Latest news with #Miroschedji
Jordan Times
12-02-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
'Bronze Age trade links Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia, southern Europe'
A sacrificial altar at Tell Arad (Photo courtesy of ACOR) AMMAN — The Bronze Age was a period of intensive contacts in the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia and southern Europe. It rapidly developed interconnectedness between different parts of the region and Syria was one of the commercial hubs connecting Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt and Palestine. Some Early Bronze red burnished jugs found in northern Palestine present morphological features vaguely reminiscent of contemporary vessels from the Urukian colonies in northern Syria, noted French Professor Emeritus Pierre de Miroschedji from the National Centre for Scientific Research. Miroschedji added that a more significant group of EB IB vessels found in graves at Tarsus suggests the possibility of occasional contacts, probably maritime trade between Syria and Anatolia. "On the other hand, the relations with Egypt were intensive and widespread and they illustrate a completely diff rent situation since they took place in the framework of an Egyptian colonial enterprise affecting mainly the southwestern part of Palestine," the professor said. "The interaction between the two countries was a dynamic process. Following an initial phase of sporadic exchanges in the Late Chalcolithic, the relations developed during the EB I at the rhythm of the emergence of the Egyptian state," Miroschedji elaborated. Faynan in Wadi Araba was another centre of the copper production besides Cyprus, and the expansion of horticulture, the domestication of the donkey as a beast of burden, and the progress in navigation techniques created the fruitful conditions for the establishment of regular exchange relations. The EB IA saw the first evidence of Egyptian presence along the north coast of Sinai and in a small area at the south of the coastal plain in search of copper and other local products. The EB IB witnessed a considerable development of the Egyptian presence in many settlements of south-western Palestine which became a de facto Egyptian colonial territory, consequently, from where local products, mainly oil and wine, were exported to Egypt. "This interaction culminated during the Final EB IB, contemporary in Egypt with Dynasty 0 and the beginning of the First Dynasty. The Egyptian colonial domain was then administered by Egyptian officials probably residing in the Egyptian fortified settlement of Tell es-Sakan and in entrepôts like En Besor and trading outposts like Tel Erani," the professor said. The Kfar Monash hoard of copper tools and weapons is another testimony of the Egyptian presence in the coastal plain," Miroschedji underlined. Burials were often the major source of information on the EB I and several scores of tombs, isolated or grouped in cemeteries near settlements, have been excavated. In the Mediterranean zone, they consist of artificial caves accessed through a lateral shaft, Miroschedji said. He added that each tomb was used for collective burials during a long span of time, presumably by an extended family or clan, so that hundreds of skeletons were sometimes accumulated in disorder. "In most cases, especially at Jericho at the end of the period, it seems that primary burials were practised. In the semi-arid peripheries, secondary burials in tombs built above ground prevailed. They belong to several distinct traditions," Miroschedji said. Dolmenic burials exist in the Golan and its western periphery, on the Jordanian Plateau, and in the Jordan Valley while in some areas of the Negev and in southern Sinai are found built tombs in the shape of a circular (Sinai) or a square room; these nawamis and their variants are part of a funerary tradition typical of the southern deserts that can be traced to Oman through the Arabian Peninsula from the EB I onward, Miroschedji underlined. "Indirect evidence attesting to the importance of funerary rituals is provided by the appearance during the EB I of cultic vessels, sometimes found in tombs. The same vessels might have been used in public rituals. There is evidence of temples within a settlement at Hartuv, and especially at Megiddo." Presumably these temples were dedicated to a fertility goddess, as in the Chalcolithic and the EB II–III periods," the professor concluded.
Jordan Times
09-02-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
Delving into Early Bronze I: Societal shifts in Southern Levant
AMMAN — According to radiocarbon calibrated dates, the Early Bronze I (EB 1) lasted almost six centuries, between c. 3,700 and c. 3,100 BC. Some societal changes took place during that period which shaped societies after six hundred years. 'Archaeologists, therefore, differentiate between an early phase [EB IA}, c. 3,700–3,400 C, a late phase [EB IB], c. 3,400– 3,200 BC, and a terminal phase [Final EB IB], c. 3,200–3,100/3,000 BC, which is transitional with the following EB II period,' the professor Pierre de Miroschedji from National Centre for Scientific Research said, adding that the modalities of the transition between the Late Chalcolithic and EB I are still poorly understood. 'In the coastal plain of southern Levant, there are indications of a smooth transition. Everywhere else, the beginning of a new period is felt rather abruptly in subsistence modes, pattern of settlement, material culture, foreign relations, funerary practices, and cult,' Miroschedji elaborated, adding that at the beginning of the new civilisation, a new subsistence economy emerged during the fourth millennium, which characterised the Mediterranean zone from this time onward . 'It is a mixed agro-pastoral economy based on agriculture [cereals and leguminous], horticulture [olive and vine], and animal husbandry [cattle, sheep and goats—pig whenever possible—and donkey domesticated in the EB I]. The significant rise of a sedentary population in the Early Bronze Age suggests that both the surface of arable lands and productivity increased, a consequence of the development of floodwater farming and the introduction of the plough, possibly in the EB I,' Miroschedji underlined. The development of horticulture represents the most important agricultural innovation since the Neolithic, which had a considerable impact on economic and social organisation. Miroschedji explained that the advent of a new subsistence economy was soon translated onto the settlement map. The first striking feature is the settlement hiatus: Most of the Late Chalcolithic settlements were abandoned and a number of the EB I settlements are newly founded, a movement which implies a strong sedentarisation process. 'In addition the sharp increase in the number of sites is remarkable, suggesting a significant demographic rise, at least for the sedentary segment of the population. Another conspicuous change concerns the spatial distribution of sites: Previously almost empty, the hilly areas and the central highlands witnessed the foundation of numerous small settlements, some of which became major cities in the Bronze and Iron Ages,' Miroschedji underlined. 'At the same time, scores of small settlements inhabited by transhumant pastoralists appeared in the semi-arid southern margins of the Negev. The process of sedentarisation, however, was not uniform. In some areas, such as the central Shephelah region, two phases can be identified: the first marked by the founding of new settlements, the second by the abandonment of some and the grouping of their inhabitants into a few larger sites, one of which became a regional centre in the following period,' Miroschedji highlighted. Elsewhere the focal point of future settlement seems to have been a cemetery established initially at the centre of the territory inhabited by people still broadly semi-nomadic. These EB IA–B settlements were all villages. They rarely exceeded an area of 5 ha, although some were very large, sometimes larger than the EB II–III cities that succeeded them but excavations suggest that they were sparsely built, with dwellings disorderly distributed and separated by open spaces. 'These dwellings were mostly of the courtyard type [a broad room preceded by a courtyard], attested in the southern Levant since the Late Neolithic. Another kind of dwelling, considered a hallmark of the EB IA, is represented by oval or elongated houses with apses at both ends. These are found on a dozen of settlements along the coast, as well as in Lebanon,' Miroschedji said, noting that some EB IB settlements also enclosed multi-roomed buildings used for storage, cultic activities, and various other purposes.
