Climate, settlement patterns and olive horticulture in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze and Intermediate Bronze Ages (<i>c.</i>3600–1950 BC)

Langgut, Dafna; Adams, Matthew J.; Finkelstein, Israel

doi:10.1080/00758914.2016.1193323

Cited by 43 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…A similar short wet phase is recorded at Tel Akko at ∼ 4100 BP (Kaniewski et al, 2013) and ∼ 4000 BP at Tel Dan (Kaniewski et al, 2017), suggesting that minor chronological discrepancies can result from radiocarbon dating. The pollen-based environmental reconstruction from Ze'elim Gully (Dead Sea) echoes the Dead Sea level scores and suggests that drier climate conditions prevailed at ∼ 4300 BP and ∼ 3950 BP, engendering an expansion of olive horticulture during the period ∼ 4150-3950 BP, which implies milder conditions (Neuman et al, 2007a;Langgut et al, 2014Langgut et al, , 2016. Pollen data from a core drilled on the Ein Gedi shore (Dead Sea) were also used to reconstruct temporal variations in rainfall (Litt et al, 2012).…”

Section: Lebanonmentioning

confidence: 92%

The 4.2 ka BP event in the Levant

et al. 2018

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Abstract. The 4.2 ka BP event is defined as a phase of environmental stress characterized by severe and prolonged drought of global extent. The event is recorded from the North Atlantic through Europe to Asia and has led scientists to evoke a 300-year global mega-drought. For the Mediterranean and the Near East, this abrupt climate episode radically altered precipitation, with an estimated 30 %–50 % drop in rainfall in the eastern basin. While many studies have highlighted similar trends in the northern Mediterranean (from Spain to Turkey and the northern Levant), data from northern Africa and the central-southern Levant are more nuanced, suggesting a weaker imprint of this climate shift on the environment and/or different climate patterns. Here, we critically review environmental reconstructions for the Levant and show that, while the 4.2 ka BP event also corresponds to a drier period, a different climate pattern emerges in the central-southern Levant, with two arid phases framing a wetter period, suggesting a W-shaped event. This is particularly well expressed by records from the Dead Sea area.

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Section: Lebanonmentioning

confidence: 92%

The 4.2 ka BP event in the Levant

et al. 2018

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“…While the Dead Sea region is hyper‐arid today, it was not as arid in the Early Bronze Age. Conditions in the area adjacent to the Dead Sea were likely more arid than elsewhere in the Levant, but as a whole, palynological evidence suggests that the region was wetter and more humid during both the EB I and EB II–III, with drier conditions not occurring until the EB IV as well as after 2000 BCE (Frumkin, ; Langgut, Adams, & Finkelstein, ; Langgut, Finkelstein, Litt, Neumann, & Stein, ).…”

Section: Radiogenic and Stable Isotopes: Accessing Past Lifeways Thromentioning

confidence: 99%

Status, kinship, and place of burial at Early Bronze Age Bab adh‐Dhra': A biogeochemical comparison of charnel house human remains

Gregoricka

Ullinger

Sheridan

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: The Early Bronze Age (EBA; ca. 3,600-2000 BCE) of the southern Levant underwent considerable transformation as agro-pastoral communities began to utilize their land more intensively, constructing larger, fortified towns prior to site abandonment at the end of the third millennium. At the site of Bab adh-Dhra' in Jordan, the dead of the Early Bronze (EB) II-III (ca. 3,100-2,500 BCE) period were communally interred within charnel houses, but important disparities between these structures and their contents may be reflective of ownership and use by particular extended kin groups whose activity patterns, subsistence strategies, and even social status may have differed from one another. Subsequently, we hypothesized that differences in mobility and dietary intake may differentiate tomb groups from one another. Materials and Methods: Dental enamel from 31 individuals interred in three differentEarly Bronze Age charnel houses (A56, A22, A55) at Bab adh-Dhra', Jordan were analyzed for strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope values.Results: Strontium isotope ratios (range: 0.70793-0.70842) possessed medians that did not differ statistically from one another, but had ranges that exhibited significant differences in variance. Carbon isotope values ( x= −13.2 ± 0.5‰, 1σ) were not significantly different.Discussion: General similarities in human isotopic signatures between EB II-III charnel houses A22 and A55 suggest that their activities were likely similar to one another and agree with findings from excavated domestic spaces with little archaeological evidence for economic, social, or political differentiation. More variable strontium isotope ratios and lower carbon isotope values from A22 could reflect a greater involvement with pastoralist practices or regional trade, including the consumption of more 13 C-depleted foods, while those in A55 may have led a more sedentary lifestyle with greater involvement in cultivating orchard crops. All charnel houses contained nonlocal individuals likely originating from other Dead Sea Plain sites with no EB II-III cemeteries of their own, supporting the idea that extended kin groups throughout the region returned to Bab adh-Dhra' to bury their dead. K E Y W O R D SBronze Age, carbon isotopes, Near East, oxygen isotopes, residential mobility, social identity, strontium isotopes, subsistence

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“…Pressing installations dedicated to the production of olive oil are already known from the sixth millennium bce (Galili et al , ; Galili and Sharvit ). Pollen histograms show very clearly that olive trees became most prevalent in the environment during the Chalcolithic period (fifth millennium bce ; Langgut et al ). Evidently, olive trees and their oil‐producing fruit lay at the foundation of the Mediterranean economy for centuries (Epstein ; Meadows ; Lovell et al ; Milevski ; Zohary et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social and Economic Complexity of Ancient Jerusalem as Seen Through Choices in Lighting Oils

et al. 2017

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Ramat Aviv, POB 39040, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel This paper presents and discusses the results of residue analysis conducted on 78 ceramic lamps found in archaeological excavations in ancient Jerusalem, in an attempt to identify the types of oils used and the reasons for their preferential choice. The oil lamps chosen for the study were taken from a variety of contexts, which represent the different periods during which Jerusalem was settled and the different sectors of the city. The results of the study show that even the most mundane activity of lighting using oil held within it social and economic choices, as mirrored in the different excavation areas.

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Climate, settlement patterns and olive horticulture in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze and Intermediate Bronze Ages (c.3600–1950 BC)

Cited by 43 publications

References 60 publications

The 4.2 ka BP event in the Levant

The 4.2 ka BP event in the Levant

Status, kinship, and place of burial at Early Bronze Age Bab adh‐Dhra': A biogeochemical comparison of charnel house human remains

The Social and Economic Complexity of Ancient Jerusalem as Seen Through Choices in Lighting Oils

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