Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-27T01:07:35.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tel Tsaf and the Impact of the Ubaid Culture on the Southern Levant: Interpreting the Radiocarbon Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Katharina Streit  and
Yosef Garfinkel
Katharina Streit*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
Yosef Garfinkel
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel
*
1 Corresponding author. Email: katharin.streit@mail.huji.ac.il.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A data set of 18 radiocarbon dates from the domestic quarter and the well at Tel Tsaf provide conclusive evidence for the absolute dating of this Middle Chalcolithic site. Bayesian modeling suggests that the site was occupied in the last quarter of the 6th millennium BC and abandoned in the first quarter of the 5th millennium. The absolute dating of Tel Tsaf has further implications for the synchronization of the protohistory of the Levant. The ceramic assemblage of Tel Tsaf included delicately painted ceramic sherds (so-called Tel Tsaf ware), which are distinct from the common plain ware. Comparable motifs have been identified in ceramic assemblages of contemporary Ubaid sites such as Tell Mashnaqa, Tell Zeidan, Tell el-Abr, and Hammam et-Turkan IV in northern Mesopotamia. Tel Tsaf is a rare example of a little researched connection between the Ubaid culture and the Middle Chalcolithic of the southern Levant. The findings of Tel Tsaf expand the southwestern border of the Ubaid sphere of influence and shed new light on long-distance interaction in protohistory.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 57 , Issue 5 , 2015 , pp. 865 - 880
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akkermans, PMMG. 1988. The period IV pottery. In: Van Loon, MN, editor. Hammam et-Turkman I. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut. p 181–285.Google Scholar
Banning, EB. 2007. Wadi Rabah and related assemblages in the southern Levant: interpreting the radiocarbon evidence. Paléorient 33(1):77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braidwood, RJ, Braidwood, LS. 1960. Excavations in the Plain of Antioch I. The Earlier Assemblages: Phases A-J. Oriental Institute Publications 61. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):1023–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callaway, JA. 1978. New perspectives on the Early Bronze III in Canaan. In: Moorey, R, Warminster, PJ, editors. Archaeology in the Levant: Essays for Kathleen Kenyon. Warminster: Aris & Philips. p 46–58.Google Scholar
Campbell, S. 2007. Rethinking Halaf chronologies. Paléorient 33(1):103–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caneva, I. 1999. Early farmers on the Cilician coast: Yumuktepe in the 7th millennium BC. In: Özdağan, M, Başgelen, N, editors. Neolithic in Turkey. The Cradle of Civilization. Istanbul: New Discoveries. p 105–11.Google Scholar
Caneva, I, Sevin, V. 2004. Mersin-Yumuktepe. A Reappraisal. Galatina: Congedo.Google Scholar
De Contenson, H. 1992. Préhistoire de Ras Shamra: Les sondages stratigraphiques de 1955 à 1976. 2 volumes. Ras Shamra-Ougarit 8. Paris: Éditions recherché sur les civilizations.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, P. 1986. Céramiques et mouvements de population: le cas de la Palestine au IIIe millénaire. In: Barret, MT, Gardin, JC, editors. A propos des interpretations archéologiques de la poterie: questions ouvertes. Paris: Editions recherché sur les Civilisations. p 10–46.Google Scholar
de Miroschedji, P. 2000. La céramique de Khirbet Kerak en Syro-Palestine: état de la question. In: Marro, C, Hauptmann, H, editors. Chronologies des pays du Caucase et de l'Euphrate aux IVe–IIIe millénaires. Varia Anatolica 9. Paris: Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes d'Istanbul. p 255–78.Google Scholar
Esse, D. 1991. Subsistence, Trade and Social Change in Early Bronze Age Palestine. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 50. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Y. 1999. Neolithic and Chalcolithic Pottery of the Southern Levant. Qedem 39. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Y, Ben-Shlomo, D, Freikman, M, Vered, A. 2007. Tel Tsaf: the 2004–2006 excavations seasons. Israel Exploration Journal 57(1):1–33.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Y, Ben-Shlomo, D, Kuperman, T. 2009. Largescale storage of grain surplus in the sixth millennium BC: the silos of Tel Tsaf. Antiquity 83(320):309–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garstang, J. 1953. Prehistoric Mersin: Yumuk Tepe in Southern Turkey. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Gopher, A. 2012. The Pottery Neolithic in the southern Levant – a second Neolithic revolution. In: Gopher, A, editor. Village Communities of the Pottery Neolithic Period in the Menashe Hills, Israel. Monograph Series 29. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University. p 1525–61.Google Scholar
Gopher, A, Gophna, R. 1993. Cultures of the eighth and seventh millennia B.P in the southern Levant: a review for the 1990s. Journal of World Prehistory 7(3):297–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gophna, R, Sadeh, S. 1988. Excavations at Tel Tsaf: an early Chalcolithic site in the Jordan valley. Tel Aviv 15–16:3–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, R. 2007. Transcaucasian colors: Khirbet Kerak Ware at Khirbet Kerak (Tel Bet Yerah). In: Lyonnet, B, editor. Les cultures du Caucase (VIe–IIIe millénaires avant notre ère). Paris: CNRS Editions. p 257–68.Google Scholar
Gustavson-Gaube, C. 1986. Tell esh-Shuna North 1985: a preliminary report. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 30:69–113.Google Scholar
Hammade, H, Yamazaki, Y. 2006. Tell al-'Abr (Syria): Ubaid and Uruk periods. Association pour la promotion de l'histoire et de l'archéologie orientales. Mémoires 4. Louvain: Peeters.Google Scholar
Hennessy, JB. 1967. The Foreign Relations of Palestine during the Early Bronze Age. London: Quaritch.Google Scholar
Kaplan, J. 1958. Excavations at Wadi Rabah. Israel Exploration Journal 8:149–60.Google Scholar
Leonard, A Jr. 1989. A Chalcolithic “fine ware” from Kataret es-Samra in the Jordan Valley. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 276:3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, A Jr. 1992. The Jordan Valley Survey, 1953: Some Unpublished Soundings Conducted by James Mellaart. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 50. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Mochambert, JY. 1985. Mashnaqa 1985: rapport préliminaire sur la 1er campagne de fouilles. Syria 62:219–50.Google Scholar
Monchambert, JY. 1987. Mashnaqa 1986: rapport préliminaire sur la deuxième campagne de fouilles. Syria 64(1–2):47–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paz, S. 2009. A home away from home? The settlement of early Transcaucasian migrants at Tel Bet Yerah. Tel Aviv 36(2):196–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philip, G. 1999. Complexity and diversity in the southern Levant during the third millennium BC: the evidence of Khirbet Kerak Ware. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 12:26–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, GJ. 2009. Tell Zeidan. 2008–2009. Annual Report of the Oriental Institute. p 126–37.Google Scholar
Stein, GJ. 2010. Tell Zeidan. 2009–2010. Annual Report of the Oriental Institute. p 105–18.Google Scholar
Thuesen, I. 1988. The Pre- and Protohistoric Periods. Hama I. Fouilles et recherches de la foundation Carlsberg 1931–1938. Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet.Google Scholar
Thuesen, I. 1994. Mashnaqa. American Journal of Archaeology 98:111–2.Google Scholar
Thuesen, I. 1996. Tell Mashnaqa. In: Muhesen, S, editor. La Syrie préhistorique: Exposition archéologique Syro-Européenne. Damascus: Editions de l'Institut Français d'Études Arabes de Damas. p 47–54.Google Scholar
Thuesen, I. 2000. Ubaid expansion in the Khabur. New evidence from Tell Mashnaqa. In: Rouault, O, Waefler, M, editors. La Djezire et l'Euphrate Syriens de la protohistoire à la fin du IIe millénaire av. J.C.: Tendances dans l'interprétation historique des données nouvelles. Subartu 7. Turnhout: Brepols. p 71–9.Google Scholar
Van Loon, MN, editor. 1988. Hammam et-Turkman I. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut.Google Scholar
Yekutieli, Y. 2009. The Har Hemar site: a northern outpost on the desert margin. Tel Aviv 36(2):218–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yener, KA, Edens, C, Harrison, TP, Verstraete, J, Wilkinson, TJ. 2000. The Amuq valley regional projects, 1995–1998. American Journal of Archaeology 104:163–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zori, N. 1958. Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites in the Valley of Beth-Shean. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 90:44–51.Google Scholar