side of the Aegean by 6100-6000 BC. As it has been previously noted by Perlès and Özdoğan, there are a number of common traits shared among the early farming communities of the Eastern Mediterranean an the Aegean such as subsistence patterns, some components of the material assemblages and use of specific technologies in daily life. In spite of the lack of data from the southern coastal strip of Turkey, in an overall assessment, it is evident that the simultaneous appearance of impressed pottery in the Eastern Mediterranean -implying the Levant and Northern Syria -and the Aegean was not coincidental.
Israel in Transition: From Late Bronze II to Iron IIA (ca. 1250 - 850 BCE) Vol. 1: The Archaeology
During the past decade, accepted historical and archaeological reconstructions in the Eastern Mediterranean are coming under increasing attack. Traditional chronologies, determined largely by our understanding of historically based events pegged to stratigraphic sequences and ceramic typologies are being challenged by new narratives and more "objective" (or at least measurable) absolute dating methods, most notably radiocarbon and dendrochronology. These approaches have produced a plethora of results that call into question and require the re-evaluation of nearly every archaeological sequence in the ancient world. However, in order to address these "micro-chronological" issues, particularly when dealing with historical periods, we must return to the pillars of archaeologically based chronology-well-excavated stratigraphic sequences and their associated ceramic and other artifact assemblages analyzed in their site-specific, regional, and historical contexts. In this discussion, radiocarbon dates will serve as bookends demarcating the general chronological boundaries of the end of the Late Bronze Age and transitional Iron I/Iron IF As a case study to illustrate "micro-chronology" and attempts to refine our dating sequences, I examine the Late Bronze II!Iron I transition in the southern Levant and the arrival of the Philistines via the appearance of decorated Mycenaean pottery and its associated ceramic assemblages in their stratigraphic context. These meticulously classified and studied assemblages have proven to be our most reliable and time-sensitive type fossils to correlate complex region-wide stratigraphic sequences during the Late Bronze through Iron periods.
"The absolute chronology provided by the typology of the Greek Geometric pottery is a cornerstone in dating sites not only in Greece, but also in the central/western Mediterranean. In the past decade, the absolute dating of this ceramic series has come under scrutiny in the context of the wider debate on the chronology of the Early Iron Age Mediterranean. To a large extent this stems from the ever-increasing use of the radiocarbon method, which has had a clear impact on the revisionist debate over the Iron Age chronology of Israel. The latter provides the anchors for the dating of the Geometric pottery and thus, it is crucial for early Greek chronology. In recent years, radiocarbon series from Iberian contexts of Geometric pottery began to emerge. This paper discusses the latest evidence and developments regarding the dating of the Geometric pottery from these contexts and their implications for pre-Archaic Aegean chronology. This is especially warranted given the increasing number of voices from the West that call for substantially higher dates for the Middle and Late phases of the Geometric series, engendering an alarming two-tier use of this ceramicstyle as a chronological marker between the eastern and the western Mediterranean. RESUMO A cronologia absoluta proporcionada pela tipologia da cerâmica geométrica grega é um pilar na datação de sítios não só na Grécia, mas também no Mediterrâneo central/ocidental. Na última década, a datação absoluta desta série cerâmica tem sido analisada no contexto de um debate mais alargado sobre a cronologia do Mediterrâneo na Idade do Ferro Inicial. Em grande medida, isto deriva do crescente uso do método radiocarbónico, que teve impacto no debate revisionista sobre a cronologia sidérica de Israel. Esta última fornece as âncoras para a datação da cerâmica geométrica e, por conseguinte, é crucial para a cronologia grega antiga. Em anos recentes, a série radiocarbónica de contextos de cerâmica geométrica da Península Ibérica começou a emergir. Este artigo discute as evidências e desenvolvimentos mais recentes concernentes à datação da cerâmica geométrica destes contextos e as suas implicações para a cronologia pré-arcaica do Egeu. Isto é particularmente necessário dado o número crescente de vozes do Ocidente que defendem datas substancialmente mais altas para as fases intermédia e tardia da série geométrica, gerando um alarmante uso bipartido deste estilo cerâmico como marcador cronológico entre o Mediterrâneo oriental e o ocidental.