Tel Beth Shean During the EB IB Period: Evidence for Social Complexity in the Late 4th Millennium BC

This paper employs data from selected sample survey areas in the northern Fertile Crescent to demonstrate how initial urbanization developed along several pathways. The first, during the Late Chalcolithic period, was within a dense pattern of rural settlement. There followed a profound shift in settlement pattern that resulted in the formation of large walled or ramparted sites ('citadel cities') associated with a more dynamic phase of urbanization exemplified by short cycles of growth and collapse. By the later third millennium BC, the distribution of larger centres had expanded to include the drier agropastoral zone of northern and central Syria, termed here the 'zone of uncertainty'. This configuration, in turn, formed the context for Middle Bronze Age settlement, and the pattern of political rivalries and alliances that typified the second millennium BC. Evidence is marshalled from archaeological surveys and landscape analyses to examine these multiple paths to urbanization from the perspectives of (a) staple production within major 123J World Prehist (2014) 27:43-109 DOI 10.1007/s10963-014-9072-2 agricultural lowlands; (b) the shift towards higher risk animal husbandry within climatically marginal regions; (c) changes in local and inter-regional networks (connectivity); and (d) ties and rights to the land. Textile production forms the core of the proposed model, which emphasizes how the demand for wool and associated pasture lands opened up new landscapes for agro-pastoral production and settlement. The resultant landscapes of settlement are then compared with the picture in the southern Levant where a more restricted zone of uncertainty may have limited the opportunities for agro-pastoral production.

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“…Evidence for large-scale storage at Beth Shan (Mazar and Rotem 2009) is consistent with the suggestion (Philip 2003, pp. 107-108;Philip 2008, pp.…”

Section: Later Fourth Millenniumsupporting

confidence: 84%

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

et al. 2014

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“…For example, while Ni'aj and Hayyat produce comparable seed densities and seed frequencies by vegetation categories, the relative importance of orchard crops and cereals shifts from emphasis on Vitis and Hordeum at Ni'aj to Olea and Triticum at subsequently inhabited Hayyat (Fall et al 2002). A similar distinction is apparent between the emphasis on grape and barley cultivation at Bab edh-Dhra', Wadi Fidan 4 and Ras an-Numayra (McCreery 1980(McCreery , 2003Meadows 2001;Cartwright 2003;White et al 2014) in comparison to greater evidence for olive, wheat and legumes at the better watered Bronze Age towns of Megiddo, Beth Shean and Tell Abu al-Kharaz (Borojevic 2006;Fischer & Holden 2008;Mazar & Rotem 2009). Collectively, these results document a transition from more arid adapted farming at Early Bronze Age settlements (especially those like Ni'aj dating to the Early Bronze IV collapse) to a preference for less drought tolerant cultigens by Middle Bronze Age communities (including Hayyat).…”

Section: Early Bronze Ni'aj Vs Middle Bronze Hayyat In the Northern mentioning

confidence: 90%

Bronze age fuel use and its implications for agrarian landscapes in the eastern Mediterranean

Fall

Falconer

Klinge

2015

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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We compare carbonized seeds and charcoal excavated from four Bronze Age settlements in the eastern Mediterranean to infer distinctions in fuel use and the exploitation of woody vegetation amid developing anthropogenic landscapes. Charcoal evidence generally implicates combustion of fuel wood, while burned seeds commonly result from dung fuel use. Varying fuel consumption profiles reflect the availability of woody vegetation and cultivation practices that reveal temporal and geographical dynamics on Bronze Age agrarian landscapes. In the farmlands of the northern Jordan Valley, villagers at Early Bronze Tell Abu en-Nia'j and subsequently at Middle Bronze Tell el-Hayyat relied heavily on dung for their fuel needs, supplemented by burning of orchard prunings and to a lesser extent wood from nearby riparian vegetation. In this agrarian setting, limited availability of forest resources engendered exploitation of the highest diversities of cultivated crops, weedy species and woody plants. The village of Zahrat adh-Dhra' 1 (contemporaneous with Tell el-Hayyat) on the arid, sparsely populated Dead Sea Plain relied less on dung fuel, and similarly harvested wood from orchards, while also utilizing the desert trees Acacia and Tamarix. Fuel use at Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus suggests ready access to Pinus and Quercus forests, and burning of Olea wood from nearby orchards, associated with little dung fuel use and the lowest taxonomic diversity of fuel sources among these four Bronze Age communities. The range of evidence for fuel use at these settlements reflects varying exploitation strategies based on plant resources and animal management in agrarian countrysides, as well as the larger influences of urbanized or non-urbanized society during the development of Bronze Age anthropogenic landscapes.

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“…Grapes were also uncovered at the EB II Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, along with barley, wheat and legumes, and excavators at Wadi Fidan 4 found large numbers of barley and wheat grains and grapes, and a small number of flax seeds (Meadows 2001;Cartwright 2003). The sites of Megiddo, Tel Beth Shean, Tell Abu al-Kharaz and Jericho alternatively contain high percentages of olive pits, legumes and lentils (Hopf 1983;Borojevic 2006;Fischer & Holden 2008;Mazar & Rotem 2009). Closer to Ras an-Numayra, cereals dominate the EBA IB layers at Bab edh-Dhra' while grape and flax are present but minimal (McCreery 1980).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A recipe for disaster: emerging urbanism and unsustainable plant economies at Early Bronze Age Ras an-Numayra, Jordan

2014

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The intensification of agriculture as farming communities grew in size did not always produce a successful and sustainable economic base. At Ras an-Numayra on the Dead Sea Plain, a small farming community of the late fourth millennium BC developed a specialised plant economy dependent on cereals, grapes and flax. Irrigation in this arid environment led to increased soil salinity while recurrent cultivation of flax may have introduced the fungal pathogen responsible for flax wilt. Faced with declining yields, the farmers may have further intensified their irrigation and cultivation schedules, only to exacerbate the underlying problems. Thus specialised crop production increased both agricultural risk and vulnerability to catastrophe, and Ras an-Numayra, unlike other sites in the region, was abandoned after a relatively short occupation.

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Tel Beth Shean During the EB IB Period: Evidence for Social Complexity in the Late 4th Millennium BC

Cited by 22 publications

References 13 publications

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

Contextualizing Early Urbanization: Settlement Cores, Early States and Agro-pastoral Strategies in the Fertile Crescent During the Fourth and Third Millennia BC

Bronze age fuel use and its implications for agrarian landscapes in the eastern Mediterranean

A recipe for disaster: emerging urbanism and unsustainable plant economies at Early Bronze Age Ras an-Numayra, Jordan

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