Abstract
ABSTRACTTel Hazor is one of only a few sites in Israel where remains of the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA) in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC were found on top of Early Bronze III (EB III) city remains. A probe excavation was held at Hazor in 2017 to explore the chronological relation between the EB III and the IBA occupation. The radiocarbon (14C) absolute dates generated from this probe excavation show that following the EB III city demise, the site was abandoned for up to a few hundred years before it was resettled in the IBA. 14C dates obtained from the last level of the EB III city are well before 2500 BCE, fully aligned with the recent “High Chronology” for the EBA in the southern Levant. The excavation also produced dates associated with IBA “Black Wheel-Made Ware” vessels, which were found in large numbers at Hazor.
Highlights
The Intermediate Bronze Age culture (IBA hereafter, and known as EB IV) occupied the southern Levant in the second half of the third millennium BCE
Tel Hazor is one of only a few sites in Israel where remains of the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA) in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC were found on top of Early Bronze III (EB III) city remains
The radiocarbon (14C) absolute dates generated from this probe excavation show that following the EB III city demise, the site was abandoned for up to a few hundred years before it was resettled in the IBA. 14C dates obtained from the last level of the EB III city are well before 2500 BCE, fully aligned with the recent “High Chronology” for the EBA in the southern Levant
Summary
The Intermediate Bronze Age culture (IBA hereafter, and known as EB IV) occupied the southern Levant in the second half of the third millennium BCE. The IBA is accepted by scholars as a non-urban pastoral-rural culture, with clear differentiation in settlement patterns, material culture, and burial habits, from the urban Early Bronze culture (EB hereafter) preceding it, and from the urban Middle Bronze culture (MB hereafter) following it. An abundance of burial sites, each including up to a few hundred burials, characterize the IBA (e.g., Oren 1973; Dever 1975; Yannai 2016). IBA settlements are mainly unfortified villages established on a new unexploited land (e.g., Smithline 2002; Eisenberg 2012; Dever 2014; Covello-Paran 2020). Our knowledge of the IBA has been much enhanced during the last decade (D’Andrea 2014; Dever 2014; Falconer and Fall 2019; Richard 2020). The roots of this culture and its interaction with the preceding EB III culture are still not fully understood
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