Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T04:11:21.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Desert Habitation History by 14C Dating of Soil Layers in Rural Building Structures (Negev, Israel): Preliminary Results from Horvat Haluqim

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Hendrik J Bruins ,
Johannes van der Plicht  and
Mordechai Haiman
Hendrik J Bruins*
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Sede Boker Campus, Israel. Also: Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Beer Sheva Campus
Johannes van der Plicht
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, Centre for Isotope Research, Groningen, the Netherlands. Also: Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden, the Netherlands
Mordechai Haiman
Affiliation:
Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel. Also: Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
*
Corresponding author. Email: hjbruins@bgu.ac.il
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Traditional archaeological approaches in the central Negev Desert used to employ excavation techniques in post-prehistoric periods in which stratigraphy is based on architecture, while material culture forms the basis for dating assessment and chronology. Such an approach was understandable, as it focused on the most visible remains of past human habitation. However, the detailed habitation record is in the soil rather than in the walls. Moreover, ceramics and stone tools in desert cultures often have limited time resolution in terms of absolute chronology. The rural desert site of Horvat Haluqim in the central Negev yielded 2 habitation periods with the traditional methodology: (1) Roman period, 2nd–3rd centuries CE; (2) Iron Age IIA, 10th century BCE. We have conducted at Horvat Haluqim initial excavations in small building remains that were never excavated before. Our excavation methodology focuses on detailed examination of the archaeological soil in building structures, coupled with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating for chronology, and micromorphology of undisturbed soil samples to study stratigraphy and soil contents at the microscopic scale. Here, we report preliminary results, concentrating on the 14C dates. These suggest a much longer habitation history at the site during the Iron Age. The 14C dates obtained so far from these building remains cover Iron Age I, II, III, and the Persian period. The oldest calibrated date (charred C4 plants) in a rectangular building structure (L100) is 1129–971 BCE (60.5%, highest relative probability). The youngest calibrated date in a round building structure (L700) is 540–411 BCE (57.9%, highest relative probability). This excavation methodology provides additional “eyes” to look at past human habitation in the Negev Desert, seeing more periods and more detail than was possible with traditional schemes and ceramic dating.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 54 , Issue 3-4 , 2012 , pp. 391 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Avner, U. 1998. Settlement, agriculture, and paleoclimate in 'Uvda Valley, southern Negev Desert, 6th–3rd millennia B.C. In: Issar, A, Brown, N, editors. Water, Environment and Society in Times of Climate Change. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. p 147–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avner, U. 2002. Studies in the material and spiritual culture of the Negev and Sinai population, during the 6th–3rd millennia B.C. [unpublished PhD thesis]. Jerusalem: Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Avner, U. 2006. Settlement pattern in the Araba Valley and the adjacent desert areas, a view from the Eilat Region. In: Bienkowski, P, Galor, K, editors. Crossing the Rift. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 51–74.Google Scholar
Avner, U, Carmi, I. 2001. Settlement patterns in the southern Levant deserts during the 6th–3rd millennia BC: a revision based on 14C dating. Radiocarbon 43(3):1203–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avni, G. 1992. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Saggi—Northeast (225). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority and Archaeological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Avni, G. 1996. Nomads, Farmers, and Town-Dwellers: Pastoralist-Sedentist Interaction in the Negev Highlands, Sixth-Eight Centuries CE. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Avni, Y, Porat, N, Plakht, J, Avni, G. 2006. Geomorphologic changes leading to natural desertification processes versus anthropogenic land conservation in an arid environment, the Negev Highlands, Israel. Geomorphology 82(3–4):177–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avni, G, Avni, Y, Porat, N. 2009. A new look at ancient agriculture in the Negev. Cathedra 133:13–44. In Hebrew.Google Scholar
Boaretto, E, Jull, AJT, Gilboa, A, Sharon, I. 2005. Dating the Iron Age I/II transition in Israel: first intercomparison results. Radiocarbon 47(1):39–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boaretto, E, Finkelstein, I, Shahack-Gross, R. 2010. Radiocarbon results from the Iron IIA site of Atar Haroa in the Negev highlands and their archaeological and historical implications. Radiocarbon 52(1):1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Dee, MW, Higham, TFG, Harris, SA, Brock, F, Quiles, A, Wild, EM, Marcus, ES. 2010. Radiocarbon-based chronology for dynastic Egypt. Science 328(5985):1554–7.Google ScholarPubMed
Bruins, HJ. 1986. Desert environment and agriculture in the central Negev and Kadesh-Barnea during historical times [PhD dissertation]. Wageningen: University of Wageningen; Nijkerk: Stichting Midbar Foundation.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ. 1990a. The impact of man and climate on the central Negev and northeastern Sinai deserts during the Late Holocene. In: Bottema, S, Entjes-Nieborg, G, van Zeist, W, editors. Man's Role in the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape. Rotterdam: Balkema. p 87–99.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ. 1990b. Ancient agricultural terraces at Nahal Mitnan. 'Atiqot 10:127–8 (in Hebrew); 22∗–28∗ (in English).Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ. 2007. Runoff terraces in the Negev Highlands during the Iron Age: nomads settling down or farmers living in the desert? In: van der Steen, EJ, Saidel, BA, editors. On the Fringe of Society: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives on Pastoral and Agricultural Societies. BAR International Series 1657. Oxford: Archaeopress. p 37–43.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ. 2010. Dating Pharaonic Egypt. Science 328(5985):1489–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bruins, HJ. 2012. Ancient desert agriculture in the Negev and climate-zone boundary changes during average, wet and drought years. Journal of Arid Environments 86:28–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruins, HJ, Mook, WG. 1989. The need for a calibrated radiocarbon chronology of Near Eastern archaeology. Radiocarbon 31(3):1019–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 1995. Tell es-Sultan (Jericho): radiocarbon results of short-lived cereal and multiyear charcoal samples from the end of the Middle Bronze Age. Radiocarbon 37(2):213–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 1998. Early Bronze Jericho: high-precision 14C dates of short-lived palaeobotanic remains. Radiocarbon 40(2):621–8.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 2004. Desert settlement in the central Negev: first 14C indication of rainwater-harvesting agriculture in the Iron Age. In: Higham, TFG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Owen, DC, editors. Radiocarbon and Archaeology: Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium, Oxford, 2002. Oxford: Oxford University, School of Archaeology, Monograph 62. p 83–98.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 2005. Desert settlement through the Iron Age: radiocarbon dates from Sinai and the Negev highlands. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 349–66.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 2007. Radiocarbon dating the “Wilderness of Zin.” Radiocarbon 49(2):481–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J, Mazar, A. 2003a. 14C dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age chronology, pharaohs and Hebrew kings. Science 300(5617):315–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J, Mazar, A. 2003b. Response to comment on “14C dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age chronology, pharaohs and Hebrew kings.” Science 302(5645):568c.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J, Mazar, A, Bronk Ramsey, C, Manning, SW. 2005. The Groningen radiocarbon series from Tel Rehov: OxCal Bayesian computations for the Iron IB-IIA boundary and Iron IIA destruction events. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 271–93.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, Nijboer, AJ, van der Plicht, J. 2011. Iron Age Mediterranean chronology: a reply. Radiocarbon 53(1):199–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, R. 1976. Excavations at Horvat Haluqim. 'Atiqot 11:34–50, Plates V-VIII.Google Scholar
Cohen, R, Cohen-Amin, R. 2004. Ancient Settlement of the Negev Highlands Volume II. The Iron Age and the Persian Periods. IAA Reports 20. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Fantalkin, A, Finkelstein, I, Piasetzky, E. 2011. Iron Age Mediterranean chronology: a rejoinder. Radiocarbon 53(1):179–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelstein, I. 1996. The archaeology of the United Monarchy: an alternative view. Levant 27:177–87.Google Scholar
Finkelstein, I, Piasetzky, E. 2003. Comment on “14C dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age chronology, pharaohs and Hebrew kings.” Science 302(5645):568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelstein, I, Piasetzky, E. 2010. The Iron I/IIA transition in the Levant: a reply to Mazar and Bronk Ramsey and a new perspective. Radiocarbon 52(4):1667–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franken, HJ, Franken-Battershill, CA. 1963. A Primer of Old Testament Archaeology. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Gilboa, A, Sharon, I. 2001. Early Iron Age radiometric dates from Tel Dor: preliminary implications for Phoenicia and beyond. Radiocarbon 43(3):1343–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilboa, A, Sharon, I. 2003. An archaeological contribution to the Early Iron Age chronological debate: alternative chronologies for Phoenicia and their effects on the Levant, Cyprus, and Greece. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 332:7–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilboa, A, Sharon, I, Boaretto, E. 2009. Tel Dor and the chronology of Phoenician “Pre-Colonization” stages. In: Sagona, C, editor. Beyond the Homeland: Markers in Phoenician Chronology. Leuven: Peeters. p 113–204.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1986. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Hamran—Southwest (198). Jerusalem: Department of Antiquities and Museums and Archaeological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1990. Agricultural settlement in Ramat Barnea in the 7th–8th centuries CE. 'Atiqot 9:111–24.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1991. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Mizpe Ramon—Southwest (200). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority and Archaeological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1993. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Hamran—Southeast (199). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority and Archaeological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1994. The Iron Age II sites of the western Negev Highlands in light of the Negev Emergency Survey 1979–1989. Israel Exploration Journal 44:36–61.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 1999. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Har Ramon (203). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority and Archaeological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 2003. The 10th century B.C. settlement of the Negev Highlands and Iron Age rural Palestine. In: Maeir, AM, Dar, S, Safrai, Z, editors. The Rural Landscape of Ancient Israel. Oxford: BAR International Series 1121. p 71–90.Google Scholar
Haiman, M. 2007. Pastoralism and agriculture in the Negev in the Iron Age II. In: van der Steen, EJ, Saidel, BA, editors. On the Fringe of Society: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives on Pastoral and Agricultural Societies. Oxford: BAR International Series 1657. p 57–61.Google Scholar
Higham, T, van der Plicht, J, Bronk Ramsey, C, Bruins, HJ, Robinson, M, Levy, TE. 2005. Radiocarbon dating of the Khirbat-en Nahas site (Jordan) and Bayesian modeling of the results. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 164–78.Google Scholar
Kenyon, KM. 1957. Digging up Jericho. London: Ernest Benn Ltd.Google Scholar
Levy, TE, Adams, RB, Najjar, M, Hauptmann, A, Anderson, JA, Brandl, B, Robinson, MA, Higham, T. 2004. Reassessing the chronology of biblical Edom: new excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan). Antiquity 78(302):865–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, TE, Najjar, M, van der Plicht, J, Smith, NG, Bruins, HJ, Higham, T. 2005. Lowland Edom and the High and Low chronologies: Edomite state formation, the Bible and recent archaeological research in southern Jordan. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 129–63.Google Scholar
Mazar, A. 2005. The debate over the chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 13–26.Google Scholar
Mazar, A, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. 14C dates and the Iron Age chronology of Israel: a response. Radiocarbon 50(2):159–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazar, A, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2010. A response to Finkelstein and Piasetzky's criticism and “new perspective.” Radiocarbon 52(4):1681–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazar, A, Bruins, H, Panitz-Cohen, N, van der Plicht, J. 2005. Ladder of time at Tel Rehov: stratigraphy, archaeological context, pottery and radiocarbon dates. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 193–255.Google Scholar
Offer, ZY, Goossens, D. 2001. Ten years of aeolian dust dynamics in a desert region (Negev desert, Israel): analysis of airborne dust concentration, dust accumulation and the high-magnitude dust events. Journal of Arid Environments 47(2):211–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, SA. 1993. A Roman period pastoral tent camp in the Negev, Israel. Journal of Field Archaeology 20:441–51.Google Scholar
Rosen, SA. 1994. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Map of Makhtesh Ramon (204). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Rosen, SA. 2003. Early multi-resource nomadism: excavations at the Camel Site in the central Negev. Antiquity 77(298):750–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, SA, Avni, G. 1997. The Oded Sites – Investigations of Two Early Islamic Pastoral Camps South of the Ramon Crater. Beer Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press.Google Scholar
Rosen, SA, Savinetsky, AB, Plakht, Y, Kisseleva, NK, Khassanov, BF, Pereladov, AM, Haiman, M. 2005. Dung in the desert: preliminary results of the Negev Holocene Ecology Project. Current Anthropology 46(2):317–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, SA, Avni, Y, Bocquentin, F, Porat, N. 2007. Investigations at Ramat Saharonim: a desert Neolithic sacred precinct in the Central Negev. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 346:1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saidel, BA. 2001. Abandoned tent camps in southern Jordan. Near Eastern Archaeology 64(3):150–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saidel, BA. 2002. The excavations at Rekhes Nafha 396 in the Negev Highlands, Israel. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 325:37–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shahack-Gross, R, Finkelstein, I. 2008. Subsistence practices in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological investigation in an Iron Age site, the Negev Highlands, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(4):965–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharon, I, Gilboa, A, Boaretto, E, Jull, AT. 2005. The Early Iron Age Dating Project: introduction, methodology, progress report and an update on the Tel Dor radiometric dates. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 65–92.Google Scholar
Sharon, I, Gilboa, A, Jull, AJT, Boaretto, E. 2007. Report on the first stage of the Iron Dating Project in Israel: supporting a Low Chronology. Radiocarbon 49(1):1–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Plicht, J, Bruins, HJ. 2001. Radiocarbon dating in Near-Eastern contexts: confusion and quality control. Radiocarbon 43(3):1155–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Plicht, J, Bruins, HJ, Nijboer, AJ. 2009. The Iron Age around the Mediterranean: a High Chronology perspective from the Groningen radiocarbon database. Radiocarbon 51(1):213–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, JC, Fuls, A, Danin, A. 1986. Geographical and environmental distribution of C3 and C4 grasses in the Sinai, Negev, and Judean deserts. Oecologia 70(2):258–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wheeler, M. 1954. Archaeology from the Earth. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar