Body: | Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom:
new excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan)
Thomas E. Levy, Russell B. Adams, Mohammad Najjar,
Andreas Hauptmann, James D. Anderson, Baruch Brandl,
Mark A. Robinson & Thomas Higham
2004 AD
(Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom, Thomas E. Levy, 2004 AD)
An international team of researchers show how high-precision radiocarbon
dating is liberating us from chronological assumptions based on Biblical
research. Surface and topographic mapping at the large copper-working site
of Khirbat en-Nahas was followed by stratigraphic excavations at an ancient
fortress and two metal processing facilities located on the site surface.
The results were spectacular. Occupation begins here in the eleventh
century BC and the monumental fortress is built in the tenth. If this site
can be equated with the rise of the Biblical kingdom of Edom it can now be
seen to: have its roots in local Iron Age societies; is considerably
earlier than previous scholars assumed; and proves that complex societies
existed in Edom long before the influence of Assyrian imperialism was felt
in the region from the eighth - sixth centuries BC.
Keywords: Iron Age, Levant, Edom, copper-working, chronology, state
formation
Introduction
The archaeology of the Iron Age (c. 1200 - 586 BC) in the southern Levant
(Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and adjacent areas) has been
fraught with controversy ever since its nineteenth century beginnings
primarily because it is linked with issues concerning the historicity of
the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Dating events and processes of change
during the "Biblical" or Iron Age periods has been particularly
problematic. The recent application of high-precision radiocarbon dates to
Iron Age archaeological strata offers a less biased approach for
establishing a reliable chronology for the region and for assessing
Biblical and ancient Near Eastern textual and archaeological data (Bruins
et al 2003; Finkelstein & Piasetsky 2003b). The archaeological evidence for
the appearance of Iron Age 'statelets' throughout the southern Levant at
the end of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1200 BC) is interwoven with ancient Near
Eastern and Biblical texts (Joffe 2002). Some of these new polities include
ancient Israel, Judah, Philistia, and Phoenicia located west of the Jordan
River; Aram in Syria and the Transjordan polities of Edom, Moab and Ammon
east of the Jordan River.
1 Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La
Jolla, CA 92093-0532, USA (Email: tlevy@ucsd.edu)
2 Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada L8S 4L9
3 Department of Antiquities of Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Amman,
Jordan
4 Deutsches Bergbau -Museum, D - 44787 Bochum, Germany
5 Anthropology Program, North Island College, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
6 Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel
7 Environmental Archaeology Unit, Oxford University Museum of Natural
History, Oxford OX1 3PW, UK
8 Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology
and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford 1 3QJ, UK
Received: 15 January 2004; Accepted: 11 May 2004
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Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom
The controversy over the dating of certain Levantine Iron Age
archaeological deposits was recently emphasised in an article in Science by
A. Mazar and colleagues (Bruins, van der Plicht & Mazar 2003; Finkelstein &
Piasetzky 2003a; Holden 2003), in which they argued for a linkage between
the Iron Age archaeological evidence at Tel Rehov, historical Egyptian
events and Biblical texts during the tenth century BC - a period
traditionally tied to the reign of King Solomon. As this "tenth century BC
debate" revolves around the historicity of biblical figures such as David
and Solomon, the discussions are heated and extend beyond scientific
dialogue into the media (Bunimovitz & Faust 2001; Finkelstein 1999;
Finkelstein 2003a, 2003b; Mazar 1999, 2001).
The work presented here moves away from correlation with historical
figures, and focuses on more general processes of social evolutionary
change in one of the less well-known Iron Age polities in the region. The
paper reports high precision radiocarbon dates from stratified excavations
at the major Iron Age metal production centre of Khirbat en-Nahas. These
have proved to be of key importance for re-assessing and clarifying the
evolution of the Edomite kingdom known from biblical sources (Bartlett
1992).
Khirbat en-Nahas - the context
From the Early Bronze Age (c. 3600-2000 BC), the Faynan district was a
centre of copper metal production that ended around 1950 BC at about the
time that copper from the island of Cyprus began to dominate the eastern
Mediterranean and Near East (Adams 1999, 2002; Hauptmann 2000; Levy et al.
2002). During the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (c. 2000 - 1200 BC) Cyprus
was the main supplier of copper in this region. At the end of the Late
Bronze Age there was a general societal collapse around the eastern
Mediterranean basin causing the breakdown of many complex societies such as
the Mycenaeans, Hittites and others. This collapse probably promoted a
'power vacuum' that led to the emergence of the small Levantine Iron Age
'statelets' noted above. The social dislocation at the end of the Late
Bronze Age may also have disrupted Cypriot metal production (Muhly, Maddin
& Karageorghis 1982) and long-distance trade in copper and may have
stimulated renewed interest in the copper ore deposits on the Levantine
mainland in areas such as Faynan (Knauf & Lenzen 1987).
Recent excavations at the Iron Age copper production centre of Khirbat
en-Nahas, located in the ancient mining district of Faynan (Biblical Edom),
offer a new data set for reviewing the early Iron Age (c. 1200 -1000 BC) as
well as later developments in the tenth-ninth centuries BC, both in
Transjordan and in the southern Levant as a whole. Until recently, it was
assumed that the establishment of settled populations in the region and the
establishment of the Kingdom of Edom occurred only in the eighth through
sixth centuries BC and that the rise of the Edomite state was linked to the
establishment of the Assyrian empire (Bienkowski 2001; Herr & Najjar 2001;
Stern 2001). This view developed as a result of the limited archaeological
excavations in the region, which have favoured sites on the plateau
relatively far from the copper ore sources in the lowlands of Edom.
Architectural similarities with
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palatial architecture found at plateau sites such as Busayra (the capital
of the seventh - sixth century BC Edomite kingdom) and Assyrian palaces
have also contributed to this assumption (Bienkowski & Bennett 2003), as
have the absence of radiocarbon dating for the highland Iron Age sites. In
fact, the dating of pottery sequences from the Edomite plateau are tied to
the seventh and sixth centuries BC largely by a single bulla, or clay
impression, found at Umm el-Biyara (Bienkowski 1990). This clay impression
bears the name 'Qos gabar king of Edom', an historical figure mentioned in
Assyrian records dating to the time of Esarhaddon (c. 673 BC) and
Ashurbanipal (c. 667 BC) (Bennet 1966). As a result, the entire corpus of
Iron Age pottery from the Edomite plateau represents a 'floating
chronology' that is not fixed to a stratified archaeological sequence or
tied to either a series of radiocarbon dates or a sequence of datable
epigraphic artefacts.
In this paper, we present the recent excavation results from a major
stratified Iron Age Edomite lowland site that demonstrate significant
settlement and copper production activities well before the seventh and
sixth centuries BC based on high precision radiocarbon dates. These dates
demonstrate a much earlier Iron Age occupation in Edom dating to the
twelfth to ninth centuries BC, when construction of massive fortifications
and industrial scale metal production activities took place. Due to the
relatively small number of new dates published here (ten) our report does
not attempt to link the new radiocarbon data with specific historical
events or personages. However, given the current debate concerning
radiocarbon dating and the Iron Age of the southern Levant (Holden 2003),
it is clear that the new data presented here demonstrate that a complex
Iron Age polity existed in the Edomite lowlands much earlier than
previously assumed. By pushing the Iron Age chronology of Edom back into
much earlier phases of the Iron Age, the role of ancient powers such as
Assyria in the social evolution of the small Iron Age statelets of the
southern Levant is diminished, making it necessary to consider local social
evolutionary developments as the catalyst of political change.
Khirbat en-Nahas - the site
Khirbat en-Nahas (area = c. 10 ha) is the largest Iron Age copper-smelting
site in the southern Levant. The site is situated in an area where numerous
outcrops of copper ore were mined in the Saharo -Arabian desert zone, at
the eastern margin of the Araba/Arava valley that separates modern Jordan
and Israel. The amount of slag left by the Iron Age metallurgists at the
centre of Khirbat en-Nahas as evidence for a mass production of copper (c.
50 000 to 60 000 tons) should be considered in close context with Iron Age
metallurgical activities at the nearby sites of Khirbat Faynan and Khirbet
el-Jariyeh, where roughly another 40 000 tons of slags were produced
(Hauptmann 2000). In comparison, contemporaneous copper production at Timna
was much smaller (Rothenberg 1999), while New Kingdom activities at Bir
Nasib, on the Sinai Peninsula, possibly left another 100 000 tons of slag
(Rothenberg 1987). Khirbat en-Nahas was first discovered at the turn of the
nineteenth century by the Czech orientalist, Alois Musil (Musil 1907),
visited by the German researcher F. Frank (Frank 1934), but made famous by
the American archaeologist, Nelson Glueck in the 1930s (Glueck 1935). In
the early 1990s the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum (DBM) undertook
archaeo-metallurgical investigations in the Faynan district (Hauptmann
2000), and a number of slag mounds were sectioned at Khirbat en-Nahas to
study slags and other metallurgical debris for reconstructing smelting
processes and to fingerprint the Iron Age copper from this site for further
provenance
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Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom
Figure 1 Aerial view of Khirbat en-Nahas with the Iron Age fortress in the
foreground, and numerous other buildings and smelting installations (slag
mounds) visible on the site surface. Photo courtesy of ROHR Productions
(Nicosia).
studies. In addition, as part of the DBM archaeo-metallurgical
investigations in Faynan (Hauptmann 2000), a number of slag mounds were
sectioned for palaeobotanical and fuel resource studies (Engel 1993, 1996)
and Volkmar Fritz excavated one building at the site (Fritz 1996). Khirbat
en-Nahas is unusually rich in archaeological remains visible on the site
surface including fortifications, towers, buildings, metallurgical
installations and mounds of slag representing repeated metallurgical
activities (Figure 1).
Recent investigations at Khirbat en-Nahas
Since the late 1990s, the Jabal Hamrat Fidan Project team has established a
strong logistic base in the research area, developed a GIS-based recording
system (Levy et al. 2001a; Levy et al. 2001b) and has carried out major
surveys in the surrounding Wadi Guwayb and Wadi Jariyeh drainage systems
and excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas, (which is the part of the project
considered here). Based on surface observations and pottery, Glueck long
ago (1940) suggested that the fortress at Khirbat en-Nahas dated to the
beginning of the Iron II period (tenth century BC). Later scholars doubted
this early date, and most have ignored the presence of this fortress in
assessing the history of ancient Edom. However, following in Glueck's
footsteps, McDonald's SGNAS Survey identified it as an entirely Iron Age
site (MacDonald 1992), clearly logging the surface pottery from the site to
the Iron Age I and II (ibid. Plate 18: 1-10), and also noted the presence
of Negebite Ware at the site. Surface mapping of the Khirbat en-Nahas site
in 2002 revealed over 100 building complexes (Figure 2). The further aims
of the 2002 season were to excavate and sample specific areas with a view
to determining site function and the dates of occupation, guided by
structures visible on the
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site surface. These were: the large fortress (Area A, Figure 2), a building
linked to metal production (Area S), and one of the slag mounds
representative of ancient smelting activities at the site (Area M).
Samples for radiocarbon dating were obtained from stratified contexts in
each of these areas. As Khirbat en-Nahas is primarily a copper production
site, there is a wealth of charcoal. Samples were identified using low and
high power incident light microscopy at magnifications of up to x400 on
pieces fractured as appropriate. The majority of the charcoal found in the
gate, building and slag mound was of Tamarix sp. (tamarisk). A similar
predominance of tamarisk charcoal was found in the slag mound investigated
by the DBM (Hauptmann 2000).
Tamarix jordanis is still the Figure 2 Topographic map of Khirbat en-Nahas
with fortress and buildings visible most common tree/shrub that on the site
surface.
grows in the local wadi environment adjacent to Khirbat en-Nahas. It is a
resilient plant that can tolerate extreme temperature fluctuation and
brackish water. It rapidly regenerates after being cut back. Local stands
of tamarisk could plausibly have provided a sustainable annual harvest of
young branches for making charcoal to supply the Iron Age smelting
industry.
Unfortunately, there was a paucity of 'short life' samples such as grain or
fruit remains found in the 2002 excavations, as might be expected on an
industrial, as opposed to a settlement site. To remedy this problem the two
outermost and therefore the youngest rings of each charcoal sample were
carefully removed and used for AMS dating. It seems likely that wood for
charcoal-making would not have been dried for longer than a year and that
there would have been a very high turn over of charcoal on a metal
production site. Thus, the problem of 'old wood' seems unlikely with the
Khirbat en-Nahas radiocarbon samples reported on here due to our sampling
strategy and the wood harvesting policy that can be assumed for the Iron
Age Levant.
The dates obtained range from the twelfth to the ninth century BC and are
listed in Table 1. We have utilised the most accurate procedures made
available by 14C dating: two-year organic
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Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom
samples from primary archaeological contexts, high-precision dating and
accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) methods. The calibration precision in
historical years was improved by applying a Bayesian approach to the
calibration (Buck et al. 1996). We used the calibration programme BCal
(Buck et al. 1996) and the INTCAL 98 calibration curve (Stuiver et al.
1998) to model the superimposed radiocarbon determinations from the Khirbat
en-Nahas excavations. BCal enables relative archaeological a priori
information (relative stratigraphy and archaeological provenance) to be
used in association with radiocarbon determinations, within a Bayesian
framework. Despite our approach, certain key contexts produced wide ranges
in calibrated age. Further dating work is planned to improve precision and
enable a consideration of specific historical issues (Levy, Adams & Najjar
(eds.) in prep).
Results of excavation and sampling
The Fortress (Area A)
In order to clarify the dating of the fortress and obtain an 'architectural
signature' of the fortress (c. 73 x 73 m) pointing to its date and cultural
affinity, roughly half of the western gate complex was excavated by our
team in 2002 (Figure 3). The gate faces west and the Araba/ Arava valley -
the main transportation corridor in the region. A sequence of four main
strata was defined and is summarised here in order of deposition. Stratum
soil.
so
n gi
r
i
v
e th
was
Figure 3 Excavations at the gate ofthe Iron Age Fortress at Khirbat
en-Nahas. A4b
Stratum A4a, above it, corresponds to a layer of metallurgical waste below
the gate structure foundations. Sample OxA-12365 (Table 1) came from Locus
95 that represents a thin deposit of soil and ash over the bedrock at the
NE chamber of the gate structure and indicates that shortly prior to the
construction of the gate, metallurgical activities took place at the site.
The calibrated date for Stratum A4a shows the highest probability
associated with the range 1130 - 970 BC, or twelfth to tenth centuries BC.
Our Bayesian analysis constrains the period prior to the deposition of this
stratum as earlier than at least 935 BC (i.e. tenth century BC), with a
modal value (the value with the highest probability) of 1120 BC (i.e.
twelfth century). It is important to note that this strata pre-dates the
construction of the gate and reflects metallurgical and occupation
activities before the construction of this monumental gateway.
Stratum A3 represents the original stage of the fortified wall perimeter,
including the gate structure. Due to the intensive industrial utilisation
(Strata A2A-B) that post-dated the
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Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom
defensive stage, very little remained from that stage apart from the actual
architectural frame and some associated surfaces. While only the northern
inner part of the gate structure has been excavated (Figure 3), the outline
of the whole structure can be discerned on the surface, as well as through
comparison with other known Iron Age desert fortifications. Sample
OxA-12366 came from L. 94 (Table 1), a surface connected with the original
gate structure. The sample came from a partially packed reddish-brown
surface between metallurgical industrial waste and an ashy deposit.
Ceramics, including a partially restorable storage vessel, and some slag
were also found here. The calibrated date for this stratum is not precise
as yet (1005 - 870 BC).
Stratum A2b in the fortress gate represents the main layer associated with
copper production in this area and also coincides with the period when the
gate went out of use. During this period the doorways to the guardrooms
were sealed and the chambers used to house small smelters for processing
ore. Sample OxA-12367 (Table 1) came from Locus 92 that represents a thick
and dense layer containing a very large volume of copper industrial waste.
Large quantities of slag, several tuyere pipes and many fragments of
others, copper slag, a fragment of a copper pin, and other material related
to metal production were found here. Ceramics, including a restorable
storage vessel, were also found. The calibrated date for this stratum as
modelled in BCal is 920 - 815 BC, with a modal value of 885 BC.
Stratum A2a represents a residual phase of metal production around the
gateway and within the two gate chambers that were excavated. A number of
metallurgical installations were found over the main layer (Stratum A2b) of
industrial waste that took place after the gate went out of use. Sample
OxA-12368 (Table 1) came from Locus 61, a semi-circular installation,
probably for industrial use, by the corner between the southern wall of the
gateway complex (W7) and the western casemate wall. The calibrated date for
this stratum is 990-790 BC, with a modal value of 835 BC. Our Bayesian
analysis suggests that the end date for this stratum postdates 885 BC, with
810 BC associated with the highest probability.
Stratum A1b consists of a thick layer of stone collapse accumulating around
the edges of the gate. Above this, Stratum A1a represents the latest
occupation when stone collapse from the fortification was used to build a
series of corrals on the west side of the fort. Due to the shallow nature
of Strata A1a-1b and the possibility of mixing, no radiocarbon
determinations were taken here.
The new excavations in the gateway of the Iron Age fortress thus place its
construction at the beginning of the tenth century BC. The perimeter of the
gate structure measures 16.5x10 m and follows the plan of the four-chamber
gate that is well known from numerous contemporary Iron Age sites in
Israel/Palestine (Mazar 1990), including the known desert forts in the
Araba/Arava region, such as Hatzeva (Cohen & Yisrael 1995) and Tell
el-Kheleifeh (Glueck 1965) . The gate is somewhat smaller than four-chamber
gates found in Israel (Herzog 1992) but this can be expected since Khirbat
en-Nahas is an industrial site, while the Israelite gates belong to towns.
Metal-working building (Area S)
The excavation of the selected structure (Figure 4) revealed a four-room
building c. 6.5 x 11.0 m associated with four main strata. Stratum S4
corresponds to the earliest occupation phase identified stratigraphically
at Khirbat en-Nahas. A radiocarbon date (OxA-12169; Table 1) was
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obtained from Locus 356, a square installation possibly linked to cooking
activities, providing a calibrated date for this stratum of 1260 -1240 BC
and 1215 -1020 BC (with multimodal values) or twelfth - eleventh centuries
BC. The Bayesian calibration model indicates a highest probability that
occupation here must have been prior to 1190 BC.
Above it lays the thick industrial waste layer in Stratum S3. The entire
building sits unconformably on this layer, which represents a major
industrial phase in this part of the site prior to the construction of the
four-room building. A radiocarbon sample (OxA-12342; Table 1) collected
from this layer is calibrated to 1055 - 915 BC indicating that stratum S3
is contemporary with the pre-fortress gate metal working horizon (Stratum
A4a) and the main use phase of the fortress gate (Stratum A3).
Stratum S2b represents the main construction phase of the four-room
building. One of these rooms functioned as an open-air courtyard. A
radiocarbon sample (OxA-12168) was obtained from Locus 336, a courtyard
located on the east site of the building. While the main activities carried
out here were the re-melting of copper and slag crushing, many artefacts
came to light including hammerstones, dimpled hammerstones, pestles,
polishing stones, grinding stones, tuyere pipe fragments, partially
processed copper, copper ore, and slag with copper. The calibrated date for
this stratum is 970 - 830 BC, with modal value of 895 BC.
Stratum S2a represents a period of architectural expansion of the main
Stratum S2b occupation phase. A series of walls were added to the four-room
building during this phase that resulted in the addition of courtyards and
work areas to this structure. These walls also helped contain the large
quantities of slag and crushed slag accumulated outside the building. A
radiocarbon sample (OxA-12274) was obtained from this stratum from fill
material (Locus 331) resting directly
Figure 4 Four-room building associated with metal production at Khirbat
en-Nahas.
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Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom
above a surface in Room 2, which may have served as a courtyard during this
period of expansion. Large numbers of groundstone artefacts were found here
including: grinding slabs, shallow mortars, rounded and dimpled
hammerstones, polishing stones, and a possible stone roof support. Large
amounts of copper metal (some of which contained iron), partially processed
copper, slag with copper, copper ore, some furnace and tuyere pipe
fragments were recovered. These finds suggest that secondary melting
activities and possibly final metal production may have taken place in this
courtyard. The calibrated radiocarbon date for this stratum is 900-765 BC
(modal value 815 BC) or late ninth century BC.
Stratum S 1 consisted of the surface remains of a large sub-rectangular
enclosure that lacked any partition walls. No radiocarbon dates were
processed from this stratum due to the possibility of contamination and
mixing.
Slag heap in Area M
The raison d'etre for the existence of Khirbat en-Nahas, in one of the
driest regions of southern Jordan, was its control of Iron Age copper
production in the Faynan district. Excavation of one of the slag mounds
located in Area M revealed seven production layers (determined by layering
of large tap slags) in the top c. 1.0 m of the mound. We estimate that most
of the slag mounds at Khirbat en-Nahas are at least 5.0 m in depth. Using
conventional excavation methods, during our seven week excavation we were
only able to excavate to a depth of c. 1.0 m in the 2.0 x 5.0 m excavation
unit. The radiocarbon dates (OxA-12437 and 12436; Table 1) obtained from
two of these layers are calibrated to 910 - 886 BC and 829 - 801 BC
respectively. This places the latest smelting activities on this mound in
the late tenth and ninth centuries BC. The DBM sampling of three other slag
mounds produced a total of eight radiocarbon dates, which are in broad
agreement with these results (Hauptmann 2000; see Table 1).
Datable artefacts from the excavations
Several artefacts were found in association with later contexts which,
although probably residual, corroborate the early Iron Age (c. 1200 -1000
BC) date of the first occupation. For example, a leaf-shaped metal
arrowhead (B. 7559, L. 344) in Stratum S3, and two scarabs from Strata 1
and 2a in Room 4 of the Area S building are especially significant. The
partially broken 'walking sphinx' scarab (Figure 5.1) originally included
the now headless body of a royal sphinx on top of a nb sign that served as
an exergue, and apparently a hieroglyph that is now lost. The closest
parallels (Hall 1913; Matouk 1977) nos. 104, 342 [No. 485], 384 [No. 587])
have been dated to the New Kingdom and could therefore fit with the first
half of the twelfth century BC. The second scarab (Figure 5.2) belongs to a
well-known abbreviated sub-group of Iron I scarabs with a chariot scene. It
depicts an archer, a horse with raised tail, a crouching horned animal, and
another human figure. Although its parallels are generally dated to the
Iron I period, a more accurate time span would be between the mid-twelfth
and mid-tenth centuries BC. Both of these scarabs were found in fills in
the same area above Locus 356 where the earliest radiocarbon date was
obtained for Stratum S4. Recently, S. Munger (2003) argued that the chariot
motif scarabs could be linked to the Pharaoh Siamun (c. 960 BC). But given
that most scarabs in both Egypt and the southern Levant are not
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Figure 5 Scarabs from Area S, Khirbat en-Nahas. 1) Walking Sphinx, 2)
Chariot, Archer or Hunting Scene.
found in situ, we are more cautious and suggest that the ones found at
Khirbat en-Nahas simply provide a terminus post quem for an early Iron Age
occupation.
Initial observations on the pottery corpus suggest that much of the pottery
should be taken as very early Iron Age II, and dated to the tenth-to-ninth
centuries, although there are slight indications that some of the material
may be earlier and dated to the Iron Age I, of the twelfth -to-eleventh
centuries. Collared-rim jars, large jugs, carinated bowls and monochrome
and bichrome ring-painted bowls dominate the local assemblage. Included in
the local assemblage are a large number of hand-made bowls and holemouth
jars that have often been referred to in other reports as Negebite Ware,
and taken as indications of an early date. In the context of Khirbat
en-Nahas they are clearly associated with local production since they have
slag temper, and are not a useful tool for dating. There are however a
significant number of other pieces which add clarity to the assemblage,
including imported wares, which include a significant number of 'Midianite'
monochrome and bichrome painted vessels and Cypro-Phoenician Black on Red
ware. The 'Midianite' pottery (Figure 6) is of particular interest since
there is significant variation in this pottery, which includes a number of
high-quality creamed slipped, bichrome painted pieces probably from the
Hijaz (north-west Saudi Arabia) and most likely from Qurayah on the basis
of the fabric. The dating of the Midianite ware is still problematic since
although it starts as early as the fourteenth century the evidence for the
end of the production of this pottery is not yet well defined. The
technological study of the 'Midianite' pottery is in progress and may add
further clarification to provenience.
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Figure 6 Selection of 'Midianite' pottery from Areas A (1-4, 6-8) and S (5,
7, 7), Khirbat en-Nahas.
The presence of 'Midianite' and Qurayah ware pottery found in both the gate
and four-room building taken together with the Walking Sphinx scarab may be
an indication of activities at Khirbat en-Nahas as early as the twelfth
century BC.
Discussion
The excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas, the largest Iron Age copper production
centre in the southern Levant, have provided the first stratified
radiocarbon dates from the Biblical region of Edom. As can be seen in
Figure 7 in conjunction with the late Iron I small finds described above,
there are two main phases of metal production: in the twelfth - eleventh
centuries BC and during the tenth - ninth centuries BC. These new data
necessitate a re-examination of the role of the lowlands in the control of
metal production during the rise of the Edomite
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kingdom. The new dates and the range of artefacts recently found at the
site, such as architecture, ceramics, scarabs, and arrowheads indicate that
Iron Age secondary state formation in Edom was much earlier than previously
assumed. The key to understanding the rise of the Biblical kingdom of Edom
may lie in the copper ore-rich lowlands, rather than the highland plateau
where most excavations have been conducted to date. The emergence of the
Edomite kingdom was not contingent on the region having been dominated by
the neo-Assyrian empire during the eighth and seventh BC. State formation
more likely began several centuries earlier, rooted in local processes of
social evolution and interaction amongst the smaller Iron Age 'statelets'
of the southern Levant (Edom, Moab, Ammon, Israel, Judah, Philistia, etc.).
Figure 7 Radiocarbon likelihoods from Khirbat en-Nahas, Fortress (Area A),
Metal production building (Area S) and Slag mound (Area M); figure
generated using OxCal 3.6.
Acknowledgements
This radiocarbon dating project was carried out while T.E. Levy (TEL) held
a Skirball fellowship at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at
Yarnton Manor (February - July 2003). The archaeological field research is
part of the Jabal Hamrat Fidan expedition, a joint University of
California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Antiquities of Jordan (DOAJ)
project directed by TEL (senior PI), R.B. Adams (co-PI) and M. Najjar
(co-director). It is affiliated with the American Schools of Oriental
Research (ASOR) and the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR) in
Amman, Jordan. We are grateful to the Director of the Department of
Antiquities of Jordan, Dr Fawwaz al-Khraysheh for his support and Dr Pierre
Bikai, Director of ACOR for his helpful advice. We are grateful to the C.
Paul Johnson Family Charitable Foundation (Chicago and Napa, California)
and the UCSD Judaic Studies Program who awarded grants for this project. We
would also like to thank the field and lab supervisors of the 2002 Khirbat
en-Nahas excavations - Yoav Arbel, Elizabeth Monroe, Lisa Soderbaum, Adolfo
Muniz, Neil Smith and and their assistants Vicky Sears, Sarah Malena and
Beccah Landmann for their hard work in the field, and Alina Levy for
assistance in the lab in Oxford. Thanks also to the student participants in
the 2002 UCSD Middle East Archaeological Field School whose hard work made
the project a success, and the Bedouin villagers of Qurayqira for their
hospitality.
877
Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom
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