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Early Bronze Age Chronology: Radiocarbon Dates and Chronological Models from Tel Yarmuth (Israel)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Johanna Regev ,
Pierre De Miroschedji  and
Elisabetta Boaretto
Johanna Regev*
Affiliation:
The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel Radiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Laboratory, Kimmel Center of Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
Pierre De Miroschedji
Affiliation:
UMR 7041 (HAROC) - Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité, Maison de l'archéologie et de l'ethnologie, Boîte 17, 21, allée de l'Université, 92023 Nanterre cédex, France
Elisabetta Boaretto
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Laboratory, Kimmel Center of Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel
*
Corresponding author. Email: johanna.regev@ymail.com
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Abstract

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Over the years, 40 radiocarbon samples (charcoal and seeds) have been measured from the site of Tel Yarmuth. These samples originate from 3 major archaeological periods: Final Early Bronze Age (henceforth EB) I, EB II, and EB IIIB-C. The samples are further on divided into 8 separate archaeological phases. Bayesian modeling analyses were performed on the data. Separate models were run with seeds and charcoals to detect a possible old-wood effect. Outliers were detected, and finally models with gaps were run to account for the lack of samples from 2 archaeological layers. The results suggest that at Tel Yarmuth the end of the EB II occurred ∼2950–2880 BC, and that the EB III ended at the latest ∼2450 BC, perhaps before 2500 BC. Although these dates are somewhat earlier than traditionally assumed, they are in close accordance with the new analysis of other 14C dates for the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant (Regev et al., these proceedings).

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 54 , Issue 3-4 , 2012 , pp. 505 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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