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Radiocarbon Challenges Archaeo-Historical Time Frameworks in the Near East: the Early Bronze Age of Jericho in Relation to Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Hendrik J Bruins  and
Johannes van der Plicht
Hendrik J Bruins
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Social Studies Unit, Sede Boker Campus 84990, Israel. Email: hjbruins@bgumail.bgu.ac.il.
Johannes van der Plicht
Affiliation:
Center for Isotope Research, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
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Abstract

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Our stratified radiocarbon dates from EB Jericho (Trench III) on short-lived material are significantly older than conventional archaeo-historical time frameworks. The calibrated 14C date of Stage XV Phase li-lii (Early to Middle EB-I Kenyon) is 100–450 years older. Stage XVI Phase lxi-lxii (Early EB-II Kenyon) is 200–500 years older. Stage XVI Phase lxii-lxiii (destructive end EB-II) is 200–300 years older. Stage XVII Phase lxviii a – lxix a (Early EB-III) is 100–300 years older than conventional archaeo-historical time estimates. As the beginning of the Chalcolithic in the Near East has “become” a 1000 years older, from about 4000 in the 1960s to about 5000 BC in current perception based on 14C dating, it should not be surprising that the Early Bronze Age and related Egyptian Dynasties also yield 14C dates that are older by a few hundred years than current archaeo-historical time frameworks. Egyptian chronology should not be regarded as ultimately fixed. Egyptologists in the first half of the 20th century gave much older dates for the earlier Dynasties. The new 14C evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of an older Early Bronze Age and older dates for Dynasties 1–6.

Type
Near East Chronology: Archaeology and Environment
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 43 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 3 of 3) , 2001 , pp. 1321 - 1332
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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