Levant 

About: Levant is an academic journal published by Routledge. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Bronze Age & Pottery. It has an ISSN identifier of 0075-8914. Over the lifetime, 707 publications have been published receiving 8072 citations. The journal is also known as: Eastern Mediterranean.

The Archaeology of the United Monarchy: an Alternative View

Abstract: The article deals with the chronology of the early-Iron II strata in Palestine. A careful examination of the archaeological and textual data indicates that there is no safe chronological anchor between the early-twelfth century BCE (the battles of Ramses III with the Sea Peoples) and the late-eighth century BCE (the Assyrian campaigns to Palestine). The most important clues for this time-span are the Philistine Bichrome pottery and the results of the excavations at Arad and Jezreel. Following a study of the Philistine chronology, the author suggests an alternative dating for the main strata of the early Iron II. According to this ‘Low Chronology’, Stratum VA-IVB at Megiddo, Stratum XI at Arad and Stratum V at Beer-sheba should all be dated to the ninth century BCE. Consequently, the tenth century is represented by Stratum VIA at Megiddo, Stratum XII at Arad and Stratum VII at Beer-sheba. The new dating calls for a re-evaluation of the historical, cultural and political processes that took place in...

Prehistoric environment and settlement in the Azraq Basin: an interim report on the 1987 and 1988 excavation seasons

Abstract: The Azraq Project was begun in 1975 in order to learn more of the history of environment, settlement and subsistence in the presently arid zone of South-West Asia during the late Glacial and early Holocene—the period crucial to the beginnings of food production. In 1975 a survey was made of fifteen localitites around the Azraq Basin and the area was found to be rich in sites of late Acheulian to Neolithic date. Evidence was also found for a large Pleistocene lake at the centre of the depression (Garrard et al. 1975, 1977). In 1982 a more detailed archaeological and geomorphological survey was made of the area of the former lake and of two of its western tributary wadis–Wadis el-Jilat and Kharaneh (Garrard et al. 1985a,b). A range of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites were found associated with the expansion and retreat of the last major lake. Similarly dated, as well as earlier. Upper Palaeolithic, sites were also found in the western tributary wadis, at the present steppe–desert boundary. The Up...

Iron Age chronology : A reply to I. Finkelstein

Abstract: This paper contests I. Finkelstein's proposed low chronology for the mid-twelfth to mid-eighth centuries BCE. Though indeed there are few, if any, chronological ‘anchors’ during this period, it is claimed that the suggested low chronology is based on flimsy evidence, and creates new unsolvable problems, instead of resolving the older ones. Pushing the date of the Philistine Monochrome pottery phase (local Myc. IIIC) beyond the end of the Egyptian presence in Canaan is based on a debatable assumption. It led Finkelstein to suggest a wholesale lowering of the date of later assemblages. The extension of the Iron Age I material culture into the late tenth century BCE is unjustified and leads to a distorted archaeological picture of the period of the United Monarchy, and ultimately to misleading historical conclusions. The conclusions pertaining to the ninth–eighth centuries do not allow sufficient time for the complex stratigraphic development documented at several sites, such as Hazor. The stratigra...

A Spatial and Morphological Analysis of Monastic Sites in the Northern Limestone Massif, Syria

Abstract: Although the monuments of the Syrian Limestone Massif have long been a focus of study, comparatively little attention has been given to the region's monastic complexes, aside from Qal'at Sim'an. Consequently, monasteries have been largely excluded from discussions of the widespread social and economic changes of Late Antiquity. Yet a recent landscape research project in the northern Limestone Massif has examined the layout and juxtaposition of monastic sites in comparison to settlements and topography. The morphology of sites has been examined and the specific activities undertaken by early monastic communities suggested. It is argued that monastic centres, thus far regarded as marginal in both spatial and social terms, may in fact have played a significant role in the processing and control of agricultural resources in the region.

Bible Archaeology or Archaeology of Palestine in the Iron Age? A Rejoinder

Abstract: The archaeology of the United Monarchy has recently become a focus of a fierce dispute. The debate has far-reaching consequences for archaeological, historical and biblical studies. In a recent article, Mazar (1997) criticized my views on this topic and supported the prevailing theory. In this rejoinder, I demonstrate that the Low Chronology for the material remains of the eleventh-ninth centuries B.G.E., whether right or wrong, is based on archaeological considerations. The prevailing scheme is based on uncritical reading of the biblical text and on irrelevant sentiments regarding the grandeur of the early Israelite state.