Ancient texts and archaeology revisited – radiocarbon and Biblical dating in the southern Levant

The Iron Age sequence in the southern Levant is one of the most evocative and provocative in ancient history, since it coincides with events remembered in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The authors show how a scientific chronological framework can be created and contribute an independent voice to the historical debate. They also show that, if archaeology is to complement history, such a framework requires an especially rigorous application of precision, in context definition, data handling and Bayesian radiocarbon dating, and urge such application to forthcoming work at the key Biblical site of Megiddo.

[1]  E. Piasetzky,et al.  Radiocarbon dating the Iron Age in the Levant: a Bayesian model for six ceramic phases and six transitions , 2010, Antiquity.

[2]  A. Gilboa,et al.  The early Iron Age dating project: Introduction, methodology, progress report and an update on the Tel Dor radiometric dates , 2005 .

[3]  E. Piasetzky,et al.  The Iron I-IIA in the Highlands and Beyond: 14C Anchors, Pottery Phases and The Shoshenq I Campaign , 2006 .

[4]  A. Hauptmann.  The archaeometallurgy of copper : evidence from Faynan, Jordan , 2010 .

[5]  A. Gilboa,et al.  An Archaeological Contribution to the Early Iron Age Chronological Debate: Alternative Chronologies for Phoenicia and Their Effects on the Levant, Cyprus, and Greece , 2003, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

[6]  Le dépassement de l’homme : crimes et transcendance dans la tragédie grecque , 2011 .

[7]  W. F. Libby,et al.  Radiocarbon dates. , 1951, Science.

[8]  Amihai Mazar,et al.  The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: Its history, the current situation, and a suggested resolution , 2005 .

[9]  Israel Finkelstein,et al.  Radiocarbon and the History of Copper Production at Khirbet En-Nahas , 2008 .

[10]  Piotr Bienkowski,et al.  Tribes, Trade, and Towns: A New Framework for the Late Iron Age in Southern Jordan and the Negev , 2001, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

[11]  Thomas E. Levy,et al.  The Iron Age Pottery from Khirbat en-Nahas, Jordan: A Preliminary Study , 2008, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

[12]  A. Gilboa,et al.  Notes on Iron IIA 14C Dates from Tell el-Qudeirat (Kadesh Barnea) , 2009 .

[13]  A. Faust,et al.  Chronological Separation, Geographical Segregation, or Ethnic Demarcation? Ethnography and the Iron Age Low Chronology , 2001, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

[14]  Ruth Amiran,et al.  Ancient pottery of the Holy Land : from its beginnings in the neolithic period to the end of the iron age , 1971 .

[15]  T. Levy,et al.  Application of copper slag in geomagnetic archaeointensity research , 2008 .

[16]  A. Gilboa,et al.  Early Iron Age Radiometric Dates from Tel Dor: Preliminary Implications for Phoenicia and Beyond , 2001, Radiocarbon.

[17]  W. Dever.  What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It , 2001 .

[18]  A. Gilboa,et al.  Report on the First Stage of the Iron Age Dating Project in Israel: Supporting a Low Chronology , 2007, Radiocarbon.

[19]  J. Plicht,et al.  Desert Settlement through the Iron Age : Radiocarbon dates from Sinai and the Negev Highlands , 2005 .

[20]  I. Finkelstein.  The campaign of Shoshenq I to Palestine: A guide to the 10th century BCE polity , 2002 .

[21]  Ayelet Gilboa,et al.  Dating the Iron Age I/II Transition in Israel: First Intercomparison Results , 2005, Radiocarbon.

[22]  T. Levy,et al.  Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom: new excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan) , 2004, Antiquity.

[23]  Johannes van der Plicht,et al.  Quality Control of Groningen 14 C Results from Tel Reh ov Repeatability and intercomparison of Proportional Gas Counting and AMS , 2004 .

[24]  Shlomo Bunimovitz,et al.  The Archaeology of Border Communities: Renewed Excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Part 1: The Iron Age , 2009, Near Eastern Archaeology.

[25]  P. Davies.  In Search of "Ancient Israel" , 1992 .

[26]  W. F. Libby.  Radiocarbon dates, II. , 1951, Science.

[27]  I. Carmi,et al.  Radiocarbon Dates from Iron Age Strata at Tel Beth Shean and Tel Rehov , 2001, Radiocarbon.

[28]  E. Piasetzky,et al.  Comment on “14C Dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age Chronology, Pharaohs, and Hebrew Kings” , 2003, Science.

[29]  K. Salibi.  The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel , 2000 .

[30]  Israel Finkelstein,et al.  RADIOCARBON-DATED DESTRUCTION LAYERS: A SKELETON FOR IRON AGE CHRONOLOGY IN THE LEVANT , 2009 .

[31]  Amihai Mazar,et al.  Iron Age chronology : A reply to I. Finkelstein , 1997 .

[32]  T. Levy,et al.  Archaeology and the Shasu Nomads:: Recent Excavations in the Jabal Hamrat Fidan, Jordan , 2004 .

[33]  Asphalt Pavement Mixes,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF A , 2011 .

[34]  P. Moorey.  A Century of Biblical Archaeology , 1991 .

[35]  L. Grabbe.  Israel in transition : from late Bronze II to Iron IIa (c. 1250-850 B.C.E.) , 2008 .

[36]  T. Levy,et al.  Geomagnetic intensity spike recorded in high resolution slag deposit in Southern Jordan , 2009 .

[37]  Israel Finkelstein,et al.  Khirbet en-Nahas, Edom and Biblical History , 2005 .

[38]  Vid Petrovic,et al.  On-Site Digital Archaeology 3 . 0 and Cyber-Archaeology : Into the Future of the Past – New Developments , Delivery and the Creation of a Data Avalanche , 2010 .

[39]  Thomas Higham,et al.  High-precision radiocarbon dating and historical biblical archaeology in southern Jordan , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[40]  Thomas R. Anderson,et al.  A dynamic model of oceanic sulfur (DMOS) applied to the Sargasso Sea: Simulating the dimethylsulfide (DMS) summer paradox , 2008 .

[41]  Magnus Magnusson,et al.  Archaeology of the Bible , 1977 .

[42]  K. Kitchen.  On the Reliability of the Old Testament , 2003 .

[43]  Christopher Bronk Ramsey,et al.  BAYESIAN ANALYSIS OF RADIOCARBON DATES , 2009 .

[44]  Thomas E. Levy,et al.  Lowland Edom and the high and low chronologies, Edomite state formation, the Bible and recent archaeological research in southern Jordan , 2005 .

[45]  E. Piasetzky,et al.  14C and the Iron Age Chronology Debate: Rehov, Khirbet en-Nahas, Dan, and Megiddo , 2006, Radiocarbon.

[46]  Robert R. Cargill.  An Argument for Archaeological Reconstruction in Virtual Reality , 2009, Near Eastern Archaeology.

[47]  Christopher Bronk Ramsey,et al.  DEVELOPMENT OF THE RADIOCARBON CALIBRATION PROGRAM , 2001 .

[48]  R. Uitti.  The invention of ancient Israel: the silencing of Palestinian history , 1999 .

[49]  J. van der Plicht,et al.  Response to Comment on “14C Dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age Chronology, Pharaohs, and Hebrew Kings” , 2003, Science.

[50]  J. van der Plicht,et al.  14C Dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age Chronology, Pharaohs, and Hebrew Kings , 2003, Science.

[51]  T. Levy,et al.  The beginning of Iron Age copper production in the southern Levant: new evidence from Khirbat al-Jariya, Faynan, Jordan , 2010, Antiquity.

[52]  Israel Finkelstein,et al.  The Archaeology of the United Monarchy: an Alternative View , 1996 .

[53]  T. Levy,et al.  A new approach for geomagnetic archaeointensity research : insights on ancient metallurgy in the Southern Levant , 2008 .

[54]  R. Winter,et al.  Prospects and Problems in Applying GIS to the Study of Chalcolithic Archaeology in Southern Israel , 2008, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

[55]  Christopher Bronk Ramsey,et al.  DEALING WITH OUTLIERS AND OFFSETS IN RADIOCARBON DATING , 2009 .