Shifting Networks and Community Identity at Tell Tayinat in the Iron I (ca. 12th to Mid 10th Century B.C.E.)

Abstract

Citation for published item: eltonD vF nd rrrisonD F nd ftiukD F nd ¤ nl¤ uD iF nd tnewyD fF nd urkyD hF nd vipovithD hF nd vumD hF nd omesD tF @PHIWA 9hifting networks nd ommunity identity t ell yint in the sron s @F IPth to midEIHth gentF fgiAF9D emerin journl of rheologyFD IPQ @PAF ppF PWIEQQQF Further information on publisher's website: httpsXGGdoiForgGIHFQUTRGjFIPQFPFHPWI Publisher's copyright statement:Deposited with the permission of the AJA and the Archaeological Institute of America.Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

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

“…The large and important site of Tell Tayinat in southeast Turkey offers one such alternative history [ 45 – 51 ]. In this paper, we use radiocarbon dates and analysis of these to investigate and define the chronology of the site of Tell Tayinat, and demonstrate that its substantive history of occupation(s) includes the periods of response to the ‘megadrought’ eras associated with both the 2200 BCE and 1200 BCE episodes.…”

“…The site is largely not occupied during the ‘high-civilization’ periods of the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Instead, the local regional occupation in these periods is at Tell Atchana (ancient Alalakh), and the switch to Atchana from Tayinat at the end of the Early Bronze Age, followed by a return to Tayinat at the end of the Late Bronze Age, forms a local version of the wider ‘alternative’ paradigm of interest [ 45 – 51 ]. Tell Tayinat thus represents an alternative history and trajectory to the ‘palatial’ mainstream of the Levantine region, and a prime case study illustrating how change—whether forced by economics, climate, geography or other factors—is rarely universal.…”

“…The site has long been a focus of excavation and study, starting with large-scale excavations conducted by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago between 1935 and 1938 [ 52 , 53 ]. More recently, it has been the focus of work by the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) based at the University of Toronto, which began with pedestrian and geomagnetic survey between 1999–2002 [ 54 ], further geomagnetic survey in 2003 ( http://sites.utoronto.ca/tap/assets/2003geomagneticsurvey_en.pdf ), followed by excavations and study from 2004 onwards [ 45 – 51 , 55 , 56 ]. The earlier excavations demonstrated that the site was occupied during significant portions of the 3 rd millennium BCE, from at least the EB III [ 52 ].…”

“…The Early Iron Age is more problematic. There has been a long-standing challenge resolving Iron Age chronology in the northern Levant in this period [ 51 , 56 , 86 , 87 ]. The close of the Late Bronze Age is characterized by the collapse of the wide-reaching and literate trading systems of previous centuries [ 15 , 40 – 42 , 88 – 90 ].…”

“…In the northern Levant, especially, there has been lack of both data and scholarly focus. After the collapse and transformation of the well-known Late Bronze Age civilizations and their major, often ‘palatial’, centers around the close of the 13 th century BCE and into the early 12 th century BCE [ 11 , 15 , 42 , 88 , 89 , 90 ], the social, political and economic processes of the subsequent earlier Iron Age are much less well understood [ 51 ]. This is particularly true in the period stretching from the late 12 th through 10 th centuries BCE, where historical documentation has been scarce.…”