Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP

Abstract

There has been considerable focus on the main, expansionary, and inter-regionally linked or ‘globalising’ periods in Old World pre- and proto-history, with a focus on identifying, analyzing and dating collapse at the close of these pivotal periods. The end of the Early Bronze Age in the late third millennium BCE and a subsequent ‘intermediate’ or transitional period before the Middle Bronze Age (~2200–1900 BCE), and the end of the Late Bronze Age in the late second millennium BCE and the ensuing period of transformation during the Early Iron Age (~1200–900 BCE), are key examples. Among other issues, climate change is regularly invoked as a cause or factor in both cases. Recent considerations of “collapse” have emphasized the unpredictability and variability of responses during such periods of reorganization and transformation. Yet, a gap in scholarly attention remains in documenting the responses observed at important sites during these ‘transformative’ periods in the Old World region. Tell Tayinat in southeastern Turkey, as a major archaeological site occupied during these two major ‘in between’ periods of transformation, offers a unique case for comparing and contrasting differing responses to change. To enable scholarly assessment of associations between the local trajectory of the site and broader regional narratives, an essential preliminary need is a secure, resolved timeframe for the site. Here we report a large set of radiocarbon data and incorporate the stratigraphic sequence using Bayesian chronological modelling to create a refined timeframe for Tell Tayinat and a secure basis for analysis of the site with respect to its broader regional context and climate history.

Was There a 3.2 ka Crisis in Europe? A Critical Comparison of Climatic, Environmental, and Archaeological Evidence for Radical Change during the Bronze Age–Iron Age Transition

“…A recurrent issue is that climate change is notoriously difficult to pin down to narrow chronological parameters that can articulate with the resolution of archaeological chronologies and defined horizons of social change (Manning et al 2020;Middleton 2017b;Swindles et al 2013). This places a burden on archaeology at least to provide well-resolved spatial and temporal data in sufficient quantity to model the temporality and pace of change in societies.…”

Heterogenous Late Holocene Climate in the Eastern Mediterranean—The Kocain Cave Record From SW Turkey

“…Marked palaeohydrological changes between 1200 and 750 BCE are widespread and often associated with cold phases, such as the 3.2 and 2.8 ka events and Crisis Years Cooling Event (CYCE), and reductions in solar irradiance (Kaniewski et al., 2019; Mayewski et al., 2004; Steinhilber et al., 2009; Wanner et al., 2015). Links between these changes and socio‐political change remain controversial (Drake, 2012; Finné et al., 2017; Kaniewski et al., 2013; Knapp & Manning, 2016; Manning et al., 2020). While similar palaeohydrological changes to those revealed by Ko‐1 are observed in records such as Gölhisar, Skala Marion, and Tell Tweini (Eastwood et al., 2007; Kaniewski et al., 2019; Psomiadis et al., 2018), others are dissimilar (Figure 4).…”

A lead figurine from Toprakhisar Höyük: magico-ritual objects in the Syro-Anatolian Middle Bronze Age

“…Yet the earlier second-millennium BC sequence and particularly the third to second millennium BC transition remain unknown due to limited data obtained from both excavation campaigns. The same situation exists for the end of the Early Bronze Age at the neighbouring thirdmillennium BC centre of Tell Tayinat (Welton 2011;; see also Manning et al 2020).…”