Body: | The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating:
Archaeology, Text and Science
Thomas E. Levy and Thomas Higham
2005
(The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating, Thomas E. Levy, Thomas Higham, A.J.
Shortland, 2005)
18 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
During the 1970s and 1980s, there was almost a consensus concerning the
dating of two main pottery assemblages that are of interest to us here:
a. The late Iron Age I assemblage, represented by the pottery from the
destruction layers of Megiddo VIA, Tell Qasile X, Tel Masos II, and
parallel strata at other sites, was dated to the late 11th or early 10th
century BCE.
b. The Iron IIA assemblage, with northern and southern variants,
represented by the destruction layers of Megiddo VA-IVB, Taanach Period
IIB, Yokneam XIV, Beth Shean S-1 (in the Hebrew University excavations),
Lachish V, Arad XII, and parallel strata at other sites, was dated by most
scholars to the 10th century, until Shishak's raid.
The deconstruction of the Albright/Yadin `Solomonic paradigm' began during
the 1970s with Benno Rothenberg's and later by Gary Pratico's demolition of
Nelson Glueck's concept of `Solomon's copper mines' in the Timnah Valley in
the Arabah and of his identification of Ezion Geber with Tell el-Kheleifeh.
Twenty years later, in the late 1990s, questions were raised con-cerning
the core of the paradigm by J. Wightman (1990) and especially by David
Jamieson-Drake (1991) whose influential book included a frontal attack from
an archaeological standpoint on the very concept of the United Monarchy of
ancient Israel. This work fell like a ripe apple into the hands of
historians and biblical scholars of the European 'revisionist school' who
were inclined to minimize or reject altogether the historicity of the
entire or parts of the biblical narrative. This book also inspired the work
of Israel Finkelstein.
Finkelstein's Low Chronology (LC)
Since 1996, Finkelstein (1995, 1996) went one step further by suggesting
the wholesale lowering by 50-80 years of archaeological assemblages
traditionally attributed to the 12th-10th centuries BCE. His first point
was the date of the appearance of the local Mycenaean IIIC or 'Philistine
Monochrome' pottery. Following Ussishkin (1985), he suggested lowering the
appearance of this pottery by 50 years until after the end of the Egyptian
presence in Canaan. This subject is beyond the scope of the present
discussion, but it should be mentioned that several recent studies and
discoveries, such as those at Ashkelon, negate this approach; in fact, none
of the excavators of Philistia find this suggestion acceptable. It also
creates unsolvable problems in correlating the archaeology of Philistia
with that of Cyprus (Dothan and Zukerman 2003; Mazar 1985 and forthcoming;
Sherratt and Master [Chapters 9 and 20, this volume;). "C dates for this
period are not of much help, due to the many wiggles and complicated shape
of the calibration curve for the 11th and 12th centuries BCE. Consequently,
Finkelstein suggested lowering the dates of late Iron Age I assemblages
from the late 11th century to the 10th century BCE and the lowering of
tradi-tional 10th century BCE assemblages to the 9th century BCE. His view
became known as the 'Low Chronology' for the Iron Age of Israel. This
suggestion empties the 10th century BCE of its tradi-tional contents. Sites
and strata that were traditionally dated to the late 11th century BCE, such
as Megiddo VIA, are dated to the 10th century BCE, until Shishak's campaign
(Finkelstein 1998a, 1998h, 1999b, 2002a, 2002b, 2004, and Chapters 3 and
17, this volume).
In a separate study based on '4C dates from Tel Dor, Ayelet Gilboa and flan
Sharon suggest an even lower chronology from that suggested by Finkelstein
(see below).
Review of Finkelstein's Low Chronology
Since it was initially suggested in 1996, the LC and the historical
perspectives that followed it have become the subject of continued
controversy. I started the debate with a comprehensive review of this
theory from an archaeological perspective (Mazar 1997) and others followed
(Ben-Shlomo,
THE DEBATE OVER THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE IRON AGE 19
Shai, and Maeir 2004: 2; Ben-Tor 2000; Ben-Tor and Ben-Ami 1998;
Bunirnovitz and Faust 2001; Byrne 2002; Dever 2001: 131-38; Harrison 2003;
Herzog and Singer-Avitz 2004; Kletter 2004 [the most comprehensive review
of many aspects of the LC and its historical implications]; Singer-Avitz
2002;2 Zarzecki-Peleg 1997). Today, most archaeologists in Israel still
hold with the conventional chronology, while a few support the LC (Gilboa
and Sharon 2001, 2003; Gilboa, Sharon, and Zorn 2004; Herzog 2002 but no
more in Franklin [Chapter 18, this volume]; Herzog and Singer-Avitz 2004
[see footnote 2]; Knauf 2002).
The period under debate is framed by upper and lower anchors. The upper
anchor is in the 12th century BCE, represented by the well-established
correlations between the Egyptian Twentieth Dynasty and several sites in
the Levant, in particular Beth-Shean (Level VI of the University of
Pennsylvania excavations and Strata S-4 and S-3 of the Hebrew University
excavations), Megiddo (Stratum VIIA), Lachish (Level VI), Tel Sera'
(Stratum IX), and the Timnah Valley copper mines (Mazar 1990: 295-300;
1993; 2002: 264-72). The end of these strata, in several cases as a result
of violent destruction, occurred towards the end of the Egyptian presence
in Canaan, during the reigns of Ramesses IV to VI, until ca. 1140/1130 BCE.
The lower anchor is related to the Assyrian conquests between 732 and 701
BCE. Destruction layers related to these conquests were identified at many
sites such as at Dan, Hazor, Tel Kinneret, En-Gev, Beth-Shean, Tel Rehov,
Megiddo, Yogne`am, Samaria, Tell el-Farah, Khirbet Marjameh, Timnah (Tel
Batash Stratum III), Lachish (Stratum III), Beth Shemesh and Tell Beit
Mirsim. Related destructions occurred also at Tel Beer-Sheba (Stratum II)
and Arad (Stratum VIII). There is a consensus concerning the dates of these
destructions and thus they can be taken as a datum line for further
discussion. Between these two secure anchors is a period of about 400
years, which leaves us with enough room for a continuous debate.
A major point in this debate is the question of whether we are able to
establish secondary chronological anchors between the two main ones
mentioned above.
There are two such minor anchors on which all the sides in this debate
agree. The first is represented by the site of Jezreel excavated by
Ussishkin and John Woodhead (1997). The history of Jezreel is known only
from the Hebrew Bible, yet all scholars agree that Jezreel was indeed the
second residence of the Omride Dynasty and that it was destroyed soon after
the end of that dynasty, ca. 840-830 BCE. Pottery assemblages from the
destruction of Jezreel can thus safely be dated to this time. Orna Zimhoni,
who published the pottery from Jezreel, pointed out its similar-ity to the
pottery from the `Solomonic' Stratum VA-IVB at Megiddo, and this was one of
Finkel-stein's main arguments for lowering Megiddo Stratum VA-IVB to the
time of the Omride Dynasty in the 9th century BCE. However, Zimhoni has
also shown that similar pottery was found in the construction fills below
the royal enclosure of Jezreel, probably originating from a dismantled
earlier village that could date to the 10th century BCE (Zimhoni 1997:
29-56). This suggests that the same pottery assemblage continued throughout
much of the 10th and 9th centuries. Such a long duration of the same
assemblage was also observed at Hazor, Tel Rehov, and other sites, and
this, in my view, is the key to the resolution of our debate.
Another secondary chronological anchor is related to Arad and the Negev
Highlands sites. All agree that at Arad, either Stratum XII or Stratum XI
must be identified as the 10th-century settlement mentioned in Shishak's
inscription (Aharoni 1981: 182-91). Many of us agree that it should be the
Stratum XII village rather than the Stratum XI citadel (thus Finkelstein
2002b;
2. I included Singe-Avitz in this category since her conclusions concerning
Arad and Lachish in the cited paper fit the conventional chronology. In
Herzog and Singer-Avitz (2004) both authors accept the long duration for
the Iron Age IIA (most of both the 10th and 9th centuries BCE) as suggested
by me since 1997.
20 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
Herzog and Singer-Avitz 2004; Mazar 1990: 373; Singer-Avitz 2002).3 Arad
thus provides an agreed reference point for the pottery of the Northern
Negev in the second half of the 10th century. Yet this agreement works
against Finkelstein's LC, since the pottery assemblage from Arad XII is
identical to that found at other sites that have been dated to the 10th
century BCE according to the conventional chronology, like Lachish Stratum
V and various parallel levels (Mazar and Panitz-Cohen 2001: 277-79;
Singer-Avitz 2002: 114). Concerning the Negev Highland settle-ments,
Finkelstein (1984) dated them to the 11th century BCE, forcing an
historical interpretation which would fit this period; more recently he
lowered this date to the 10th century BCE, in accord with his LC
(Finkelstein 2002h) and thus he now agrees to the mainstream conventional
dating of these sites (Cohen 1980; Cohen and Cohen-Amin 2004; Haiman 2003;
Herzog and Singer-Avitz 2004: 225-26; Mazar 1990: 390-96). He also accepts
the view, long ago suggested by Cohen, Meshel, and others, that these sites
should be identified with the dozens of Negev sites mentioned by Shishak.
The interpretation of these sites as related to the United Monarchy as
suggested by Cohen and others remains in my view the most feasible one. The
pottery from the Negev Highland o sites is typical Iron IIA pottery. If
Arad XII and the Negev Highland sites can be dated to the 10th
century BCE according to both the conventional and the LCs, so can be
Lachish V, Beer Sheba VI
V, Tell Beit Mirsim B3, Tel Batash IV, Tell Qasile IX-VII, Gezer VIII,
Beth-Shemesh IIa, and so
on, all with the same pottery. This conclusion (based, as mentioned above,
on agreements between
all sides in this debate) makes the LC impossible, at least in Judah,
Northern Negev, and the
southern coastal plain. Consequently, the picture emerging concerning the
status of Judah in the
10th century BCE must differ from that described by Finkelstein (1999a).
Shishak's raid has been considered by many as a benchmark for the late 10th
century BCE, yet there are diverse views concerning the question of whether
Shishak indeed destroyed cities, and if so, which archaeological levels can
be identified as having been destroyed by him. Our suggestion that a vast
destruction layer at Tel Rehov should be attributed to Shishak since the
place is men-tioned in his inscription and since this destruction can he
dated to the second half of the 10th century (Bruins, van der Plicht, and
Mazar 2003; Mazar 1998) was severely attacked by Finkelstein and Piasetzky
(2003). Yet at the same time Finkelstein (2002b) suggested that a series of
other destructions should be attributed to Shishak, even at sites not
mentioned in his list, such as Tel Miqne-Ekron Stratum IV. This dual
approach remains mysterious to me. We should either believe that Shishak
simply moved through the country without causing destructions (thus Na'aman
1998) or leave open the possibility that indeed he destroyed cities and
settlements (perhaps only partly), and in such a case the search for such
destruction layers remains a legitimate one, particularly in a place like
Rehov which is mentioned in his list. This latter approach is more feasible
in my view. Lawrence Stager brought up the case of Taanach as an example of
a city mentioned in Shishak's list where only one destruction level-that
of Period IIB-can be identified as the city destroyed by him. The pottery
from this level is identical to that of Megiddo VA-IVB, and thus another
benchmark for the 10th century BCE may he suggested. Finkelstein tried to
resolve the Taanach case by lowering Period II to the 9th century BCE and
Periods IA and IB to the 10th century BCE, yet this claim must he rejected
on the basis of pottery analysis: as shown by Rast (1978) the pottery from
Period IA-B is close to that of the Late Bronze Age and fits the 12th
century BCE (Mazar 2002: 278-79).4
3. A variation is Herzog's view (2002: 92-93) that Arad XII was constructed
during the 10th century Bch, but continued to survive well into the 9th
century. This suggestion is not repeated in Herzog and Singer-Avitz (2004),
where Arad XII is dated to the 10th century alone, before Shishak's raid.
4. Finkelstein's discussion of Taanach (1998h) is based on dismissing the
pottery from Period I as irrelevant due to the fact that most of it
included only sherds. Yet such a dismissal stands against the principles of
archaeological investiga-tion. Rast's conclusions were carefully crafted
and should not be rejected.
THE DEBATE OVER THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE IRON AGE 21
Thus, Jezreel, Arad, the Negev Highlands, and Taanach may be taken as
'mini-anchors' in the problematic 400-year time-span described above.
Evaluation of these points of reference negates Finkelstein's LC.
The Modified Conventional Chronology and Iron HA Material Culture
The results of the archaeological work of the 1990s and renewed analysis of
various sites led me to change my previous view and accept Aharoni and
Amiran's scheme from 1958 with some modifications. Recognizing the long
duration of the Iron IIA pottery period, I suggested that the boundary
between Iron I and Iron II be placed somewhere in the first quarter of the
10th century BCE (an estimated date is ca. 980 BCE) and that the end of the
Iron IIA period should be some 150 years later, after the end of the Omride
Dynasty and the destruction of Jezreel, ca. 840/830 BCE (Mazar in
Coldstream and Mazar 2003: 40-44; Mazar 1997: 164; Mazar in Mazar and Carmi
2001: 1340). This scheme enables the definition of three major pottery
periods in the 450 years between ca. 1150 and 700 BCE: Iron IB, Iron IIA,
and Iron IIB, each with regional variations and each lasting about 150
years (Table 2.1). These scheme is supported by "C dates from Tel Rehov
(Mazar et al. [Chapter 13, this volume]). Such a scheme may be defined as
'Modified Conventional Chronology' (MCC) for the Iron Age in Israel. It was
recently accepted by several scholars as the best resolution for Iron Age
chronology (Ben-Shlomo, Shai, and Maeir 2004: 2; Herzog and Singer-Avitz
2004).
In contrast to Finkelstein's view, I suggest that during the first half of
the 10th century BCE a major change took place in the material culture
throughout the country; this change brought to an end the Canaanite Second
Millennium culture as is best demonstrated by Stratum VIA at Megiddo and
related strata in the northern valleys, such as Yogi-team, Dor and Tell
Keisan. The new material culture is characterized by various aspects-from
new modes of pottery production (domi-nance of red slip and hand burnish,
disappearance of the Canaanite painted pottery tradition) to settlement
patterns, architecture and religious art.
It should though be acknowledged that a definition of the material culture
of the United Monarchy is strewn with difficulties. Since archaeology
supplies the only first-hand evidence for this period, apart from Shishak's
inscription at Karnak, it is essential to define properly which
archaeological remains can be dated to the time of this kingdom. The MCC
with its long duration of the Iron Age HA suggested above makes this goal
hard to achieve, since we cannot say categorically whether a certain Iron
IIA archaeological context belonged to either the 10th or the 9th centuries
BCE. In my view both options are open in many cases, while Finkelstein's
view does not leave such an option and according to him all Iron Age IIA
contexts should be dated to the 9th century BCE alone (2004: 185). I claim
that the archaeological picture is far from being 'crystal clear', and that
the traditional paradigm of 'the archaeology of the United Monarchy'
remains a legitimate possibility, though not mandatory (for summaries see
Dever 1990; Mazar 1990: 368-402). Thus, I see no difficulty in retaining
the `Solomonic' date of the monumental palaces 6000 and 1723 at Megiddo.
Their dating to the 9th century BCE (a main point in Finklestein's theory;
see also Franklin [Chapter 18, this volume]) would leave for the entire 100
years between ca. 980 and 880-860 BCE, a poor ephemeral occupation level at
Megiddo (Stratum VB). This is not impossible, but not very feasible,
especially when taking into consideration the tight stratigraphy and
pottery developments at sites like Hazor and Tel Rehov, and the clear
10th-century BCE date of two Iron IIA levels at Tel Rehov. The strongest
point in favor of a 9th-century BCE date of the Megiddo palaces is their
building technique and masons marks which resemble those at Samaria
(Finkelstein 2004:185; Franklin [Chapter 18, this volume]). Yet this
resemblance can be explained if we assume that both kings-Solomon and
Ahab-used Phoenician masons. Builders families or
4 Shishak, King of Egypt
The challenges of Egyptian calendrical chronology
A.J. Shortland
Abstract
In reconstructing ancient historical chronologies, much use has been made
of chronological pins between neighbouring states, linking their
chronologies together. This chapter examines one such pin, the attack of
Shishak, King of Egypt on the Levant in the early first millennium BCE. Due
to the danger of circular arguments, it works entirely from Egyptian
records, rather than combining these with biblical or Assyrian dates as is
normal. It assesses the way the Egyptian chronology is put together and its
strengths and weaknesses and goes on to examine in detail the Third
Intermediate Period, specifically the 22nd and 25th Dynasties. In doing
this it draws extensively on Kitchen (1986), a standard reference work for
this period, but one that may not be totally accessible to those not
specializing in Egyptian archaeology. The chapter concludes that the most
likely minimum recon-struction of the date of the accession of
Shishak/Sheshonq I is 941 BCE, with dates in the mid-940s BCE being the
most likely overall. This supports biblical dates for the attack well,
which would conventionally place the accession of Shishak/Sheshong I in 945
BCE. It emphasizes that, while not perfect, the Egyptian chronology is very
robust and internally consistent, even without reference to external
events.
Introduction
The reconstruction of ancient chronologies is always a difficult issue, and
often a contentious one. This is especially so when, as is usually the
case, the chronology is constructed from many different types of evidence:
textural, archaeological, astronomical, scientific, and so on, each
bringing with it its attendant specialist who may have little or no
appreciation of the complexities, strengths and weaknesses of the
contributions to the subject of the other disciplines. Add to this the
interconnect-edness of ancient nations and therefore the necessity to take
into account the histories of several neighbouring states when considering
one, and the situation is ripe for confusion and dispute.
The aim of this chapter is to look again at one incident where two of these
ancient nations are apparently interconnected. The textural reference is
shown below:
`In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked
Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the Temple of the Lord and the
treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold
shields Solomon had made'. (1 Kings 14.25-26)
Here there is apparently a clear reference to an Egyptian king appearing in
the history of Israel. This is important since Egypt has one of the best
calendrical chronologies of all the ancient states
SHISHAK, KING OF EGYPT 53
Conclusion
Dating the accession to the throne of Sheshonq I is therefore a matter of
adding up the reigns of the intervening kings and then applying this to the
fixed point of 664 BCE. The order of the kings is fairly well established,
and proceeds mostly in a sensible father-to-son pattern. The gap between
the two dynasties can be bridged by reference to the extremely useful Apis
24, 1, which also gives a sensible reign length for the shadowy Osorkon IV.
In the simplest form, the date of the accession of Sheshonq I can be taken
as the total of the highest regnal dates of all the kings of the 22nd and
25th Dynasties. This would be 253 years, giving a date of 917 BCE. However,
this is not the best fit to all the data, and ignores hard evidence from
the Apis and Pasenhor genealogies. Using these, Osorkon IV's reign must be
extended from the nonsensical zero to 15 years and Shabitqo from 3 to about
12 years. This lengthens the chronology by 24 years, and takes it back to
941 BCE. Thus from entirely internal Egyptian evidence, a minimum date of
941 BCE and a probable date in the mid-940s BCE must be postulated as the
most likely date for the accession of Sheshonq I. This is remarkably close
to the date derived from the use of external evidence (945 BCE),
strengthening the assessment that the chronologies here are coherent and
reasonable.
The actual date of the campaign of Sheshonq is based on the fact that the
reliefs in the Bubastite Portal are unfinished and therefore the campaign
and the reliefs are interpreted as falling late in his reign. Since he
reigned for 21 years, year 20 is usually cited as the year of the
campaigns, a date of 925 BCE. Speculation has been made that the campaigns
represented in the Bubastite Portal may be just one of several campaigns
made by Sheshonq I in the Levant, and attacks may have been made earlier in
his campaign, leaving destruction layers in the Levantine cities perhaps
dating to the 940s and 930s BCE. This is possible, but no evidence exists
from Egyptian records for such attacks. While there are inconsistencies
with tying the Bubastite Portal campaign in with the damage on the ground
seen in archaeological excavation, from an entirely Egyptian point of view,
it still remains the best fit.
As can be seen, the Egyptian chronology, like that of all other ancient
chronologies, requires contradictory evidence to be weighed and assessed
before a most likely chronology can be drawn up. It is not perfect, not
free of error and not 'set in stone', but is subject to new findings and
new interpretations. It does, however, stand up remarkably well to such
findings, and the arguments now usually revolve around one or two years on
the end of reigns and the affiliations of individual kings rather than
wholesale changes in the length or nature of the chronology. As such we can
be very confident of ascribing the accession of Sheshonq I to the middle of
the 940s BCE.
References
Casperson, L.W. (1988) The Lunar Dates of Ramesses II. JNES 47: 181-84.
Censorinus (1983 edn) Censorini De die natali liber ad Q. Caerellium :
accedit anonymi cuiusdam ept oma disciplinarum (fragmentum Censorini) (ed.
N. Sallmann; Leipzig: Teubner).
Dodson, A. (2000) Towards a Minimum Chronology for the Third Intermediate
Period. Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 14: 7-18.
Epigraphic Survey (1936-86) Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak (Chicago:
Oriental Institute).
Hornung, E. (1965) Die Sonnenfinsternis nach dem Tode Psammetichs I.
Zeitschrift fur Aegypt sche Sprache 92: 38-39.
Kitchen, K.A. (1986) The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (Warminster:
Aris & Phillips, 2nd edn). -(1991) The Chronology of Ancient Egypt. World
Archaeology 23: 201-208.
Mackey, D.F. (1993) The Sothic Star Theory of the Egyptian Calendar
(unpublished thesis, University of Sydney).
Manetho (1940 edn) Aegyptiaca (trans. W.G. Waddell; London: Loeb Classical
Library).
typical half of )rthern ..en the ive this house (Strata
and in differ-lly but exca-lower n A4 is ictivity :arbon 15354, 25321 ions
of
GrA-I with tion of
10 Lowland Edom and the High and Low Chronologies
Edomite state formation, the Bible and recent archaeological research in
southern Jordan
Thomas E. Levy, Mohammad Najjar, Johannes van der Plicht, Neil Smith,
Hendrik J. Bruins, and Thomas Higham
Abstract
This study explores the chronological assumptions that underlie the past 40
years of Iron Age archaeological investigations in southern Jordan and
offers an alternative framework based on the application of high precision
radiocarbon dating. The 2002 University of California, San
Diego-Department of Antiquities of Jordan (UCSD-DOAJ) archaeological
excavations at the copper pro-duction center of Khirbat en-Nahas (KEN)
demonstrate monumental building and industrial scale copper production in
two major phases dating to the 12th-11th and 10th-9th centuries BCE.
Strati-graphic excavations, new high precision radiocarbon dating using
short-life samples, and small finds such as ceramics, scarabs, and
arrowheads from the site show the centrality of the Iron Age landscape in
the copper ore-rich lowlands of Edom for the formation of complex societies
in this part of the southern Levant. The new data presented here challenge
previous assumptions about the Iron Age in Jordan, such as (a) the
formation of the Iron Age kingdom of Edom only took place in the 7th and
6th centuries BCE and (b) no monumental building activities took place in
Transjordan during the 10th century BCE. Bayesian statistical analyses of
the radiocarbon dates from KEN are presented by Higham et al. (Chapter 11,
this volume).
Introduction
This study discusses some of the archaeological and historical implications
of the latest suite of high precision radiocarbon dates obtained from the
Oxford and Groningen radiocarbon laborato-ries from the recent excavations
at the Iron Age metal production center at Khirbat en-Nahas in Jordan. To
appreciate the impact of these new radiometric dates on the Iron Age
archaeology of southern Jordan, and radiometric dating on historical
archaeology in general, some discussion of the role of text and archaeology
must be discussed in order to attain some of the goals of a 'New Biblical
Archaeology' outlined at the beginning of this volume (see Chapter 1). In
the 19th century, systematic archaeological research in the southern
Levant-the Holy Land-was born with the aim of exploring the
relationship between text (the Hebrew Bible) and the newly understood field
of archaeology. In 1865, the Palestine Exploration Fund-the first
research organization devoted to the scientific investigation of the
history of the land-was founded in London by a group of distinguished
scholars and clergymen, with the express purpose of providing 'for the
accurate and
130 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
systematic investigation of the archaeology, topography, geology and
physical geography, natural history, manner, and customs of the Holy Land,
for biblical illustration' (cf. Moorey 1991). The unique historical
relationship between the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the landscape of
Palestine created what might be called the 'tyranny of the text'.
Accordingly, in approaching the archaeological record of the southern
Levant, from its 19th-century beginnings until the mid-1970s,
archaeologists consistently approached the archaeological record of the
Holy Land by first examining biblical text and then searching for material
culture proof to support the text as historical fact (Albright 1971; Glueck
1940a; Wright 1965). Following the discovery of incon-sistencies between
text and the archaeological record at key sites such as Jericho, which was
supposed to have been destroyed by Joshua and the Israelite tribes at the
end of the Late Bronze Age, cracks developed in the paradigm known as
'Biblical Archaeology'. By the 1970s, a growing number of researchers
accepted that there were limitations on the role of archaeology in
establish-ing the historicity of the Hebrew Bible along the lines that
Albright (1932) and others had pro-posed. William Dever called for a more
'secular' archaeology in the Holy Land (Israel, Palestine, Jordan) that
should redefine itself as secular `Syro-Palestinian' Archaeology. This was
an effort to shed the weight of the tyranny of the biblical text (Dever
1974, 1982) on the archaeological record of the southern Levant. Dever
(1988) argued that freedom from the biblical text could be achieved by
adopting the rapidly developing paradigm spearheaded by Louis Binford
(1968) and known as the 'New Archaeology' with its emphasis on culture
process-an approach that was specifically `anti-historical.' While the
achievements of the New Archaeology are many and include the adop-tion of
the scientific method, quantification, investigative optimism, the
importance of research design over simple data collection and other
features that have become a mainstay of world archae-ology today, by the
early 1980s critics such as Ian Hodder (1982, 1987) showed many of the
fail-ings of the New or Processual Archaeology. Self-appointing themselves
as the new Tost-Processual' paradigm, Hodder, and others (Preucel and
Hodder [eds.] 1996) pointed out that there was no single way to undertake
archaeological inference as argued by the Processual archaeologists, that
all interpretations were driven by the subjective views of the researchers,
that even data is 'theory laden'-that is, many 'readings' are possible.
The most significant Post-Processual critique, and most applicable to
Levantine Archaeology, was the fact that Processual archaeology had an
anti-historical bias that assumed a kind of 'universal humanism' making it
possible to construct 'laws' of human behavior.
While Dever argued repeatedly for a 'secular' archaeology for the Holy Land
that could be brought forth through the New/Processual Archaeology, this
paradigm never really took off in Levantine Archaeology except in research
embedded in the prehistoric and protohistoric periods (Levy 1996). Perhaps
the notion that the Bible represents a kind of 'tyranny of the text' for
archaeologists is simply inappropriate for the archaeology of the southern
Levant where so much of the Hebrew Bible takes place. The leading
historical archaeologists working in the southern Levant were primarily
secular (Ben-Tor [ed.] 1992; Finkelstein 1988; Mazar 1990; Stager 1988);
however, they could not ignore the centrality of the Hebrew Bible as a
foundation-an ethno-historical source-for examining the archaeological
record of the region. Historical archaeology (i.e. Middle Bronze-Iron
Age) in the southern Levant did adopt many of the methodologies proposed by
the New Archaeology, such as interdisciplinary research and a real interest
in the application of new technologies for archaeological research.
However, the question remained-how best to bring together text and
archaeology. The emergence of the so-called Biblical Minimal-ist paradigm
(cf. Davies 1992; Thompson 1999; Whitelam 1996) argued that the Hebrew
Bible lacks any historical data whatsoever so it is a totally unreliable
source. As discussed earlier (Levy and Higham [Chapter 1, this volume]),
given the large number of interconnections between biblical and
extra-biblical ancient sources (cf. Dever 2001, 2003), the Biblical
Minimalist paradigm is untenable today. In some cases, adherents of this
approach (Lemche 1998; Van Seters 1997) argue
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 131
for the centrality of ancient texts for historical reconstruction-but
give precedence to any written text outside of the Hebrew Bible. When
researchers grasp on to any historical piece of data uncriti-cally, whether
it is the Hebrew Bible or extra-biblical textual data from media such as
monumental inscriptions, ostraca (ink on pottery), engraved silver,
inscribed stone seals or a seal impression, to interpret the archaeological
record they run the risk of simplification and finding what their
preconceived views want to find (Schniedewind 2004). For the past ca. 30
years, this is precisely what has characterized the Iron Age archaeology of
southern Jordan, and in particular the region known from biblical and other
sources (Bartlett 1989, 1992) as Edom. In what follows, we will illustrate
how an over-reliance on extra-biblical textual data for ancient Edom has
led to major chronological problems and consequently, problems with
historical and anthropological interpreta-tion. We argue that only with the
enthusiastic adoption of radiocarbon dating for the Iron Age archaeology of
the southern Levant will it be possible to objectively investigate the
relationship between the historical texts and archaeology for this period.
Research Area: Highland-Lowland Dichotomy
The region of Edom in southern Jordan extends roughly from the Wadi al-Hasa
in the north to the Wadi Hisma and Jabal Ram in the south, the Wadi Arabah
on the west and Transjordanian desert plateau to the east (Bartlett 1992;
Glueck 1940a). The two most important physiographic attri-butes of Edom
include: (a) the presence of one of the richest copper ore deposits in the
southern Levant (Hauptmann 2000) and (b) the marked geographic and
environmental diversity between the 'lowlands' and 'highlands' of Edom. The
differences between these two geomorphic zones are pronounced. For example,
the edge of the highlands, overlooking the Wadi Arabah that separates
modern Israel and Jordan, is characterized by elevations that reach over
1500 masl, a semi-arid landscape and pockets of Mediterranean rainfall
zones with over 600 mm of average annual rainfall (Centre 2001). In
contrast, the lowlands of Edom, with elevations reaching ca. -80 masl, is
typical of the Saharo-Arabian desert phytogeographic zone with pockets of
Sudanian flora (Danin 1983), with mean annual rainfall at less than 70 mm.
This contrast in rainfall patterns between the highlands and the lowlands
has made rainfed agriculture possible in the highlands and more limited
agriculture (primarily with the aid of irrigation technologies) possible in
the lowlands. More important, this environmental dichotomy had a profound
effect on the need for herd ani-mals such as sheep and goats and their
annual movements in search of grazing land. For the most part, since at
least the Early Bronze Age (Adams 2003; Levy et al. 2002) human occupation
in Edom has been characterized by nomadic or semi-nomadic populations who
have searched for ways to integrate the exploitation of seasonal resources
available in both the highland and lowland regions. Thus, it is impossible
to understand human settlement and the history of Edom without
conceptualizing and integrating these two physiographic regions. However,
over the past three decades, archaeologists interested in the Iron Age of
Edom have overlooked the significance of the `lowland'-'highland'
dichotomy. Prior to the Jabal Hamrat Fidan Project (Levy 2002; Levy, Adams,
and Najjar 1999, 2001), all the major Iron Age excavations in Edom took
place in the highland zone (Bennett 1966b, 1977; Bennett and Bienkowski
1995a; Bienkowski 1990; Bienkowski and Adams 1999; Bienkowski and Bennett
2003). The lack of systematic archaeological exploration in the lowland
zone also meant that the role of Iron Age copper production that took place
in the lowlands was not fully investigated.
As part of the deep-time study of early metallurgy and ore procurement from
the Neolithic to the Iron Age (Levy et al. 2001a), one of the goals of the
Jabal Hamrat Fidan UHF) Project, made up of a team of international
researchers under the auspices of the UCSD-DOAJ, has been to help fill in
the Iron Age research gaps that have developed due to the 'highland bias'
in the Iron Age
132 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
archaeology of Edom. The Jabal Hamrat Fidan is a narrow mountain range made
up of Mon-zogranite (Rabb'a 1994) that stretches for ca. 8 km north/south
along the eastern edge of the Wadi Araba and represents the 'gateway' to
the copper ore rich district of Faynan. The research area includes some 280
km' and is west of the main Faynan valley where various archaeology teams
from the Council for British Research in the Levant have carried out mostly
surveys and some excavations (Barker et al. 1997, 1999, 2000). The main
seasonal drainages in the JHF research area that have been intensively and
systematically surveyed for archaeological sites include the Wadi Fidan
(Levy et al. 2001a), Wadi al-Jariyeh, and Wadi al-Guwayb (Levy et al.
2003). In this study, we discuss the ramifications of the stratigraphic
excavations and high precision radiocarbon dating for the largest Iron Age
site in the Jabal Hamrat Fidan area, Khirbat en-Nahas. First, however, it
is necessary to briefly review the chronological bias in the Iron Age
archaeology of Edom and how that has affected interpretation of the
evolution and history of the emergence of Edomite kingdom known primarily
from the Hebrew Bible and some extra-biblical texts.
The Chronological Bias in the Iron Age Archaeology of Edom
Until quite recently, the Iron Age chronology of Edom rested on the
discovery of a single clay seal impression discovered at the highland site
of Umm el-Biyara during Crystal Bennett's excavations in the 1960s (Bennett
1966a, 1966b). The seal contains the name of Qos-Gabr and is known from the
7th-century BCE Assyrian annals of Esarhaddon (Prism B, ca. 673-672 BCE;
Pritchard 1969: 291) and in the first campaign of Ashurbanipal (Cylinder C,
ca. 667 BCE; Bienkowski 1992b; Pritchard 1969: 294). Using the concept of
relative dating, scholars have taken the discovery of this extra-biblical
text fragment to date the Iron Age pottery found in association with it at
the Iron Age site of Umm el-Biyara. As Bienkowski (1992b: 99) pointed out
some years ago, the seal impression of Qos-Gabr provides a terminus post
quern' for dating the Iron Age pottery at Umm al-Biyara but did not
indicate just how early the Iron Age pottery found in that assemblage dated
back to in time. In fact, Bienkowski (1992b: 110) also alerted readers that
unpublished radiocarbon dates from the German Mining Museum's soundings at
Khirbat en-Nahas and radiocarbon dates that indicated much earlier dates
for the Iron Age in Edom (ca. calibrated dates of ca. 1200-900 BCE with
'Midianite' pottery; see Levy et al. 2004). However, Bienkowski's caution
and the later publication of the report of the soundings at Khirbat
en-Nahas in German which included radio-carbon dates (Engel 1993; Fritz
1996) fell on deaf ears. Bennett's dating of the Iron Age in Edom to the
7th and 6th centuries BCE became the accepted standard for the Iron Age
archaeology of this part of Jordan. A host of studies concerning Iron Age
Edom were produced based on the assump-tions established by the relative
dating of Umm el-Biyara (Bennett and Bienkowski [eds.] 1995b; Bienkowski
1995; Hart 1989; Oakshott 1978, 1983; Pratico 1985, 1993b) and even more
recent studies continue to work under the late 7th-6th-centuries BCE
assumption for the emergence of the Edomite kingdom (Bienkowski and Bennett
2003; Crowell 2004; Porter 2004).
The enthusiasm that Bennett's late dating of Iron Age Edom received from
scholars in the late 1970s to the 1990s, was in part against the views of
the American archaeologist Nelson Glueck who pioneered archaeological
surveys in Jordan and Iron Age excavations in Edom (Glueck 1938, 1939a,
1940a). Glueck took a more traditional view of Levantine archaeology and
tended to accept extensive texts in the Hebrew Bible as historical fact in
a way that many researchers believed to he biased (Dever 2000). Working in
Edom, Glueck firmly believed that the majority of Iron Age mining
activities in the Faynan district that he documented could he dated to the
10th century BCE
l'crminus post quern-refers to the notion that a datable object provides
only the date on or after which the archaeological sediment layer that
contains it was deposited.
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 133
(1940a: 69) and 9th century BCE (1940a: 86) and directly related to
biblical texts such as 2 Samuel 8.13-15, 1 Kings 22.45, 48-50, 2 Chronicles
20.1ff., and many more. In the early 1990s, working with published Iron Age
ceramic drawings, Israel Finkelstein (1992a, 1992b) suggested that indeed
there was ceramic evidence (collared rim jars) of an early Iron Age
occupation in Edom that pushed back this occupation considerably earlier
than the view of Bienkowski (Bienkowski 1992a) and others. To help solve
this chronological debate, which has profound implications for
under-standing the history and socio-economic processes that led to the
rise of the Edomite kingdom-such as core-periphery relationships between
Edom and the Assyrian empire on the one hand and Edom and neighboring small
polities such as Israel and Judah-it was decided that as part of the JHF
Project, large scale stratigraphic excavations would be carried out at the
Iron Age copper production site of Khirbat en-Nahas.
Previous Fieldwork at Khirbat en-Nahas
Nelson Glueck's (1939a, 1940a) surveys in Edom were the first systematic
investigation of the network of Iron Age metal production sites in the
lowlands of Edom and recognized the centrality of the site of Khirbat
en-Nahas (KEN) in that system.
Figure 10.1. Aerial view of Khirbat en-Nahas, Jordan
(courtesy of ROHR publications, Nicosia)
134 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
While the Czech Orientalist Alois Musil (1907) was the first to sketch the
site in 1898, and the site was subsequently visited by Kirkbride,
Horsfield, Head, and Fritz Frank (Frank 1934) before Glueck, it was Glueck
who photographed and made detailed sketch maps of a full range of Iron Age
metal production sites around KEN. Glueck assumed that the most important
periods of metal production at Khirbat en-Nahas were during and after the
reign of King Solomon (1940a: 60-61). The site was later cursorily surveyed
by Burton MacDonald (1992). In the early 1990s, the German Mining Museum,
under Andreas Hauptmann (2000), carried out technological studies at KEN
(Engel 1993) and preliminary soundings at one of the buildings visible on
the site surface (Fritz 1996). In addition to Building 200 (n 1 radiocarbon
sample), three slag mounds were sampled around the perimeter of the site
providing a total of 8 Iron Age dates: East-near Fritz's Building 200 (n
= 4 samples); North-HD 10991 (n = 1 sample); and West-near the fortress
gate (n = 3 samples).
The dates from the German Mining Museum (GMM) work at KEN (Hauptmann 2000:
66) have been re-calibrated using Ox-Cal v3.6 in Figure 10.2 here.
Published in the 1990s and 2000 (Hauptmann 2000) the dates clearly indicate
two major phases of metal production at KEN during 12th-11th centuries BCE
and 10th-9th centuries BCE and highlight a much earlier Iron Age
occupa-tion in Edom than suggested by many current researchers who focus on
the highlands (Bienkowski 2001a, 2001b; Crowell 2004; Porter 2004).
However, part of the problem with the GMM date sequence is that they are
not tied to well-defined archaeological stratigraphy at KEN. Conse-quently,
with the exception of the single date from Building 200 (HD 13978), all the
dates come from industrial deposits that lack cultural material such as
pottery, scarabs, ground stone, casting molds, and so on. This lack of
association with cultural material may also have contributed to
archaeologists paying little attention to the GMM KEN dates in constructing
models of settlement and history for Iron Age Edom. The recent excavations
at KEN by the JHF team (Levy et al. 2004) have resolved this problem by
carrying out large-scale excavations in three different cultural contexts
at the site: the fortress gate (Area A), a building devoted to
metallurgical processing, and an industrial slag mound similar to those
sampled by the GMM team.
The 2002 Field Work at Khirbat en-Nahas and New Radiocarbon Dates
Recently, the JHF team reported on a series of 10 high precision
radiocarbon dates from the 2002 excavations at KEN and processed at the
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (Levy et al. 2004). These included 4
dates from the Area A fortress, 4 dates from the Area S building complex
and 2 dates from the Area M slag mound. These data and their analyses
demonstrated how some of the chronological biases in the Iron Age
archaeology of Edom could be surmounted with the aid of high precision
radiocarbon dating. That study also showed that occupation began at KEN at
least as early as the 11th century BCE and that the monumental fortress was
built in the 10th century BCE. It also showed that complex societies
existed in Edom that where heavily involved in the extraction of copper ore
and production of copper long before the influence of Assyrian imperial-ism
was felt in the region from the 8th-6th centuries BCE. To holster the study
of KEN and its chronological position in the Iron Age of Edom, an
additional 27 carbon samples were processed from KEN for dating at the
Centre for Isotope Research, Groningen, the Netherlands and are reported on
here (Table 10.1).
136 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
Figure 10.2. Calibrated radiocarbon dates from slag mounds and Room 200,
Khirbat en Nahas, Jordan (after Hauptmann 2000). HD 10991 = North slag
mound, calibrated
910-820 BCE; HD 13978 = Building 200, calibrated 900-805 BCE.
In this section, we focus on presenting a snapshot of the archaeological
deposits and the expanded number of radiocarbon samples processed at
Groningen since the publication of our original suite of dates processed at
the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (Levy et al. 2004). A detailed
study of these dates is presented by Higham et al. (Chapter 11, this
volume). Here we spotlight the cultural and historical implications of the
dates.
The Iron Age Fortress at KEN (Area A)
The ca. 73 x 73 m= fortress at KEN had never been excavated before the 2002
field season and its dating was only speculative. To obtain an
archaeological 'signature' of the fortress complex, we decided to focus our
work on sampling what appeared to be the gate located on the western
perimeter of the fortress. Although covered mostly in rough, possibly hewn,
blocks of Burj Dolomite shale, the outlines of what appeared to be room
cells or guard rooms could be detected protruding on the surface of rubble
surrounding the gate (Figs. 10.3, 4). Broadly, 7 strata could be defined in
Area A: A4, A3, Alb, A2a,N1b, and Ala. As A4 represents bedrock, we begin
with the earliest construction phase-Stratum A3.
138 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
Figure 10.5. The two northern guard rooms exposed in the KEN gate, 2002.
After clearing much of the collapse from the gate house, it was clear that
we had found a typical Four-Chamber Iron Age Gate (Fig. 10.5). In the
interests of preservation we left more than half of the gate house
unexcavated for the future and focused our excavations on the two most
northern rooms in the four-room gate house. As will be shown below, the
passageway or street between the two sets of guard rooms had been
intentionally sealed in antiquity, so it was decided to leave this blockage
unexcavated. A summary of the different strata found in and around the gate
house follows from the earliest building layer (Stratum A3) through the
main occupations phases (Strata Ala and A2b). Some of the problems and
potentials of these new dates are discussed below.
Stratum A3, Gate, Founding Phase
The Four-Chamber Gate was founded in Stratum A3 above the sterile bedrock
stratum found in the earlier Stratum A4. One of the problems in excavating
in and around the gate is that the differ-ent excavation areas inside and
outside this structure were not connected stratigraphically but linked
together based on the relative similarity of the depositional sequence in
this single exca-vation area. Thus, on some occasions the possibility that
later deposits infiltrated into lower stratum can not be ignored.
Consequently, the date GrA-25320 (calBc 895-825) for Stratum A4 is too late
for the basal layer at the site and conies from the main 9th-century BCE
industrial activity that took place in this area when the gate was already
abandoned. The four additional carbon samples selected for radiocarbon
dating from Stratum A3 (Table 10.1: GrA-25318, GrA-25354, GrA-25321,
GrA-25322) are also problematic but for the same and opposite reasons.
GrA-25321 (calBc 835-795) and GrA-25322 (calBc 895-875, 835-800) seem to be
from the basal portions of the 9th century BCE A2b industrial layer that
were ascribed in the field to A3. Alternatively GrA-25318 (calBC 1210-1045)
and GrA-25354 (calBc 1185-1180, 1125-945) are associated with
12th-11th-century BCE metalworking activities that took place in Area A
before the construction of
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 139
the gate (see Figs. 10.6, 8-9). When these dates are coupled with the
Stratum A3 date from the Oxford lab (OxA-12366 [calBC 1000-9851), the main
construction phase of the four chamber gate falls within the early 10th
century BCE. Clearly more stratigraphic excavations are needed in and
around the Area A gate to clarify the construction date of this structure
on a more definitive basis.
Based on the radiocarbon determinations from the Oxford suite (Levy et al.
2004), those from Groningen published here, and the stylistic similarities
of the gate at KEN with those from other Iron Age south Levantine
fortresses, it seems safe at this point to date the KEN example to the Iron
IIA period. As seen in Table 10.2, the KEN gate is most similar to the
well-known examples of Megiddo IVA, Beersheva V and III, Tel Dan, Ashdod
10, and Tell en-Nasbeh (Early)), The KEN gate has a facade of ca. 16.8 m
and is smaller than the major Iron II settlement sites such as Megiddo IVA,
Tel Dan, and Beersheva V, but on par with Beersheva III, Ashdod 10, and
slightly larger than Tell en-Nasbeh (Early). The highly specialized nature
of the KEN fortress which serviced the metal production activities of
10th-9th-century BCE Edom is thus enigmatic. The gate can be considered a
mid-size example of the typical Iron IIA examples found in the southern
Levant that was linked to a single role-helping to ensure the operation
of copper production at KEN at the beginning of the Iron IIA period. If the
perimeter of the KEN fortress is compared with other 10th-9th-century BCE
fortresses in southern Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula (Table
10.3), at ca. 73 x 73 m2, the KEN fortress is one of the largest
fortifications from this period in the southern Levant. The closest
parallel to the KEN gate and fortress complex is the one excavated by
Glueck (Glueck 1938, 1939b, 1940b) at Tell el-Kheleifeh near Aqaba on the
Red Sea which he dated to the 10th (Period I), 9th (Period II), and 8th
(Period III) centuries BCE (Glueck 1993). Although Pratico (1993a, 1993b)
has gone to great lengths to re-date Tell el-Kheleifeh to mostly the
8th-6th centuries BCE, the similarities between the KEN gate and fortress
and Tell el-Kheleifeh, as well as the ceramic assemblages, are so striking
that we suggest that in light of the corpus of '4C dates from KEN, the
dating of Tell el-Kheleifeh needs to be reassessed once again in
conjunction with future radiocarbon dates. Thus, a working hypothesis can
be constructed that suggests that during the 10th and possibly the 9th
centuries BCE, the KEN fortress played a pivotal role in the exploitation
of copper ore and metal in the Faynan district and that it was part of an
Iron IIA trade network that incorporated the early Hazevah fortress (Cohen
and Yisrael 1995) on the western side of the Wadi Arabah with land trade
routes leading to Israel and the Mediterranean and Tell El-Kheleifeh
controlling seaborne trade to the south. As will be seen in the discussion
of the following strata (A2b-A2a), considering the considerable energy that
went into the construction of the KEN fortress, it is extremely puzzling
that the KEN fortress seems to have had a relatively short-lived use.
Additional excavations are needed in the gate to clarify the changing
function of the gate and fortress.
Table 10.2. Characteristics of south Levantine Iron Age Four-Chamber Gates
(Sources: Herzog
1992; Levy et al. 2004; A. Mazar [personal communication])
Site Facade
(m) Depth
(m) Passage
width (m) Depth of
Chambers (m) Width of
Chambers (m) Date of Construction
Megiddo IVA 25 15.5 4.2 3 8.2 Late 9th-8th century BCE
Beersheva V 20.8 12.6 4.2 3 6 End of 10th or 9th
century BCE
Beersheva III 16.6 13.6 3.6 3 5 Early 8th century BCE
Tel Dan 29.5 17.8 3.7 4.5 9 9th century BCE
foundation?
Ashdod 10 16.5 13.75 4.2 2.4 3.8 End of 11th or Early
10th century BCE
Tell en-Nasbeh (Early) 15 12 4 1.8 4.4 No hard data
Khirbat en-Nahas 16.8 10.6 3.63 2.9 13 10th century BCE
144 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
Strata A2b and A2a, Gate
Stratum A2b. It is remarkable that shortly after the construction of the
Khirbat en-Nahas gate, it seems to have gone out of use as defensive
facility. There are two lines of evidence to suggest this. First, the
passageway leading between the two sets of gate rooms was carefully filled
with closing walls on each end of the passage, and a rock fill. As seen on
the plan in Figure 10.7, both the western and eastern ends of the passage
were closed in Stratum A2b with a stone wall. These closing walls, like the
walls which indicate the location of the guard rooms of the gate house,
were seen protruding out of the rubble fill covering the gate complex and
easily mapped. Secondly, the eastern Stratum A2b closing wall was fully
exposed during the excavations around this part of the gate revealing the
careful work done to ensure the closure of the passage. As seen in Figures
10.11 and 10.12, this blockage was carefully constructed with tons of rock
fill placed behind it to fill in the passage and render it useless. In
addition to closing the passageway through the gate, the Stratum A2b
activities included using the former guard rooms for smelting and other
metal processing activities. Three new Groningen dates (GrA-25314 [calBC
895-825], GrA-25315 [calBC 895-825], and GrA-25316 [Table 10.1; calBC
1005-905), along with the Oxford date (OxA-12367 [calBC 900-875]) show that
during the early 9th century BCE the gate and fortress ceased to have a
military function.
Strata A2a. There may have been a brief abandonment phase in Area A (Fig.
10.7) at KEN following the heavy Stratum A2b metalworking activities at the
site. The stratigraphic development of the site shows that a second metal
processing layer is superimposed on Stratum A2b that has been labeled
Stratum A2a. This stratum represents more scanty evidence of metal
production with a series of rather ephemeral stone built installations
attached around the perimeter of the gate including those areas directly in
front of the passageway. Three new dates were processed at Groningen (Table
10.1): GrA-25311 (calBC 895-825), GrA-25312 (calBC 890-885, 835-800), and
GrA-25334 (calBC 1210-1010). When these dates are considered along with the
single date processed from this stratum in the Oxford lab (OxA-12368 [calBC
900-805]), it is clear that GrA-25334 is too old and represents an earlier
piece of charcoal that was mixed in with material from this later stratum.
As this stratum is characterized by many pit installations, the mixing
hypothesis seems most accurate. Thus, Stratum A2a represents a late
9th-century BCE phase of metal produc-tion.
In summary, the expanded sample of radiocarbon dates for Area A at KEN
indicates that in the 12th-11th centuries BCE, prior to the construction of
the gate, Iron Age metal production activities had already begun at KEN.
During the 10th century BCE, the Four-Chamber Gate was constructed in
Stratum A3 and used for less than a century. In the following Stratum A2b,
in the early 9th century BCE, the four-room gate ceased to function as a
gate, was filled in and used for metal processing activities. By the end of
the 9th century BCE, a second, more ephemeral phase (Stratum A2a) of metal
production took place in and around the abandoned gate complex.
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 149
Metallurgical Processing Building (Area S)
In our recent overview of the 2002 excavations and surveys in the Faynan
district, we (Levy et al. 2003) described the Iron Age settlement along the
Wadi Guwayb where Khirbat en-Nahas is located and one of its tributaries,
the Wadi al-Jariyeh, as an 'Iron Age landscape' that reflected the
organization and power of copper production in the Faynan district at this
time. When examining the distribution of building remains across the site
surface at KEN as seen in Figures 10.1 and 10.13-14, it can similarly be
described as an Iron Age setting reflecting the power, organization, and
fabrication of copper during the Iron I and Iron IIa-Ilb periods writ large
at a single locale. KEN is an extraordinary site in that virtually 100 per
cent of the building remains visible on the site surface are associated
with Iron Age ceramic remains. Based on the excavations by both the German
Mining Museum (Fritz 1996) and those of the UCSD-DOAJ (Levy et al. 2004)
teams, there seems little doubt that these buildings which extend over an
area of ca. 10 ha all date to the Iron Age and almost reflect the very rare
'Pompeii principle' described by Michael Schiffer (1987) which relates to
an archaeological site with an unusual degree of preservation, little
evidence of post-depositional disturbance, and the documenting of 'frozen
moments in time'. While KEN has certainly suffered from the vicissitudes of
time, the later Iron Age strata at the site (ca. 9th century BCE) seem to
represent abandonment where many artifacts were left in situ. Taken
together, KEN represents a unique record of a Near Eastern Iron Age metal
production factory town. The excava-tions in Area S represent the first
systematic stratigraphic excavation of a building complex at KEN based on
digital recording methods (Levy et al. 2001b) to ensure the utmost accuracy
in data acquisition and analysis.
Stratum S4. This stratum represents the basal layer in Area S where several
small (possible) cooking installations and isolated pockets of metal
processing were found. Three new radiocarbon dates were processed from
Stratum S4 (Table 10.1: GrA-25348 [calBC 970-835], GrA-25349 [calBC
1000-865], GrA-25352 [calBC 1005-900]). The first date processed from this
stratum in the Oxford lab (OxA-12169 [calBC 1130-1015]) indicated a
12th-11th century BCE date. However, the new determinations point to the
10th-9th centuries BCE. Given the presence of Iron I scarabs from Area S
(Levy et al. 2004), we suggest that the carbon samples collected from the
small exposures in this area came from later contexts and that Stratum S4
should be dated to the Iron I period. This problem can only be resolved
through more controlled excavations in other building complexes at KEN (see
Figs. 10.13, 14).
Stratum S3. The most notable aspect of Stratum S3 at KEN is that it
represents the first large scale evidence of metal smelting and processing
in this part of the site. A thick layer of slag varying from 20-40 cm in
thickness was found running under the entire S2b building structure in Area
S (Fig. 10.16). This clearly shows that massive metal production occurred
at KEN before the construction of many of the smaller 9th-century BCE
buildings at the site such as the one in Area S and Building 200 (Fritz
1996). Two new radiocarbon dates were processed in Groningen from Stratum
S3: GrA-25353 (calBC 1040-900) and GrA-25347 (calBC 1045-915) calibrated to
the 11th and 10th centu-ries BCE. The Oxford date (OxA-12342 [calBC
1005-965]) is similar (see Higham et al. [Chapter 11, this volume]). The
presence of a metal leaf-shaped arrowhead (Fig. 10.17) typical of the Iron
I period (Mazar 1990) may add additional evidence to placing this
industrial layer in the very late 11th-early 10th centuries BCE. Thus, it
is possible that the widespread metal processing that occurred in Stratum
S3 (Area S) was contemporary with the main occupation and use of the KEN
fortress (Stratum A3) before it went out of use in Stratum A2b.
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 151
Figure 10.16. Stratum S3 slag layer (L. 351) found below the building in
Area S.
Figure 10.17. Leaf-shape metal arrowhead found in L. 344, Stratum S3.
Stratum S2b. Stratum S2b represents the main construction and use phase of
the building in Area S. The building is a relatively small structure
measuring ca. 6 x 10.20 m divided into four rooms (Fig. 10.18) and was
primarily used to process slag from the nearby smelting operations. Based
on over 350 ground stone artifacts including grinding slabs, mortars,
pestles, and other objects found in association with thick deposits of
crushed slag around the perimeter of this building, we assume slag was
intensively crushed here to retrieve as much residual copper embedded in
the slag as possible. The original Oxford date (OxA-12168 905-830]) and two
recently processed dates from Groningen (Table 10.1: GrA-25344 [caltw
970-835]; GrA-25345 [calBC 995-840]) suggest that the building was
constructed and used primarily during the mid-9th century BCE. As seen in
Figure 10.2, the single radiocarbon determination from Building 200 (HD
13978 [calEC 900-805]) also falls in the mid-9th century BCE. As a working
hypothesis we suggest that after the fortress went out of use, there were
widespread building activities at KEN when many of the structures visible
on the site surface were constructed (see Figs. 10.1, 13).
Figure 10.7. Area A, Stratum Ala and ATh.
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 155
Stratum S2a. This stratum represents a relatively short period of
construction to enlarge the initial building plan of Stratum S2b. As seen
in Figure 10.19, courtyards were added to the northeast of the four-room
building in Area S and a second phase of surfaces was found inside the
structure reflecting a re-use of the building. The original Oxford date
(OxA-12274 [calBc 895-875]) has been augmented with four new Groningen
dates (Fig. 10.19, Table 10.1; GrA-25343 [calBC 900-825], GrA-25332 [calBC
895-830], GrA-25331 [calBC 1005-920], GrA-25329 [calBC 895-825]). Given
that one (GrA-25331) out of the five dates from this stratum is a somewhat
earlier anomaly, we assume that it may represent an old wood problem. The
Bayesian analysis of all these dates is presented by Higham et al. (Chapter
11, this volume). However, a general assessment of the suite of S2a dates
suggests a mid-9th-century BCE occupation for this stratum very close in
time to S2b.
Stratum S / . In this chapter, we present the first series of radiocarbon
dates for Stratum S I at KEN (Table 10.1). As this stratum was somewhat
disturbed by post-depositional formation processes, we originally shied
away from attempting to use radiocarbon to date this horizon (Levy et al.
2004). However, given the rich quantity of artifacts found in Stratum S1,
we felt compelled to produce a relatively large sample of dates (GrA-25342
[calBC 1000-895]; GrA-25328 [calBC 890-885, 835-800]; GrA-25326 [calBC
900-835]; GrA-25325 [calBc 895-810]; GrA-25324 [calBC 895-830]). Stratum S1
activities occurred after an abandonment of the S2b-S2a occupation when
there was an intentional in-filling of the four-room building to make a
large enclosure. A scarab depicting a hunting scene was found in a fill
from S1 (Basket: 6438, Locus 316; Levy et al. 2004: 875) and cannot be used
to definitively date this specific stratum at KEN. Thus, at first glace
these dates indicate a mid- to late 9th-century BCE date for Stratum S1. A
clearer picture of this suite of dates is presented in the Bayesian
analysis by Higham et al. (Chapter 11, this volume).
Area M-Slag Mound
Perhaps the most ubiquitous feature at KEN is the more than 30 extensive
mounds of slag that mostly frame the perimeter of the site (Fig. 10.1; Levy
et al. 2004: 869). The German Mining Museum team made soundings in three
slag mounds at KEN and sampled examples on the west, north, and eastern
boundaries of the site (Engel 1993; Hauptmann 2000). As noted above, these
soundings produced an important series of dates (Fig. 10.2) that point to
two major phases of metal production at KEN during the 12th-11th and
10th-9th centuries BCE. These soundings were made quickly by roughly
sectioning the mounds so that carbon samples could be procured and an
immediate picture of the phases of smelting revealed. While Engel (1993)
suggested four major phases of smelting took place at KEN, our new data
suggests more caution in making such an assessment. Using careful
stratigraphic excavation methods, a ca. 5 m x 2.5 m sondage (Fig. 10.21)
was dug through a slag mound located ca. 30 m south of Area S. This 6-week
excavation was able to penetrate and accurately record only 1.2 m of the
ca. 5 m deep slag mound. Within this expo-sure a minimum of 7 phases of
smelting episodes was defined on the basis of identifying layers of large
flat tap slag running across the section (Fig. 10.21). The radiocarbon
dates from the top of this section (OxA-12436 [calBC 829-801]) and the base
of this section (OxA-12437 [calBC 910-886]) suggest that in this relatively
shallow sample of the slag mound there were two phases of smelting from the
early 9th century BCE and early 10th-late 9th centuries BCE. This comes as
no surprise given the findings of the Germans (Fig. 10.2). However, the
excavations in Area M highlight the need carefully to excavate this (or
another) slag mound to virgin soil so as to identify the full sequence of
copper ore smelting activities during the Iron Age in Faynan.
Perhaps the biggest surprise from the Area M excavation was the discovery
of part of a large stone built building in close association with the slag
mound (Figs. 10.21-22). As only a corner of the rectilinear building could
be exposed (Fig. 10.22), it was impossible to trace a floor interior
156 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
that might inform about the function of the structure and its relationship
to the industrial activities at the site. However, a similar relationship
has been documented for a later period site in the Faynan district, less
than 2 km from KEN. Long ago, Glueck (1940: 66) described the nearby
Medieval Islamic metal processing site of Khirbet Neqeib Aseimer as
consisting of a large rectangular building with large deposits of slag
abutting and surrounding it. Like Khirbet Neqeib Aseimer, the Area M
rectilinear building and other similar occurrences at KEN were no doubt
closely connected to the actual smelting process. This discovery adds
another dimension to the high degree of Iron Age industrial specialization
that took place at KEN.
Figure 10.21. Overview of excavations in the Area M slag mound at Khirbat
en-Nahas, 2002. Note corner of building behind survey rod.
A
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 1 57
Figure 10.22. Detail of interior of the corner of large building found
imbedded
in and around the Area M slag mound. The foundations of the building are
preserved to more than 2 m in depth.
Conclusions and Some Considerations of Iron Age History
For those of us working on the Iron Age archaeology of the southern Levant
outside of Israel-Palestine, in neighboring regions such as Edom, the
application of radiocarbon dating as an essential element in the tool box
of archaeologists is now essential. As discussed here, the previous
assumptions and dependence on the relative dating of ceramics linked to a
paucity of extra-biblical textual discoveries is no longer tenable for
Edom. Scholars working in other regions in Jordan, such as Moab (Harrison
[Chapter 12, this volume) have also acknowledged that we have passed the
point of no return and must employ high precision radiocarbon dating to
critically test the relationship between history and archaeology in our
region. In many respects, the bar has been raised for Iron Age archaeology
by the recent publication by A. Mazar's team (Bruins, van der Plicht, and
Mazar 2003a) of the radiocarbon dating project of Iron Age levels at Tel
Rehov in the journal Science, which attempts to document evidence for the
destruction of Iron Age towns in Palestine by the Egyptian pharaoh
Shoshenq/Shishak I during the Iron IIA period. Whether Mazar's team is
correct or not (Bruins, van der Plicht, and Mazar 2003b; Finkelstein and
Piasetzky 2003; and in this volume, see Mazar et al. [Chapter 13], Sharon
et al. [Chapter 6]; Bruins et al. [Chapter 19]) is immaterial-it is now
impossible to carryout Iron Age historical archaeology without reliance on
the object framework offered by `4C dating methods.
1 58 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
The recent excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas show conclusively that Iron Age
social complexity, and perhaps the emergence of the kingdom of Edom known
from biblical texts began some 200-300 years earlier than previously
assumed (Bennett 1992; Bennett and Bienkowski [eds.] 1995b; Bienkowski
2001a, 2001b). It is not necessary to look to a core civilization (Assyria
or Egypt) to explain the rise of the Edomite kingdom (Porter 2004)-we
should look for local processes of change, especially the relationship of
the small neighboring polities such as Israel and Judah with Edom at the
end of the Late Bronze Age, Iron I, and early Iron II periods. For ancient
Edom, the key to the emergence of social complexity is in what happened in
the lowlands-in the Faynan district, close to the rich copper ore
resources. With the recent large scale excavations at KEN, there is now
evidence that control of copper production and trade in copper was probably
the main catalyst for the rise of social complexity in Iron Age Edom. While
many researchers (Bienkowski 1992a; Bienkowski and van der Steen 2001;
Finkelstein 1992a; Knauf-Belleri 1995) have argued that large scale trade
in other goods, especially from Arabia, was the key factor in the rise of
Edom as a state, this assertion has not been demonstrated with
archaeological evidence-certainly not on the scale of the metallurgical
evidence discussed here.
The architecture, in situ excavations of copper industrial remains and
imports confirm two major phases of production in the 12-11th centuries BCE
and 10-9th centuries BCE at Khirbat en-Nahas. We are now at the beginning
of being able to engage the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical sources for
gleanings of historical fact and historical processes. However, the current
suite of 37 radiocarbon dates from KEN are not without problems (see Higham
et al. [Chapter 11, this volume]) and it is clear that many more samples
must be tested from sealed archaeological deposits associated with
'cleaner' assemblages of ceramics, scarabs, seals and other archaeological
evidence. While the current dates push the occupational history of Edom
back to the 12th-9th centuries BCE, the sample size is too small to
confront the arguments concerning the High and Low Chronologies for the
Iron Age in Israel/Palestine. These dates do bring the Iron Age archaeology
of Edom back, to a certain degree, to historical questions raised long ago
by Nelson Glueck (1940) concerning the Iron I and Iron Ila. While lack of
space prevents a detailed discussion here, the fact that Edom is mentioned
no less than 99 times in the Hebrew Bible justifies a re-examination of
some historical issues in relation to the new archaeological excavations in
the lowland region to establish some working hypotheses for the Iron Age
history of Edom. For example,
ntt2 1^1t1 "11171 '.B1L7tt 7'171.t 1C,ii"11 1S'N1 WTT Genesis 36.21
These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king
reigned over the Israelites. (RSV)
Leaving aside the problem of the dating of the Hebrew Bible and the
documentary hypothesis (Friedman 1988), Genesis 36.21 may be a minor
footnote in the biblical text; however it does not exhibit an ideological
stance, it is a neutral statement. While so-called Biblical minimalist
scholars (Davies 1992; Thompson 1999; Van Seters 1997; Whitelam 1996) argue
that the Hebrew Bible is pure myth lacking evidence of historicity, it is
precisely in these 'footnotes' in the Hebrew Bible, which have no
propaganda value or theological message, that some elements of history may
be found. Baruch Halpern (Halpern 2001: 124-32) refers to the role of
'minimal text' in ancient his-torical documents for revealing historical
events as 'the Tiglath-Pileser principle' and he presents a kind of
historiographical method for how actual events can be gleaned from a
critical reading of the ancient documents (in this case, both Assyrian and
biblical sources). Thus, for the first time in biblical Edom,
archaeological investigations at the lowland site of KEN provide
radiometric data, scarab, arrowhead, Midianite ceramics, and other
archaeological data to suggest a major industrial phase in the Iron I
period. As this 12th-11th-centuries BCE metal production could only have
been organized by a complex polity. While the RSV translation of the Hebrew
'Z1L7ti is given as 'kings' it may better be translated as 'chieftains',
perhaps along the lines of the complex chiefdoms referred to by Sahlins
(1968: 24-25) as chiefdoms organized along conical clan lines such as among
the nomads of Central Asia, the island societies of Polynesia and
Micronesia, in Circum-Caribbean America societies and the Southwest African
Bantu. Whether we call the early Iron Age society that inhabited the
lowlands of Edom 'chiefs' or 'kings' is immaterial; the point is that
Genesis 36.31
LOWLAND EDOM AND THE HIGH AND LOW CHRONOLOGIES 159
probably refers to the 'hereditary leaders who reigned in the land of Edom,
before any hereditary leaders reigned over the Israelites'-a seemingly
insignificant footnote in the biblical text that may help contextualize the
socio-economic dynamics that existed in Edom during the 12th-11th centuries
BCE. Another example is:
crwL,,= '77'1 =4:^M Mr: C1Itt17:: GrINZ nr1W11 2 Samuel 8.14
:1L777 117--nr 777, 71t7
And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all
the Edomites became David's servants. And the LORD gave victory to David
wherever he went. (Rsv)
As shown above, the earliest monumental building activity documented to
date at KEN is the Iron Ha four chamber gate and fortress complex. Given
the tapestry of different ethnic groups who occupied southern Canaan at the
end of the Late Bronze-early Iron Age, which group may have been
responsible for the construction of the KEN fortress? According to Halpern
(2001: 4), the historical David appears in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, and
dies in 1 Kings 2. 2 Samuel 8.13-15 suggests that David's troops subjugated
Edom and as illustrated above (2 Samuel 8.14), established garrisons all
over Edom. Glueck (1940: 84-85) used these passages to suggest that David
controlled the mines in the Faynan district and that this exploitation
continued under Solomon. According to the biblical text (see below, 1 Kings
22.47) Israel ruled Edom through a deputy administrator (Na'aman 2004)
whose place of residence is not known.
:t7n :4: :'17N: t7?-;1 w171 Kings 22.48
There was no king in Edom; a deputy was king. (Rsv)
According to the traditional High Chronology (Rogerson 1999), the rule of
these two kings would be from ca. 1000-931 BCE. According to these data,
and the suite of radiocarbon dates now available from KEN, several working
hypotheses may be suggested for the possible builders and controllers of
the Stratum A3 gate and fortress complex: (a) David, (b) Solomon, (c) David
and Solomon; or (d) the local Edomite population. Clearly, more data and
analyses are needed to clarify this working hypothesis. According to the
biblical text, following the death of Solomon and the emergence of the
divided monarchy of Israel and Judah, it is inferred that the Edomites
finally gained their independence from Judah during the reign of Jehoram
which according to the traditional High Chronology dates to 848-841 BCE
(Rogerson 1999) or the mid-9th century BCE.
:t77.; 11"7nsi 77-71'-7 nrcnt; C1-12 wirl- 2 Kings 8.20
In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah, and set up a king of
their own. (Rsv)
How to link the expansion in mid-9th century BCE metal production observed
at KEN in the flurry of building activities seen in the Stratum S2b
building (Fig. 10.18), the slag mounds (Fig. 10.10 and Building 200; Fritz
1996) to the biblical text? One working hypothesis is that following the
Edomite revolt against Jehoram, the local Edomite population took over
metal production at KEN, had no need for the garrison/fortress at the site
and changed the organization of production at the site from one that was
based on coercion (via the fortress) to an as yet undefined alternative
form of organization.
While these are untested working hypotheses relating ancient Near Eastern
texts to the archaeological record of Edom, they will 'only be tested
adequately through larger scale excava-tions at Khirbat en-Nahas, in-depth
studies of the full array of material culture represented at the site, and
a much larger compendium of radiocarbon dates. How exactly does the copper
ore-rich 12th-9th-centuries BCE metal producing region of Edom relate to
the highland sites such as Busayra, Umm al-Biyara, Sela, and others?
160 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
The excavations at KEN and the radiocarbon dates originally published in
the journal Antiquity (Levy et al. 2004) have sparked a great deal of
welcome scholarly controversy on the Internet
(<http://www.wadiarabahproject.man.ac.uk/>) and most recently in an article
by Israel Finkelstein (2005) published in the journal Tel Aviv. However, as
shown in this chapter with the publication of an additional 27 high
precision radiocarbon dates accompanied by a more detailed discussion of
the archaeology at the site, the data run contrary to Finkelstein's
assertions. In short, we can close by concluding with a number of points
that are contrary to Finkelstein. Our data indicate: a) the fortress at KEN
is 'sandwiched' stratigraphically between two metal production horizons at
the site, with the latest production layer dating to the mid-9th century
BCE and do not indicate the suggested 8th century BCE domination of Edom;
b) The fort was not cut into piles of copper industrial waste-these slag
deposits, based on our excavations, accumulated around it; c) Copper
production was especially active at KEN throughout the 10th to 9th
centuries BCE-it did not shift to other neighboring sites. Radiocarbon
dates from other secondary centers like Khirbat al-Jariyeh (Hauptmann
2000:66) show contemporaniety between KEN and its satellite sites. This is
seen in the statistical analysis presented above, that is, if the Strata A3
and S3 are indicative of increased copper production, then this dates to
after 900 BCE at A3 in the fortress area and after 950 BCE at S3 in the
industrial building complex. In fact, the new KEN data, in conjunction with
Hauptmann's work (2000) support the recent interpretations of the Iron Age
settlement pattern data from the Wadi al-Guwayb and Wadi al-Jariyeh for a
complex network of copper ore extraction and processing (Levy et al. 2003);
d) the fortress at KEN did not exist during the 8th century BCE so it was
not contemporary with the Assyrian palace compound at Busayra. Rather than
trying to make KEN conform to preconceived models that posit Assyrian
domination of Edom in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, the new data show a
much more complex situation between the lowlands and highlands of Edom and
its relationship with neighboring regions throughout the Iron Age. Thus,
more archaeological research is required before definitive historical
interpretations can be made.
Acknowledgment
We are grateful to Dr Fawwaz al-Khraysheh, Director General of the
Department of Antiquities of Jordan for his sage advice and support of the
excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas. Thanks also to the Society for the
Conservation of Nature in Jordan for permission to work in the Dana Nature
Reserve where KEN is located. Thomas Levy is grateful to the C. Paul
Johnson Family Charitable Foundation (Napa and Chicago) and the University
of California, San Diego for providing him with the grants and other
funding that made the excavations at KEN possible. We also appreciate the
help of Dr Russ Adams (co-PI and ceramicist of the JHF project), Dr Jim
Anderson (chief sur-veyor), supervisors Yoav Arbel, Lisa Soderbaum,
Elizabeth Monroe, the entire JHF team and Sheik Abu Shushi and the Bedouin
villagers at Qurayqira for all their support.
References
Adams, R.B. (2003) External Influences at Faynan During the Early Bronze
Age: A Re-analysis of Building 1 at Barqa el-Hetiye, Jordan. PEQ 135: 6-21.
Albright, W.F. (1932) The Israelite Conquest of Canaan in the Light of
Archaeology. BASOR 74:11-23.
-(1971) The Archaeology of Palestine (repr., Gloucester, MA: Peter
Smith).
Barker, G.W., et al. (1997) The Wadi Faynan Project, Southern Jordan: A
Preliminary Report on Geo-morphology and Landscape Archaeology. Levant 29:
19-40.
-(1999) Environment and Land Use in the Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan: The
Third Season of Geoarchaeology and Landscape Archaeology (1998). Levant 31:
255-92.
P' *
0
RADIOCARBON DATING OF THE KHIRBAT EN-NAHAS SITE 177
essentially do in fact
Conclusions and Summary
The dating work undertaken at KEN thus far in the gate complex in Area A
and the slag processing building in Area S have demonstrated incipient
copper production from at least the early 10th century BCE in the Faynan
area. It is clear that the areas of KEN that have been excavated do not
date to the 8th-6th centuries BCE. We obtained close agreement with
shorter-lived specimens dated at the radiocarbon facilities at ORAU and
Center for Isotope Research-Groningen. However, problems in obtaining
universally short-lived species resulted in some samples, comprising
probable old wood, being dated. The Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon
dates supported this, and showed that there were more outliers in the data
compared with what one might expect were the variation purely derived from
statistical uncertainty alone.
The results of the modeling show that there is an expansion in copper
production evident at the site from about 950 BCE. The impressive gate
structure in the fortress at KEN appears to have been utilised for its
intended purpose for a brief period (ca. 5-10 years) after which it too was
devoted to the processing of copper. In both areas, we determined an
overall span of time of about 100-150 years. Towards the end of the 9th
century BCE, activity in both areas ceased but further excavation and
dating is required to determine whether this occurred across the site as a
whole, or was more circumscribed.
Further work is planned. Many more dating samples are needed to more
adequately test ques-tions rooted in historical problems such as those
connected with archaeology and the Hebrew Bible. We are particularly
interested in the identification of other botanical specimens for AMS
dating and improving calibrated ranges in the models developed so far by
selecting further material for analysis. The results presented here suggest
that the adoption of Bayesian modeling for investigating the dating of
sites in this and other regions is most profitable and enables higher
levels of dating resolution to be obtained in the study of archaeological
chronologies.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to members of the ORAU and Groningen AMS laboratories for
their careful labora-tory work on preparing the samples dated in this
project.
References
Anderson, A.J. (1991) The Chronology of Colonisation in New Zealand.
Antiquity 65: 767-95.
Bronk Ramsey, C. (1995) Radiocarbon Calibration and Analysis of
Stratigraphy: The OxCal Program. Radiocarbon 37(2): 425-30.
-(2001) Development of the Radiocarbon Calibration Program OxCal.
Radiocarbon 43: 355-63.
Head, M.J. (1987) Categorisation of Organic Sediments from Archaeological
Sites. In Archaeometry: Further
Australian Studies, edited by W.R. Ambrose and J.M. J. Mummery (Canberra:
Department of Prehistory,
Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU): 143-59.
Hedges, R.E.M., et al. (1989) The Oxford Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
Facility: Technical Developments in Routine Dating. Archaeometry 31:
99-113.
Higham, T.F.G. (1994) Radiocarbon Dating New Zealand Prehistory with Moa
Eggshell: Some Preliminary Results. Quaternary Geochronology (Quaternary
Science Reviews) 13: 163-69.
Higham, T.F.G., and M.D. Jones (2004) Settlement and Chronology. In Change
through Time: 50 Years of
New Zealand Archaeology, edited by L. Furey and S. Holdaway (Auckland:
Publishing Press): 215-34.
Levy, T.E., et al. (2004) Reassessing the Iron Age chronology of Biblical
Edom: New Excavations and 14C
Dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan). Antiquity 863-76.
McFadgen, B.G. (1982) Dating New Zealand Archaeology by Radiocarbon. New
Zealand Journal of Science 25: 379-92.
21 Desert Settlement through the Iron Age Radiocarbon dates from Sinai and
the Negev Highlands
Hendrik J. Bruins and Johannes van der Plicht
Abstract
Iron Age desert settlements in the Negev Highlands and the adjacent area of
north-eastern Sinai are still enigmatic. Various theories have been
developed to explain these settlements, particularly concerning the
majority of the fortresses that are built in an elliptical or irregular
shape. Chronology is obviously a crucial factor in archaeological
theory-building. The time factor in Levantine Iron Age archaeology used to
be like pottery clay that could be moulded to suit various theories.
Radiocarbon dating, notwithstanding its limitations, provides an
independent and scientific basis for chronology, though quality control is
essential. Radiocarbon dates are presented from Iron Age strata at Tell
el-Qudeirat in north-eastern Sinai, and from Nahal Ha'Elah and Horvat
Haluqim in the Negev Highlands. Our main conclusion is that the
establishment of the elliptical fortresses and related settlements appears
to predate the Solomonic period.
Introduction
There are many remains of Iron Age settlements in the hilly desert of the
Central Negev and adja-cent area of north-eastern Sinai. Detailed
archaeological surveys in part of the region have so far uncovered about
350 Iron Age sites, containing 58 fortresses, 1195 dwelling structures, 360
animal pens, many cisterns, 30 threshing floors and 80 silos dug into the
ground, as reported by Haiman (1994). The climate of the region is arid;
the average annual rainfall ranges from about 125 mm in the north to 75 mm
in the south (Bruins 1986).
Geoarchaeological excavations at the site of Horvat Haluqim proved beyond
doubt the existence of rainwater-harvesting agriculture in the Iron Age
(Bruins and van der Plicht 2004). This was to be expected, as the region is
too arid for normal rainfed farming. The many threshing floors and silos
(Haiman 1994), if indeed dating to the Iron Age, are evidence of ancient
farming that could only have been conducted successfully through irrigation
by runoff rainwater, received from the surrounding catchments, arrested on
each field by built terrace walls across the wadi. Wheat and barley require
some 300 mm of rainfall to produce a reasonable yield and fruit trees even
more. Only runoff water supply from local catchments could add sufficient
water in addition to the low amounts (ca. 100 mm) of direct rainfall on the
fields, in order to reach moisture levels in the soil comparable to 300-500
mm a year (Bruins 2003).
350 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
The age of these Iron Age settlements, particularly the date and character
of the fortresses, are controversial issues. A detailed review was given by
Cohen (1986), who interpreted most sites to have been short-lived within
the 10th century BCE: established during the reign of King Solomon and
destroyed by Pharaoh Shishak (Cohen 1980; Cohen and Cohen-Amin 2004). A
similar inter-pretation was given by Haiman (1994), who dated all Iron Age
sites in the surveys to Iron Age II in cultural terms, to the United
Monarchy in political terms, and to the period 975-925 BCE in chronological
terms. All settlements came to an end with the Shishak campaign. Other
viewpoints, based on ceramic, architectural and Biblical considerations,
range from about the 13th to the 7th centuries BCE. Most scholars
considered the sites to be Israelite in one way or another, but Rothenberg
(1967, 1972, 1988) and Finkelstein (1984, 1988) suggested a non-Israelite
origin of these settlements.
An early date was proposed by Rothenberg (1967, 1972, 1988, 1999) on the
basis of his exten-sive excavations at Timna. Besides Egyptian and
Midianite pottery, Negev-ware (Negbite) pottery was also found in the Timna
excavations, dating on Egyptian evidence from the late 14th to the 12th
centuries (Ramesside): 'We are led to suggest that these local inhabitants
of the Arabah and the Negev are the Amalekites mentioned in the Biblical
narrative' (Rothenberg 1988: 276). Follow-ing a hiatus, represented by
wind-blown loess deposition, the Egyptians returned to Timna during the
10th-9th centuries BCE (22nd Dynasty), as Timna Layer I yielded pottery
vessels of the 22nd Dynasty, as well as Negbite ware, but no Midianite
ceramics. This return of the Egyptians is related by Rothenberg (1999: 163)
to the campaign by Pharaoh Shishak in ca. 920 BCE.
Aharoni considered these settlements of Israelite origin, ranging from the
10th to the 7th centuries BCE (Aharoni 1967). He changed his interpretation
in a later publication (Aharoni 1978), suggesting that the settlements were
established by Saul in relation to his wars with the Amalekites in the 11th
century BCE. Herzog (1983) proposed an association of the Central Negev
sites with the settlement of the tribe of Simeon, suggesting a date in the
11th century BCE. Meshel (1979) considered both the 11th and 10th centuries
BCE as options, relating the fortresses possibly to Saul or David. However,
both Meshel and Goren (1992) emphasize the basic problem of dating the
fortresses and the lack of unambiguous criteria.
Finkelstein (1984, 1988) proposed a nomadic origin of these settlements,
established by local desert tribes. These nomadic goat-sheep pastoralists
became sedentary, in his view, due to sup-posed economic changes in the
south, related to a revival of mining activity at Timna and prosper-ous
Philistine centres along the southern coastal plain and the Shephelah.
Finkelstein (1984, 1988) dated the settlements in the Negev Highlands to
Iron Age I in cultural terms and to the 11th and early 10th centuries BCE
in chronological terms.
It is clear that the use of ceramics and other archaeological criteria for
dating Iron Age settle-ments in the Central Negev is problematic, enabling
a wide range of scholarly opinion and a wide time range. The matter was
summed up succinctly by Barkay (1992: 324): 'It is difficult to reach a
conclusion concerning the fortresses, as their interpretation depends on
their dating, and their dating involves serious difficulties. In many
studies, scholars appear to be caught up in a circular argument, in which
the dating is based on the general interpretation given to the fortress
phenome-non and is in turn used to support the proposed interpretation of
the character of the fortresses'.
What about radiocarbon dating in the region concerning the Iron Age? Bruins
(1986) initiated research in the early 1980s in the Tell el-Qudeirat area
in north-eastern Sinai (Fig. 21.1), but focussed mainly on
geoarchaeological issues. Nevertheless, some "C results from the tell did
not support a 10th-century BCE date for the Early Fortress, which appears
to be older. The differences found here between radiocarbon dating and
archaeological age assessment in the Iron Age con-vinced us of the
necessity to establish an independent radiocarbon chronology for Near
Eastern historical archaeology, particularly for the Bronze and Iron Ages
(Bruins and Mook 1989). The
DESERT SETTLEMENT THROUGH THE IRON AGE 351
17th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Israel in 2000, on the
initiative of Israel Carmi of the Weizmann Institute of Science, stimulated
further interaction between Near Eastern archaeology and 14C dating
(Bruins, Carmi and Boaretto [eds.] 2001).
Figure 21.1. Location map of Tell el-Qudeirat, Nahal Ha'Elah, Horvat
Haluyim
and Khirbet en-Nahas based on a satellite image of 6 April 1998.
Ceramics undoubtedly carry the mark of time, but this mark should be
established by independent dating (van der Plicht and Bruins 2001; Bruins,
van der Plicht and Mazar 2003a; Mazar et al. [Chapter 13, this volume]).
Moreover, some ceramic types, such as Negbite ware cannot be easily defined
in time by traditional archaeological approaches. Perhaps also other
pottery types may cover longer time spans than perceived.
An archaeological investigation involving radiocarbon dating on the eastern
side of the Arabah Valley was conducted by Levy et al. (2004) in the
ancient mining district of Faynan (Biblical Edom) at Khirbat en-Nahas,
which is the largest Iron Age copper-smelting site in the southern Levant.
Hitherto it was assumed that Iron Age settlement in the region, as well as
the establishment of the Kingdom of Edom, occurred in the 8th-6th centuries
BCE. However, the 'C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas give evidence of Iron Age
occupation already in the early Iron Age (ca. 1200-1000 BCE) and also in
the 10th-9th centuries BCE. It is important to compare these "C dates from
neighbour-ing south-western Jordan with the dates from Sinai and the Negev,
presented in the current article.
352 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
The radiocarbon dates from Iron Age strata in north-eastern Sinai and the
Central Negev were measured at the University of Groningen (Table 21.1).
All samples were pre-treated with the acid/alkali/acid (AAA) method (Mook
and Waterbolk 1985). The purified organic matter of each sample was
subsequently converted into CO,. Conventional radiometry of the CO, gas was
con-ducted by Proportional Gas Counter (PGC). The samples from
north-eastern Sinai were all meas-ured in the 1980s by PGC, as the
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) facility in Groningen was not
established until 1994. Recent small samples from Horvat Haluqim were dated
by AMS. The CO, gas derived from those samples underwent additional
treatment to convert it into solid graphite to enable AMS measurement (van
der Plicht et al. 2000).
Table 21.1. Iron Age radiocarbon dates from north-eastern Sinai and the
Central Negev.
Tell el-Qudeirat Fortresses
Woolley and Lawrence (1914-15) suggested associating the relatively
well-watered area of Tell el-Qu deirat in north-eastern Sinai with Biblical
Kadesh Barnea, the main place of sojournment of the ancient Israelites in
the desert following the Exodus from Egypt (Figs. 21.1, 2). Though many
scholars have accepted the above suggestion, there is so far no independent
evidence to confirm this viewpoint. The extensive excavations by Cohen
(1980, 1981a, 1981 b, 1983, 1986, 1993a) uncovered three different Iron Age
fortresses at the tell, which followed each other in time.
DESERT SETTLEMENT THROUGH THE IRON AGE 353
Geoarchaeological research by Bruins (1986) showed that the fortresses were
established on a firm natural foundation: a Pleistocene deposit composed of
slightly cemented coarse gravel and rounded boulders up to 40 cm in
diameter. Similar deposits in the area contained Middle Palaeo-lithic
discoid cores (Goldberg 1984). Prior to the building of the oldest
fortress, the stony Pleisto-cene deposits probably appeared as a slightly
elevated hillock rising just above the general level of the valley plain,
which at this point is 164 m wide. This geomorphic surface provided a
logical choice and firm foundation for the site-location of the successive
fortresses in the valley of Wadi el-Qudeirat, as floods during the rainy
winter season sometimes cover the entire width of the valley (Bruins 1986).
Figure 21.2. View of Tell el-Qudeirat looking SSW across the
width of the valley (photo by H.J. Bruins 1981).
The Upper Fortress
Dothan (1965) excavated a small part of the upper fortress in 1956. He
dated the construction of the fortress to the 9th century BCE and its
violent destruction to the Babylonian military campaign of the early 6th
century BCE (Fig. 21.2). Cohen (1981a, 1983, 1993a) discovered the more
complex situation that the Upper Fortress was built on the remains of the
Middle Fortress. Cohen (1981a, 1983, 1993a) suggested dating the
construction of the Upper Fortress to King Josiah ca. 640-609 BCE, and its
destruction to the Babylonian onslaught, possibly coinciding with the
destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple in 586 BCE.
The uppermost destruction layer in the centre of the tell was exhibited
clearly in the western profile of Square K-67. The black layer was situated
at a depth of 50 cm below the surface of the tell. A sample of fine powdery
charcoal mixed with soil was taken from this destruction layer by one of us
(H.B.) in December 1981 in cooperation with Cohen, who considered this
layer to represent the destruction of the Upper Fortress. The sample was
measured in Groningen and yielded a radiocarbon date of 2535 ± 50 BP
(GrN-12329).
354 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
The calibrated age relates to one of the most problematic sections of the
calibration curve (Fig. 21.3), as the historical timescale of about 780-420
BCE (x-axis) corresponds to the same BP date on the radiocarbon timescale
(y-axis), around 2500 BP. The calibrated date of GrN-12329 in the lo range
is 796-758 (17.9%), 685-660 (9.9%), 647-542 (40.4%) BCE and the 2G range is
803-515 (92.8%), 464-450 (1.5%), 440-428 (1.2%) BCE. This result is quite
meaningful, because the highest relative probability (40.4%) in the 1G
range is in the period 647-542 BCE, which fits well with the period of the
wars between Egypt (Pharaoh Necho II, 610-595 BCE) and the Babylonians
(Nebuchadnezzar II, 604-562 BCE), in which Judah became involved,
eventually leading to its destruction in 586 BCE. There are several
correlations and synchronisms between Biblical and historical textual data
concerning this period (Finegan 1979).
Figure 21.3. Dating of the uppermost destruction layer in Square K-67,
related to the destruction of the Upper Fortress, based on fine charcoal.
The southern casemate room in the western side of the Upper Fortress
yielded five complete storage jars in a thick ash layer. One of the jars
was full of charred cereal grains (Cohen 1983). The sample received for
radiocarbon dating (Square P5, Locus 523) was large enough for
high-precision dating in the large PGC counter, resulting in a date for the
charred cereals of 2515 ± 15 BP (GrN-15551, Fig. 21.4). Notice how well
these two BP dates of destruction layers from dif-ferent parts of the Upper
Fortress agree with one another: the results overlap within 1a. The charred
cereal grains from a jar are 20 midpoint BP years younger than the powdery
charcoal, which shows that the fine charcoal in the latter destruction
layer is also rather short-lived. The la calibrated date of the cereal
grains is 780-772 (4.3%), 766-760 (4.0%), 681-666 (10.9%), 634-591 (34.2%),
578-557 (14.7%) BCE and the 2G range is 788-757 (15.1%), 697-658 (16.5%),
649-542 (63.8%) BCE.
Atmospheric dab from Stover et al (1990), OxCal J3.9 Brook Ramsey (2003),
cub r2 al 12 prob uspistrag
DESERT SETTLEMENT THROUGH THE IRON AGE 355
Figure 21.4. Dating of a destruction layer in Square P-5, related to the
destruction
of the Upper Fortress, based on charred cereal grains found inside a jar.
The calibrated 20 results usually show less detail than the la calibrated
date. The period 649-542 BCE has the highest relative probability (63.8%)
in the former range. However, the high-precision BP date results in five
possible calibrated periods in the la range, due to the plateau and wiggles
in the calibration curve. Notice that the period 591-578 BCE is excluded in
the la calibrated date, due to a small wiggle (Fig. 21.4). This result is
perhaps significant, because it leaves out the date 586 BCE, during which
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple. The period 634-591
BCE has the highest relative probability (34.2%) in the la range, which
would favour, in fact, the destruction of the Upper Fortress at Tell
el-Qudeirat in north-eastern Sinai during the earlier military campaign of
the Babylonians, as they marched to Egypt in 601 or 600 BCE, according to
Finegan (1979: 126).
The Middle Fortress
The outline of the Middle Fortress was similar to the Upper Fortress with a
rectangular ground plan of ca. 60 x 40 m and eight protruding towers (Cohen
1983, 1993a, 1993b). The remains of the 4 m thick broad solid walls of the
Middle Fortress were preserved to a height of about 1.80 m. An earthen
rampart surrounded the fortress, resting on a revetment wall, 2.5 m high,
which was completely excavated along the eastern side of the fortress
(Cohen 1983, 1993a, 1993b).
A black ash layer was found on the eastern side in Square Q-9, sloping down
from the revet-ment wall (Wall 207) at 12° towards the east. The black ash
layer touches the revetment wall at a level of 18.96 m, which is about 60
cm above its base level of 18.35 m. The ash layer, ca. 10 cm thick, formed
the ancient surface on top of a layer of fine yellowish-brown loessial
sediment, about 60 cm thick, overlying the Pleistocene gravel deposits that
also form the foundation for the revetment wall. The dark ash layer, a
former living floor just east of the eastern revetment wall, seems to
signify a destruction event that postdates the construction of the Middle
Fortress on
356 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
stratigraphic grounds. If the revetment wall was built later than the
formation of this destruction layer, a direct stratigraphic contact between
the two would have been virtually impossible. It would have been necessary
to remove part of the destruction layer and dig down to the gravel deposits
to build the first course of the revetment wall. However, the direct
stratigraphic contact is evidence that the destruction layer postdates the
building of the revetment wall.
Figure 21.5. Dating of a destruction layer in Square Q-9, probably related
to
the destruction of the Middle Fortress, based on fine charcoal.
A sample for radiocarbon dating was taken by Bruins (1981) from this ash
layer at a level of 18.73 m and at a distance of 80 cm east from the
revetment wall. The amount of fine charcoal was comparatively small, and
the AMS facility in Groningen had not yet been established. Hence, the PGC
date (GrN-11948) had a rather large standard deviation: 2740 ± 110 BP
(Fig. 21.5). The result of the 1n calibrated age range is 1020-798 (68.2%)
BCE. The 20 age range is very wide: 1259-1232 (1.0%), 1217-758 (91.3%),
642-588 (1.9%), 581-544 (1.2%) BCE. The relevant 1n result, indicating the
narrowest time range with the highest relative probability, covers both the
10th and 9th centuries BCE. Cohen suggested that the Middle Fortress was
built during the time of King Uzziah, ca. 769-733 BCE, and destroyed
towards the end of the reign of Manasseh (ca. 698-642 BCE). The above
radiocarbon date is clearly older, by about 150 to 200 years.
The Lower Fortress: The oldest archaeological remains discovered at Tell
el-Qudeirat were found at a depth of about 5 m below the surface of the
mound. The Lower Fortress had an elliptical ground plan, about 27 m in
diameter, with casemate rooms around a central courtyard. In addition,
several buildings and silos were found to the west of the fortress. Many
types of pottery vessels were found in the ash covered floors of the
casemate rooms (Cohen 1983, 1993a). The excavator (Cohen 1980, 1983, 1993a)
suggested that the Lower Fortress was established during the reign of
Solomon and destroyed in the course of Pharaoh Shishak's campaign, all in
the 10th century BCE. The western profile of Square K-67 in the centre of
tell el-Qudeirat, which exhibited the upper-most destruction layer 50 cm
below the surface of the tell, also exposed the lowermost destruction layer
at a depth of about 5 m. A sample of fine powdery charcoal mixed with soil
was taken from this destruction layer by the first author, again in 1981,
in cooperation with Cohen, who considered this layer to represent the
destruction of the Lower Fortress. The dark ash layer, about 10 cm thick,
covered a 20 cm thick layer of loessial soil, also containing a few pieces
of charcoal, indicating past human activity predating the dark ash layer.
Below the loessial soil lies a 'virgin' layer of fine gravel mixed with
sandy loam (Bruins 1986). The fine charcoal sample from the ash layer was
measured in Groningen and yielded a radio-carbon date of 2930 ±. 30 BP
(GrN-12330, Fig. 21.6). The la calibrated age ranges are 1210-1200 (5.5%),
1191-1177 (8.1%), 1162-1141 (12.7%), 1131-1107 (13.3Vo), 1103-1050 (28.6%)
BCE. The 2a calibrated ages are 1258-1235 (6.5%), 1215-1016 (88.9%) BCE.
The most probable calibrated age range of 1103-1050 BCE would place the
destruction layer in the first half of the 11th century BCE, which is about
150 years older than the suggested destruction, according to Cohen, by
Shishak around 925 BCE. Alternative "C dating options, albeit of lower
relative probability, include the 12th century and even the 13th century
BCE, while the 11th century BCE is the youngest possible date in the 2o
range. A possible old-wood effect of the charcoal is unlikely to move the
date into the first half of the 10th century BCE, as this would require a
lowering of the date by about 150 BP years. It was shown from the Upper
Fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat that the difference between charred seeds and
fine charcoal can be quite small, that is, only 20 BP years!
Figure 21.6. Dating of the lowermost destruction layer in Square K-67,
probably
related to the destruction of the Lower Fortress, based on fine charcoal.
358 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
Nahal Ha'Elah Fortress
The site lies about 13 km north-west of the modern town of Mizpe Ramon and
about 10 km due north of the Makhtesh Ramon cirque (Fig. 21.1). The
fortress is located on a lofty hill (685 m) west of nahal Ha'Elah (nahal is
the Hebrew word for a dry stream valley or wadi). A cistern is situated
eastwards below the fortress, above the western bank of nahal Ha'Elah.
Hillside conduit channels carried runoff water to the cistern. Remnants of
an Iron Age settlement, consisting of 10 structures, including a 4-room
house and single room dwellings, are situated 1 km north of the fortress
(Cohen 1986).
Excavations at the fortress were conducted in 1983 by Cohen (1986, 1993b).
The fortress has an elliptical shape, being 34 m long and 20 m wide. It
consists of 13 casemate rooms and a gate, surrounding a central courtyard.
The walls of local hard limestone were found to be 0.60 to 0.90 m wide,
based on bedrock and still standing to a height of 1.50 m. Many of the
casemate rooms were excavated, often showing a thin ash layer. Cohen (1986,
1993b) dated the fortress and its destruction to the 10th century BCE. A
large sample of fine charcoal (28.6 g) was given by Cohen for radiocarbon
dating, derived from one of the casemate rooms (Locus 1235/64). The weight
of the sample was sufficient for high-precision measurement with PGC,
yielding a date of 2840 ± 15 BP (GrN-15552, Fig. 21.7). The 10 calibrated
age is 1006-972 (46.2%), 957-940 (22.0%) BCE and the 2o calibrated age is
1043-1028 (4.7%), 1023-969 (57.7%), 961-923 (33.0%) BCE. The date seems too
old for association with the Shishak campaign (ca. 920 BCE), as favoured by
Cohen (1980). But uncertainty regarding a possible old-wood age of the
charcoal requires caution.
DESERT SETTLEMENT THROUGH THE IRON AGE 359
Horvat Haluqim Agricultural Terraces
The site of Horvat Haluqim is an excellent example of an Iron Age desert
village, located along three parallel dry stream valleys (wadis) at the
south-eastern slopes of the Haluqim Anticline, 2 km north-west of Kibbutz
Sede Boker (Figs. 21.1, 8). The site comprises 25 structures, including a
fortress, seven 4-room houses, other buildings and 4 cisterns. Cohen (1976)
excavated the fortress and a number of buildings at the site. The
elliptical fortress (23 m long and 21 m wide) has virtually the same size
as the Lower Fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat (see above).
Cohen (1976) suggested that Horvat Haluqim was established, together with
most other Iron Age fortresses and sites in the region, during the reign of
King Solomon and destroyed during the campaign of Pharaoh Shishak. Thus,
according to the above viewpoint of Cohen, the settlements were inhabited
for only 30 to 40 years within the 10th century BCE. Much later in time,
during the Roman period, two buildings were constructed at the site,
probably in the 2nd-3rd centuries CE, according to ceramics and a coin
found at the site (Cohen 1986).
Bruins (1986) carried out a survey in the three wadis of Horvat Haluqim and
found more than 70 terrace walls with adjacent fields. Geoarchaeological
excavations in the 12th terraced field of the eastern wadi led to the
discovery of a buried anthropogenic layer (accumulative palaeo A horizon),
beginning at a depth of about 45-50 cm below the present surface (Fig.
21.9). This anthropogenic soil layer has a remarkable thickness of about 75
cm, spanning the entire terraced field (Bruins and van der Plicht 2004). It
has unique significance as an archive of past human agricultural activity
at the site through time. This type of information is irreplaceable within
the site, as such data cannot be obtained from the building or ceramic
remains.
Figure 21.8. The elliptical fortress at Horvat Halugim, looking ESE at some
of
the casemate rooms (photo by H. J. Bruins 2004).
360 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
Figure 21.9. Geoarchaeological excavations in the 12th terraced field
(outline field marked in white of the eastern wadi at Horvat Haluqim,
showing the location of the pits in which the dark anthropogenic soil layer
was found at a certain depth below the present surface. The location of the
fortress is indicated by the white elliptical line. The view is WSW towards
the Zin Canyon and Avdat.
The anthropogenic layer yielded small Iron Age pottery sherds, small animal
bones, charcoal flecks, as well as some pieces of flint in its lower part.
Radiocarbon measurement of a bone from a sheep or goat gave an AMS date of
2860 ± 40 BP (GrA-14398). The la calibrated age (Fig. 21.10) is 1124-1121
(0.9%), 1111-1099 (4.7%), 1080-1061 (7.5%), 1052-971 (45.7%), 958-938
(9.4%) BCE, and the 2a range is 1189-1179 (1.9%), 1154-1142 (1.5%),
1129-915 (92.0%) BCE. The most likely period within all these options is
1052-971 BCE with a relative probability of 45.7% in the 1a range.
The above date, derived from a human-made agricultural soil layer, is the
first independent scientific evidence that rainwater-harvesting agriculture
at Horvat Haluqim was carried out rela-tively early in the Iron Age (Bruins
and van der Plicht 2004). The bones entered the anthropogenic soil layer
due to manuring practices by the ancient farmers. They used home refuse to
improve soil fertility, as established by detailed micromorphological
research by Bruins and Jongmans (to be published elsewhere). Bone dates
from sheep or goats are based on short-lived organic material and no
'old-wood arguments' can be used in this case to advocate a younger age.
Comparing this date with the detailed Iron Age radiocarbon sequence from
Tel Rehov (Bruins, van der Plicht and Mazar 2003) suggests that we are
dealing here in chronological terms with the later part of the Iron Age I
period.
DESERT SETTLEMENT THROUGH THE IRON AGE 361
Figure 21.10. Dating part of the anthropogenic agricultural soil layer in
terraced field
12 of the eastern wadi at Horvat Haluqim, based on a sheep or goat bone.
Figure 21.11. Dating another part of the anthropogenic agricultural soil
layer in terraced field 12
of the eastern wadi at Horvat Haluqim, based on a speck of powdery
charcoal.
362 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
A small but distinct charcoal fleck from another part of the anthropogenic
layer gave a radio-carbon date of 2590 ± 60 BP (GrA-12448). The 51'C value
of -17.75 %o is higher than for wood (usually around -25%o), which
indicates that the charcoal is more likely derived from short-lived shrubs,
annual plants or animal dung. The lo calibrated date (Fig. 21.11) is
828-759 (41.2%), 682-666 (6.6%), 634-591 (14.1%), 578-557 (6.4%) BCE and
the 2o calibrated date is 896-875 (1.8%), 842-519 (93.6%) BCE. The highest
relative probability in the 1a range is for the period 828-759 BCE. The
result suggests human activity at the agricultural terrace also during the
later Iron Age. Settlement in the Negev-Sinai region during the later Iron
Age is also known from the Middle and Upper Fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat
(Fig. 21.1) and the two successive fortresses at Hazeva in the Arabah
Valley (Cohen 1993c). However, notice that the above date from the
human-made agricultural soil at Horvat Haluciim is older than the two dates
(charcoal and charred cereal grains) for the destruction of the Upper
Fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat.
Discussion and Conclusions
Cohen (1983, 1993a) suggested that the Upper Fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat
was built during the reign of King Josiah (ca. 639-609 BCE). If so, then
its existence was short-probably less than 40 years. In 609 BCE, Pharaoh
Necho II moved the Egyptian army through Judah on his way to Mesopotamia to
assist the Assyrians against the Babylonians. Josiah decided to confront
the Egyptians near Megiddo, but was killed in battle (2 Kings 23; 2
Chronicles 35). Later Johoiakim (608-598 BCE) was placed on the throne by
Pharaoh Necho II, instead of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23), indicating considerable
Egyptian influence over Judah. Some of the ostraca found by Cohen (1983,
1993a, 1993b) in the Upper Fortress show both ancient Egyptian hieratic
numerals and Hebrew words, which might fit the above political picture. In
605 BCE the Egyptian army in Mesopotamia was decisively defeated by the
Babylonians in the famous battle at Carchemish near the Euphrates River.
The commander of the Babylonian troops, Nebuchadnezzar, became king in 604
or 603 BCE. He marched his army to Egypt in 601 or 600 BCE and fierce
battles took place, as the Babylonians and the defending Egyptians
inflicted heavy losses on each other (Finegan 1979). Johoiakim changed
allegiance twice, first to Nebuchadnezzar and then back again to Necho, and
he died in about 598 BCE. It is at this point that 2 Kings 24.7 gives an
interesting geopolitical state of affairs: `And the king of Egypt did not
come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that
belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River
Euphrates'. The fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat was the closest Judean
presence near Egypt, located only 25 km west of Wadi el-Arish. Perhaps the
Upper Fortress was destroyed during these fierce battles between the
Babyloni-ans and Egyptians in 601 or 600 BCE, maybe punishing Johoiakim for
changing alliance. This historical age fits somewhat better with the
calibrated radiocarbon date (charred cereal grains in a jar) for the
destruction of the Upper Fortress than the year 586 BCE, the Babylonian
destruction of Jerusalem.
The "C date associated with the destruction of the Middle Fortress at Tell
el-Qudeirat is con-siderably older (10th-9th centuries BCE in the 1a range)
than the age suggested by Cohen (1983, 1993a) in the mid-7th century BCE.
One radiocarbon date of a destruction layer outside the eastern revetment
wall is certainly a reason to regard the result as preliminary with regard
to the Middle Fortress. Yet the four radiocarbon dates of the three
fortresses are internally coherent in terms of stratigraphy and must he
taken into account.
DESERT SETTLEMENT THROUGH THE IRON AGE 363
In terms of possible regional correlations between architecture and
governmental planning, it should he noted that both Stratum V and IV of Tel
Beer Sheva had a solid wall, like the Middle Fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat.
Casemate walls built on top of the remains of the previous solid walls
occur at Tel Beer Sheva in Stratum III (Herzog 1993) and at Tell
el-Qudeirat with the Upper Fortress (Cohen 1983, 1993a). Herzog (1993)
suggested that Stratum V of Tel Beer Sheva-characterised by a solid
wall-might have been destroyed by Pharaoh Shishak. The only "C date from
Tell el-Qudeirat that might fit the Shishak campaign is the destruction
layer associated with the Middle Fortress, which also had a solid wall.
The elliptical Lower Fortress was smaller and had a different shape than
the rectangular Middle and Upper Fortresses at Tell el-Qudeirat, which are
decisively younger in age. Most Iron Age settlements in the Negev-Sinai
region are characterised by elliptical or irregular shaped fortresses,
including Horvat Haluqim, Nahal Ha'Elah and the Lower Fortress at Tell
el-Qudeirat. The most probable calibrated '4C date of 1103-1050 BCE for the
destruction of the Lower Fortress is about 150 years older than the
suggested date for its destruction by Cohen (1980, 1983, 1993a). The above
'4C date would place the Lower Fortress firmly in the Iron I period, as
favoured by Rothen-berg (1972, 1988), Aharoni (1978), Herzog (1983),
Finkelstein (1984, 1988) and considered possible by Meshel (1979).
We note that the old-wood effect may lower the date to some extent at Tell
el-Qudeirat. However, the powdery charcoal mixed with soil from the
destruction layer of the Lower Fortress is generally not characteristic for
old wood. Large trees of an old age tend to give chunks of recognizable
woody charcoal, such as found often at Tel Dan. But even the radiocarbon
results from such woody charcoal at Tel Dan are only rarely older than 50
or 60 years in comparison to short-lived seeds (Bruins et al. [Chapter 19,
this volume]). Therefore, particularly in arid regions, usually devoid of
trees, the inherent age of fine charcoal is in most cases probably not more
than 10-30 years, or even much less. Annual vegetation growing after the
winter rains withers in the spring. Burning of such vegetation would give
short-lived powdery charcoal similar in age to seeds. Desert shrubs are
older than annual plants and charcoal derived from such shrubs may have an
age of ca. 2 to 20 years, occasionally even older, but on average below 10
years. Though the exception may always be present, a small to medium
old-wood effect is probably the rule.
The destruction date for the elliptical Nahal Ha'Elah fortress in the
Central Negev seems on the face of it too old for the Shishak campaign, as
the most probable age range is 1006-972 (46.2%) BCE in the 10 range.
The 75 cm thickness of the anthropogenic agricultural soil layer at Horvat
Haluqim, situated in a field terraced to catch runoff water, could not have
been formed in just 40 years within the 10th century BCE. The Iron Age
radiocarbon date on a small piece of bone from a sheep or goat, found in
this soil layer, indicates that the terraced field was already established
before the period of Solomon. The most probable age range is 1052-971
(45.7%) BCE, favouring the second half of the 11th century or the first
decades of the 10th century BCE.
The younger Iron Age date on a small fleck of charcoal gives a most
probable age range within the period 828-759 (41.2%) BCE and a second most
likely age within the period 634-591 (14.1%) BCE. The result confirms that
the thick anthropogenic soil layer was not formed in just one generation
during the 10th century BCE, but could have begun in the 11th century
(animal bone) or even well before. Agriculture and manuring continued, or
were resumed after possible gaps, in the 9th, 8th or 7th centuries BCE
(charcoal fleck). Micromorphological research of many thin sections from
this soil layer showed the common presence of very small charcoal and bone
fragments, even below 0.01 mm in size, pointing to home refuse as the
source of the fertilizer.
Comparing the Iron Age 14C dates from Sinai and Negev with those from
Khirbet en-Nahas in the eastern Arabah Valley in Jordan (Levy et al. 2004),
it is quite remarkable that grosso modo [in a rough way] a similar BP time
range is found for the older part of the Iron Age. The oldest dates are
2930 ± 30 BP (GrN-12330) in relation to the Lower Fortress at Tell
el-Qudeirat and 2906 ± 39 BP (HD-14057) concerning the Slag Mount East
(Hauptmann 2000). Moreover, also the period 2880-2825 BP appears in both
areas. The oldest Iron Age date so far from the agricultural terrace at
Horvat Haluqim (2860 ± 40 BP, GrA-14398) and a destruction date for the
elliptical fortress at
364 THE BIBLE AND RADIOCARBON DATING
Nahal Ha'Elah (2840 ± 15 BP, GrN-15552) are rather similar to three dates
(2880 ± 28, HD-14302; 2876 ± 38, HD-14308; 2864 ± 46, HD-14113) from the
Slag Mound West (Hauptmann 2000) and to Stratum A4a in Gate 2002 of the
Khirbat en-Nahas Area A (2825 ± 32, OxA-12365). These chronological data
are most significant, showing the regional scale of Iron Age settlement and
activities in north-eastern Sinai, the Negev Highlands and the eastern
Arabah Valley (Levy et al. 2004) for the early part of the Iron Age. These
four sites are relatively close to each other, as can be seen in Figure
21.1.
In conclusion, the radiocarbon dates from the three successive fortresses
at Tell el-Qudeirat are internally consistent in stratigraphic terms. The
results indicate that the Upper Fortress was proba-bly destroyed by the
Babylonian campaigns, as suggested by Cohen, though a 601/600 BCE
histori-cal destruction date would fit better than the alternative 586 BCE
option. The Middle Fortress appears older than suggested by Cohen. It is
the only radiocarbon date that can possibly be linked, in chronological
terms, with the Shishak campaign. The thick solid wall of this fortress
appears similar in architectural construction to that of Stratum V of Tel
Beersheba, the destruction of which is also associated with the Shishak
campaign (Herzog 1993). The Lower Fortress at Tell el-Qudeirat and the
Nahal Ha'Elah Fortress, both elliptical in shape, have destruction layer
dates that appear older than the Solomonic period. The possible old-wood
effect must be taken into consideration, but fine charcoal tends to be
rather short-lived. If the old-wood effect is minimal, even the 12th
century BCE is a reasonable option for the Lower Fortress at Tell
el-Qudeirat in terms of its radiocarbon date.
Considering all the different theories proposed for the elliptical Iron Age
fortresses and related settlements, briefly presented in the introduction,
it seems that the suggested chronologies and historical associations by
Cohen and Haiman are the most unlikely, while the 11th and early 10th
centuries BCE appear most probable. However, even older dates for the
beginning of these settle-ments cannot be ruled out, as the radiocarbon
dates were derived from destruction layers. Indeed, the oldest date
obtained so far, from the agricultural soil layer at the site of Horvat
Haluqim, backs the above picture. Here the old-wood effect cannot be used
as an excuse, because the date is based on a sheep or goat bone from within
the anthropogenic agricultural soil layer. Nevertheless, more dates are
necessary to substantiate and refine this preliminary radiocarbon dating
assessment.
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr Rudolph Cohen and the Israel Antiquities Authority for their
cooperation in the sampling and provision of the organic material and the
permit for the geoarchaeological excava-tions at Horvat Haluqim. Despite
disagreements concerning chronology, we acknowledge the great value of the
large amount of fieldwork and excavations conducted in the region by Dr
Cohen and his colleagues, including Dr Haiman. We thank the technical staff
of the Centre for Isotope Research (University of Groningen) for performing
the radiocarbon measurements.
References
Aharoni, Y. (1967) Forerunners of the Limes: Iron Age Fortresses in the
Negev. IEJ 17: 1-17. -(1978) The Archaeology of Eretz Israel (Jerusalem:
Shakmonah).
Barkay, G. (1992) The Iron Age In The Archaeology of Ancient Israel, edited
by A. Ben-Tor (New Haven: Yale University Press): 302-73.
Bruins, H.J. (1986) Desert Environment and Agriculture in the Central Negev
and Kadesh-Barnea during
Historical Times (PhD Dissertation, University of Wageningen; Nijkerk:
Stichting Midhar Foundation). -(2003) Man and Landscape in the Negev
Highlands: Runoff Systems. Horizons in Geography 57-58:
146-58 (Hebrew).
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
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