The Sheshonq I Campaign and the 8th-Century BCE Earthquake-more on the Archaeology and History of the South in the Iron I-IIa

The beginning of Iron Age copper production in the southern Levant: new evidence from Khirbat al-Jariya, Faynan, Jordan

“…At Timna, although there are fewer high precision radiocarbon dates and sample contexts are not always secure, there is evidence for smallscale copper production throughout the Iron Age I-IIA sequence, after the end of Twentieth Dynasty Egyptian hegemony in the region (Table 1). The resumption of copper production along the length of the Arabah Valley during the early Iron Age should be seen in light of 'global' economic and political changes, especially the disruption of commercial connections between Cyprus and the Levant at the end of the thirteenth century BC (Knauf 1995;Fantalkin & Finkelstein 2006;Finkelstein & Piasetzky 2008) and the vacuum in political power in the region after the decline of Egyptian influence (Levy et al 2008) There is no evidence in the early stages of Iron Age copper exploitation (before the end of the tenth century BC) for Egyptian or any other external control. The ceramic assemblages demonstrate local vessel types (see .…”

“…These may be the 'Shasu' tribes mentioned in ancient Egyptian documents and suggested as having been responsible for the tenth-century BC cemetery at Wadi Fidan 40 in the Faynan district (Levy et al 2004a;Levy 2009). Moreover, although the resumption of copper production may be related to the wider phenomenon of settlement intensification in the Negev highlands, and in particular to interaction with the so-called 'Tel Masos chiefdom' (Fantalkin & Finkelstein 2006), we do not consider both regions to represent the same political or social entity. Rather, these Negev sites may have played a role in the copper exchange network emanating from Faynan.…”

Subsistence practices in an arid environment: a geoarchaeological investigation in an Iron Age site, the Negev Highlands, Israel

“…The exceptional prosperity at Khirbet en-Nahas and along the routes leading from it to the Mediterranean ports (e.g., through the Beer-Sheba Valley) could have provided the inhabitants of Atar Haroa and other sites in the Negev Highlands with a secondary source of livelihood and thus enable sedentarization without practice of agriculture. The gradual replacement of the Arabah copper by copper from Cyprus in the course of the 9th century BC could have brought about the decline of the Negev Highlands settlement phenomenon (Finkelstein, 2005;Fantalkin and Finkelstein, 2006).…”

Iron Age Mediterranean Chronology: A Rejoinder

“…Sharon et al 2007a;Finkelstein andPiasetzky 2003a, 2009;Fantalkin and Finkelstein 2006; regarding the west it stands against, e.g. Fantalkin 2001;Coldstream 2003).…”