Beginning of the early Bronze Age in the north Jordan Valley: new C-14 determinations from Pella in Jordan

Bourke, S; Zoppi, U; Meadows, J; Hua, Q; Gibbins, S

Beginning of the early Bronze Age in the north Jordan Valley: new C-14 determinations from Pella in Jordan

Date

2009-06-01

Authors

Publisher

University of Arizona

Abstract

This article reports on 10 new accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates from early phases of the Early Bronze Age at the long-lived settlement of Pella (modern Tabaqat Fahl) in the north Jordan Valley. The new AMS dates fall between 3400 and 2800 cal BC, and support a recent Suggestion that all Chalcolithic period occupation had ceased by 3800/3700 cal BC at the latest (Bourke et al. 2004b). Other recently published Early Bronze Age C-14 data strongly supports this revisionist scenario, Suggesting that the earliest phase of the Early Bronze Age (EBA I) occupied much of the 4th millennium cal BC (3800/3700 to 3100/3000 cal BC). As this EB I period in the Jordan Valley is generally viewed as the key precursor phase in the development Of urbanism (Joffe 1993), this revisionist chronology has potentially radical significance for understanding both the nature and speed of the move from village settlement towards a complex urban lifeway. © 2009 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

Keywords

Bronze, Jordan, Mass spectroscopy, Carbon 14, Isotope dating, Urban populations

Citation

Bourke, S., Zoppi, U., Meadows, J., Hua, Q., & Gibbins, S. (2009). Beginning of the early Bronze Age in the north Jordan Valley: new C-14 determinations from Pella in Jordan. Poster presented to the 20th International Radiocarbon Conference, 31st May - 5th June 2009. Big Island, Hawaii: Kailua-Kona. In Radiocarbon, 51(3), 905-913. doi:10.1017/S003382220003397X