“…The first extensive excavations of the Middle Bronze Age palace that inter alia uncovered the first fragments of Aegean (or Aegean-style) wall paintings and a painted plaster floor were conducted between 1986 and 1993, directed by Aharon Kempinski and Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier (Kempinski 2002). Renewed excavations directed by Eric Cline and Assaf Yasur-Landau started in 2005 and were accompanied by a regional survey of western Galilee in 2006 and 2007 (Cline and Yasur-Landau 2007; Yasur-Landau et al 2008, 2012, 2014; Cline et al 2011; Goshen et al 2013; Samet 2014; Yasur-Landau and Cline 2014). Figure 1 Map of the southeastern Mediterranean region with sites mentioned in the text…”
Section: Brief Stratigraphy Of the Palace Of Kabrimentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This article presents the first results of a radiocarbon dating study of the Middle Bronze Age palatial site of Tel Kabri in the western Galilee region of modern Israel. During the Middle Bronze Age, Tel Kabri was one of the major political centers in the southern Levant, and most likely the capital of a significant polity in western Galilee during the Middle Bronze II 1 period (Yasur-Landau et al 2008, 2014). The palace of Tel Kabri, which existed from the Middle Bronze I into the Middle Bronze II, occupied an area of 4000–6000 m 2 , of which approximately 2000 m 2 have been excavated.…”
This article presents new radiocarbon evidence from the Middle Bronze Age palatial site of Tel Kabri (Israel). The final phase of the palace (Phase III) can be dated to Middle Bronze Age II, with an end date around the transition from Middle Bronze II to III or very early in Middle Bronze III. According to our14C data, the end of Tel Kabri Phase III (and thus the transition from Middle Bronze II to III) can be dated to ~1700 BC. This date is about 50–100 yr earlier than traditional chronological models for the Middle Bronze Age propose (~1650 BC according to the traditional chronology or ~1600 BC according to the low chronology).14C data from Tel Kabri thus add additional evidence for a higher Middle Bronze Age chronology for the Levant, consistent with recent14C evidence from Tell el-Dabca (Egypt), Tel Ifshar (Israel), and Tell el-Burak (Lebanon).
“…The first extensive excavations of the Middle Bronze Age palace that inter alia uncovered the first fragments of Aegean (or Aegean-style) wall paintings and a painted plaster floor were conducted between 1986 and 1993, directed by Aharon Kempinski and Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier (Kempinski 2002). Renewed excavations directed by Eric Cline and Assaf Yasur-Landau started in 2005 and were accompanied by a regional survey of western Galilee in 2006 and 2007 (Cline and Yasur-Landau 2007; Yasur-Landau et al 2008, 2012, 2014; Cline et al 2011; Goshen et al 2013; Samet 2014; Yasur-Landau and Cline 2014). Figure 1 Map of the southeastern Mediterranean region with sites mentioned in the text…”
Section: Brief Stratigraphy Of the Palace Of Kabrimentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This article presents the first results of a radiocarbon dating study of the Middle Bronze Age palatial site of Tel Kabri in the western Galilee region of modern Israel. During the Middle Bronze Age, Tel Kabri was one of the major political centers in the southern Levant, and most likely the capital of a significant polity in western Galilee during the Middle Bronze II 1 period (Yasur-Landau et al 2008, 2014). The palace of Tel Kabri, which existed from the Middle Bronze I into the Middle Bronze II, occupied an area of 4000–6000 m 2 , of which approximately 2000 m 2 have been excavated.…”
This article presents new radiocarbon evidence from the Middle Bronze Age palatial site of Tel Kabri (Israel). The final phase of the palace (Phase III) can be dated to Middle Bronze Age II, with an end date around the transition from Middle Bronze II to III or very early in Middle Bronze III. According to our14C data, the end of Tel Kabri Phase III (and thus the transition from Middle Bronze II to III) can be dated to ~1700 BC. This date is about 50–100 yr earlier than traditional chronological models for the Middle Bronze Age propose (~1650 BC according to the traditional chronology or ~1600 BC according to the low chronology).14C data from Tel Kabri thus add additional evidence for a higher Middle Bronze Age chronology for the Levant, consistent with recent14C evidence from Tell el-Dabca (Egypt), Tel Ifshar (Israel), and Tell el-Burak (Lebanon).
“…Large (>50ha), fortified settlements with administrative centres and evidence for the control of craft production and trade are widely agreed to be present across both Mesopotamia and the southern Levant during this period (e.g. [69]; [5]; [15]; [70]; [71]; [72]; [6]; [73]).…”
Section: Plos Onementioning
confidence: 99%
“…More elites typically reside in upper tier settlements. The political economy or control of resources can be identified in differences in the type and quantity of trade and craft goods, residential structures, mortuary elaboration, and many other constructs ( [26]; [5]; [44]; [84]; [78]; [73]; [40]). Differences in access to resources between these groups are not universal but can be expressed in a panoply of ways depending on each society.…”
Multiple arguments for or against the presence of 'urban' settlements in the Early Bronze Age of the southern Levant have identified the need to compare these settlements against their rural hinterlands through multiple lines of evidence. This meta-analysis of zooarchaeological data from the region compares and identifies patterns of animal production, provisioning and consumption between the supposed "urban" and rural sites of the southern Levant from the Early Bronze (EB) against the (more widely recognised urban) Middle Bronze (MB) Ages. It also identifies distinct and regionally specific patterns in animal production and consumption that can be detected between urban and rural sites of the southern Levant. The taxonomic and age profiles from EB Ia and Ib sites do not demonstrate any urban versus rural differentiation patterning, even though fortifications appear in the EB Ib. Beginning in the EB II and clearly visible in the EB III, there is differentiation between rural and urban sites in the taxonomic and age proportions. Differentiation is repeated in the MB II. The clear differentiation between "urban" and rural zooarchaeological assemblages from the EB II-III and MB suggest that rural sites are provisioning the larger fortified settlements. This pattern indicates that these sites are indeed urban in nature, and these societies are organized at the state-level. From the EB II onwards, there is a clear bias in the large centres towards the consumption of cattle and of subadult sheep and goats with a corresponding bias in smaller rural sites towards the consumption of adult sheep and goats and a reduced presence of cattle. After the emergence of this differential pattern, it disappears with the decline in social complexity at the end of the Early Bronze Age, only to come 'back again' with the re-emergence of urban settlement systems in the Middle Bronze Age.
“…During the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1900–1600 BC), the site was the center of a major Canaanite polity, with a palace covering at least 6,000 sq.m., making it the largest Middle Bronze Age palace excavated so far in Israel [1] – [3] .…”
Scholars have for generations recognized the importance of wine production, distribution, and consumption in relation to second millennium BC palatial complexes in the Mediterranean and Near East. However, direct archaeological evidence has rarely been offered, despite the prominence of ancient viticulture in administrative clay tablets, visual media, and various forms of documentation. Tartaric and syringic acids, along with evidence for resination, have been identified in ancient ceramics, but until now the archaeological contexts behind these sporadic discoveries had been uneven and vague, precluding definitive conclusions about the nature of ancient viticulture. The situation has now changed. During the 2013 excavation season of the Kabri Archaeological Project, a rare opportunity materialized when forty large storage vessels were found in situ in an enclosed room located to the west of the central courtyard within the Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palace. A comprehensive program of organic residue analysis has now revealed that all of the relatively uniform jars contain evidence for wine. Furthermore, the enclosed context inherent to a singular intact wine cellar presented an unprecedented opportunity for a scientifically intensive study, allowing for the detection of subtle differences in the ingredients or additives within similar wine jars of apparently the same vintage. Additives seem to have included honey, storax resin, terebinth resin, cedar oil, cyperus, juniper, and perhaps even mint, myrtle, or cinnamon, all or most of which are attested in the 18th century BC Mari texts from Mesopotamia and the 15th century BC Ebers Papyrus from Egypt. These additives suggest a sophisticated understanding of the botanical landscape and the pharmacopeic skills necessary to produce a complex beverage that balanced preservation, palatability, and psychoactivity. This new study has resulted in insights unachievable in the past, which contribute to a greater understanding not only of ancient viticulture but also of Canaanite palatial economy.
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