Transitions during the Early Bronze Age in the Levant
Methodological Problems and Interpretative Perspectives
edited by Matthew J. Adams and Valentine Roux
The present volume brings together 14 papers of a workshop organized by the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Centre de recherche francais a Jerusalem. The objective of the workshop was to confront scholarly interpretations of the various transitional phases across the late 4th-3rd Millennium (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze I, EB I to EB II, and EB III to EB IV / Intermediate Bronze Age) in the southern Levant. The focus was on the nature of the cultural-period-defining traits and their value for distinguishing between changes related to endogenous or exogenous evolution, cultural or demic diffusion. These traits include material culture, architecture, mortuary practices as well as patterns of relationships between sites and subsistence strategies. – The traditional approach to structuring the past is based on a rigid chronological perception of time forced upon dynamic and fluidly transforming societies. The one-dimensional nature of the chronological approach results in periods of well-defined spatiotemporal cultural entities separated by “transitional” periods. These defined cultural entities are often treated as static, though we know they were not, so that we may interpret cultural, historical, sociological, and political aspects of the society. Transition periods, however, are often treated as outliers interpreted against one or both of the periods that bracket them.
The present volume brings together 14 papers of a workshop organized by the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Centre de recherche francais a Jerusalem. The objective of the workshop was to confront scholarly interpretations of the various transitional phases across the late 4th-3rd Millennium (Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze I, EB I to EB II, and EB III to EB IV / Intermediate Bronze Age) in the southern Levant. The focus was on the nature of the cultural-period-defining traits and their value for distinguishing between changes related to endogenous or exogenous evolution, cultural or demic diffusion. These traits include material culture, architecture, mortuary practices as well as patterns of relationships between sites and subsistence strategies. – The traditional approach to structuring the past is based on a rigid chronological perception of time forced upon dynamic and fluidly transforming societies. The one-dimensional nature of the chronological approach results in periods of well-defined spatiotemporal cultural entities separated by “transitional” periods. These defined cultural entities are often treated as static, though we know they were not, so that we may interpret cultural, historical, sociological, and political aspects of the society. Transition periods, however, are often treated as outliers interpreted against one or both of the periods that bracket them.
Matthew J. Adams and Valentine Roux: Transitions during the Early Bronze Age in the Levant: Methodological Problems and Interpretive Perspectives Eliot Braun: They Seek It Here, They Seek It There, "That Demned Elusive" Late-Chalcolithic to Early Bronze 1 Transition of the Southern Levant Amir Golani: The Late Chalcolithic / Early Bronze I Transition and the Ashqelon Occupational Sequence Valentine Roux: The Southern Levant during the Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze I Transition: Dispersal and Return of the Descendants Alex Joffe: New Models for the End of the Chalcolithic in the Southern Levant Yuval Yekutieli: "Let's Make a Clean Slate of the Past!" Alternative Reading of the Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age Transition Ian Cipin: The Chalcolithic as Transitional Period: Looking at the Big Picture Ianir Milevski, Nimrod Getzov, and Yitzhak Paz: Uneven and Combined: The Synchronization of the Early Bronze Age I and the First Urbanization of the Southern Levant Aaron Greener and Matthew J. Adams: A Rich Early Bronze Age I Groundstone Assemblage from Tel Megiddo East, Israel Yitzhak Paz and Itai Elad: New Vistas on the EB IB-EB II Transition in the Coastal Plain: A View from ?En Esur, an EB IB Proto-urban Settlement Maura Sala: The EB IB-II Transition at Tell el-Far'ah North: Continuity Versus Discontinuity: A Preliminary Reassessment Pierre de Miroschedji: The EB I-II Transition in the Southern Levant: Questions of Sequence, Terminology, and Chronology Liora Kolska Horwitz: Dynamics of Early Bronze Age Faunal Exploitation in the Sinai Peninsula: Modes of Production, Commodity Production and Trade Omer Shalev, Naama Walzer, and Yitzhak Paz: The EBA-IBA Transition in the Judean Shephelah: A View from the IBA Francesca Manclossi and Steven A. Rosen: Transitions, Truncations, Correlations, and Disassociations in Early Bronze Age Lithic Systems of the Southern Levant: Issues of Process
- Edited by Matthew J. Adams
- Edited by Valentine Roux
Other Titles in this Series
Rishon le-Zion. Volume I
The Middle Bronze Age II Cemeteries (Volume I/1: The Excavations + Volume I/2: Finds and Conclusions)
Volume 88
Die Suche nach Gottesnahe
Untersuchungen zur Personlichen Frommigkeit in Agypten von der Ersten Zwischenzeit bis zum Ende des Neuen Reiches
Volume 73
Kinneret II
Results of the Excavations at Tell el-'Oreme, 1994-2008: Vol. 1: The Bronze Age, Iron Age II, Post-Iron Age Periods, and Other Studies
Volume 120
A Sage in New Haven
Essays on the Prophets, the Writings, and the Ancient World in Honor of Robert R. Wilson
Volume 117
Der Raum der Zeit
Eine Untersuchung zu den altagyptischen Vorstellungen und Konzeptionen von Zeit und Raum anhand des Unterweltbuches Amduat
Volume 64
From Stone Age to Stellenbosch
Studies on the Ancient Near East in Honour of Izak (Sakkie) Cornelius
Volume 107
From Memphis to Babylon
African Individuals and Groups in Texts from Chaldean and Achaemenid Babylonia
Volume 125
Agyptische Tier- und Gotterbronzen aus Unteragypten
Untersuchungen zu Typus, Ikonographie und Funktion sowie der Bedeutung innerhalb der Kulturkontakte zu Griechenland
Volume 81
The Late Egyptian Underworld
Sarcophagi and Related Texts from the Nectanebid Period: Part I: Sacophagi and Texts, Part II: Plates
Volume 72
Mezad Yeroham
A Caravanserai Site of the Roman and Byzantine Periods in the Negev Highlands
Volume 134
Sonnenlauf und kosmische Regeneration
Zur Systematik der Lebensprozesse in den Unterweltsbuchern - Teil 1: Untersuchungen, Teil 2: Materialien des Tabellenwerks und der Schautafeln
Volume 71
Tell it in Gath
Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel. Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday
Volume 90
Egypt and the Hebrew Bible / Agypten und Altes Testament
Proceedings of the Conference Celebrating 40 Years AAT, Munich, 6-7 Dec. 2019 / Fachtagung '40 Jahre AAT', Munchen, 6-7. Dez. 2019
Volume 100
Aufruhrer, Rebellen, Widersacher
Untersuchungen zum Wortfeld 'Feind' im pharaonischen Agypten. Ein lexikalisch-phraseologischer Beitrag
Volume 74
Inszenierung von Herrschaft und Macht im agyptischen Tempel
Religion und Politik im Theben des fruhen 1. Jahrtausends v. Chr.
Volume 95
Similar Books
Connecting the Dots: Counting, Writing, and the Beginnings of Civilization
The Secret Lives of Clay Tokens: A Memoir
Curating the Prehistoric Past
Studies on West Asian Archaeology and Beyond in Honour of Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Exploring Gender Dynamics across the Ancient Near East
Collected Essays of Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East (GeMANE) 4 and 5
Volume 7
Ḫattušaš utnē išḫameški
Hittite and Other Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Piotr Taracha on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday
Kultur – Kontakt – Kultur
Beiträge anlässlich der 66. Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Frankfurt/Main und Mainz, 25.–29. Juli 2022
Volume 35
Money of Mercenaries in the Cimmerian Bosporus
From the Mithridatic Wars to the Roman-Bosporan War of AD 45-49
Volume 45
New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asian Archaeology
Proceedings of the Workshop Held at the British Museum, London, 31 July – 2 August, 2023
Old Aramaic Inscriptions and their Contexts
An Epigraphic, Archaeological, and Historical Synthesis
Volume 63
Pottery Traditions and Material Culture in Second Millennium BC Northern Mesopotamia
Contacts and New Horizons in the Land between the Tigris and the Zagros. Proceedings of a Workshop Held at the 12th ICAANE, University of Bologna, 7 April 2021
Volume 19
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Sertorius, the Exiles of the Sullan Regime and the Provinces of the Empire
Legitimacy, Morality and Imperial Discourse in the 70s BCE
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
Telling Contexts
Archaeological and Textual Studies in Honor of Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Mark S. Smith
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox
The Discourse of Rites
Shaping and Reshaping the (Counter-)Priestly Rituals Conducted Outside the Tabernacle
The Kingdom of Kizzuwatna: Recent Developments in Research
Proceedings of the Third NINO Postdoctoral Research Fellow Annual Conference, Leiden, 23rd-25th March 2023
Volume 137
The Vandals and the Mediterranean / I Vandali e il Mediterraneo
Politics, Economy and Culture of a Barbarian Kingdom / Politica, economia e cultura di un regno barbarico