Journal article
RADIOCARBON DATING SHOWS AN EARLY APPEARANCE OF PHILISTINE MATERIAL CULTURE IN TELL ES-SAFI/GATH, PHILISTIA
Yotam Asscher, Dan Cabanes, Louise A Hitchcock, Aren M Maeir, Steve Weiner, Elisabetta Boaretto
RADIOCARBON | UNIV ARIZONA DEPT GEOSCIENCES | Published : 2015
Abstract
The Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in the coastal southern Levant involves a major cultural change, which is characterized, among other things, by the appearance of Philistine pottery locally produced in styles derived from outside the Levant. This transition in the coastal southern Levant is conventionally dated to the 12th century BC, based on historical and archaeological artifacts associated with the Philistine pottery. Radiocarbon dating can provide a more precise independent absolute chronology for this transition, but dating for the period under discussion is complicated by the wiggles and relatively flat slope in the calibration curve, which significantly reduce precision. An..
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Awarded by European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)/ERC
Awarded by Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca del DIUE de la Generalitat de Catalunya
Funding Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science and D-REAMS Radiocarbon Dating, Weizmann Institute of Science, and the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no 229418. We would like to gratefully acknowledge the generous financial help from Mr George Schwartzman. D.C.'s contribution is part of the activities of the Equip de Recerca Arqueologica i Arqueometrica de la Universitat de Barcelona (ERAAUB), Consolidated Group (2014 SGR 845), thanks to the support of the Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca del DIUE de la Generalitat de Catalunya. We would like to thank Shira Kisos for her help in pottery drawings and photographs, and Brent Davis, Erin McGowan, James Stratford, Jill Katz, and Brianna Flynn for their help in determining the stratigraphy. Finally, we thank the staff and team of the Ackerman Family Bar-Ilan University Expedition at Gath for their dedicated work during and after the excavations.