6 research outputs found
Tel Mashav: The Eyes of Tel Hazor
Tell Hazor è uno dei siti maggiormente indagati nel Levante
meridionale. Ă stato un grande centro urbano del
secondo e primo millennio a.C., in grado di controllare
la Galilea settentrionale (e probabilmente anche le Alture
del Golan) â le vie di contatto e il territorio circostante.
Ciò è stato dedotto non solo in base alle dimensioni
del sito e ai ritrovamenti effettuati durante le molteplici
campagne scavo, ma anche grazie alle diverse menzioni di
Hazor presenti in svariati testi scritti del Vicino Oriente
Antico. Tuttavia, nonostante lâincredibile quantitĂ di informazioni
a disposizione sulla cittĂ di Hazor durante le
età del Bronzo e del Ferro, il suo territorio circostante è
ancora poco noto. Uno dei siti di maggior interesse nelle
immediate vicinanze è Tel Mashav, situato a circa 3 km a
ovest di Hazor. Tell Mashav era con ogni probabilitĂ una
fortezza posta a controllo dellâitinerario che collegava la
regione con lâarea occidentale; al tempo stesso fungeva
da protezione per Hazor stessa, avvisando gli abitanti di
eventuali pericoli imminenti. La posizione chiave di Tel
Mashav, collocato su unâaltura dominante Hazor, le vie
di contatto con i territori circostanti e infine unâestesa
porzione della vicina Valle di Halula, permette di interpretare
il sito come una fortezza con funzioni strategiche
paragonabili a siti fortificati di epoche successive. Questo
lavoro dimostrerĂ che fortezze simili sono sempre state
costruite in funzione di grandi centri urbani, ma che Tel
Mashav potrebbe anche essere visto come parte integrante
dellâintero sistema di fortificazioni di Hazor.Tel Hazor is one of the most extensively excavated sites in
the southern Levant. It was a large urban center in the
second and first millennia BCE, which controlled the upper
Galillee (and probably also the Golan Heights) â its roads
and hinterland. This conclusion is known not only from the
size of the site and the finds exposed during the many years
of excavations, but also from documents found throughout
the Ancient Near East.
However, though we have acquired an immense amount of
knowledge on the daily life in the city of Hazor in the Bronze
and Iron Ages, we have hardly any data on its surrounding
and environs. One of the conspicuous sites in Hazorâs
vicinity is Tel Mashav, located about 3 km to the west of
Tel Hazor. This site was a fortress inhabited in the Bronze
and Iron Ages. This paper will explore the connectivity and
dialogue between the two sites. It will be argued that Tel
Mashav is a fortress controlling the road leading to the west,
protecting Hazorâs inhabitants and warning them in times
of danger. The strategic location of Tel Mashav, overlooking
extensive areas of the Hula Valley and the approaching
roads, as well as its position above Tel Hazor, allow us to
suggest that this was a fortress with strategic qualities which
are shared by fortresses built in later times. It will be shown
that similar fortresses have always been built in relation
to large sites but that the fortress at Tel Mashav could be
viewed as part of Hazorâs fortification system
Synchronizing Geomagnetic Field Intensity Records in the Levant Between the 23rd and 15th Centuries BCE: Chronological and Methodological Implications
Abstract Archeomagnetic records are an important source of information on the past behavior of the geomagnetic field. Frequently, however, coeval archeomagnetic intensity (archeointensity) datasets from nearby locations display significant discrepancies, hampering precise reconstruction of highâresolution secular variation curve. This is the case for the time interval between the later phase of the Early Bronze and the early phase of the Late Bronze Ages (23rdâ15th centuries BCE) in the Levant and Mesopotamia. We address the problem by crossâcorrelating archeointensity datasets from four major multilayered archeological sites in the southern Levant (Hazor and Megiddo), northern Levant (Ebla), and western Upper Mesopotamia (Mari). We report new archeointensity data, obtained using the ThellierâIZZIâMagIC and the Triaxe methods, from six strata at Hazor and four radiocarbonâdated strata at Megiddo. From 39 pottery fragments, 199 specimens passed our selection criteria, from which we calculated the mean archeointensity for each stratum. To strengthen the comparison of these data with previously published data from Mari and Ebla, obtained using the Triaxe method, we conducted a blind test of the methods that resulted in indistinguishable results or a difference of less than 1Â ÎźT. The synchronized compilation, constrained by radiocarbon data from Megiddo, displays a Vâshaped pattern with a prominent minimum of at least 200Â years centered around the 18th century BCE. The study highlights the importance of stacking archeomagnetic data obtained by different archeointensity methods only after crossâtesting the methods and ensuring that archeological samples were dated in a consistent manner
The genomic history of the Bronze Age Southern Levant
We report genome-wide DNA data for 73 individuals from five archaeological sites across the Bronze and Iron Ages Southern Levant. These individuals, who share the âCanaaniteâ material culture, can be modeled as descending from two sources: (1) earlier local Neolithic populations and (2) populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros or the Bronze Age Caucasus. The non-local contribution increased over time, as evinced by three outliers who can be modeled as descendants of recent migrants. We show evidence that different âCanaaniteâ groups genetically resemble each other more than other populations. We find that Levant-related modern populations typically have substantial ancestry coming from populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros and the Bronze Age Southern Levant. These groups also harbor ancestry from sources we cannot fully model with the available data, highlighting the critical role of post-Bronze-Age migrations into the region over the past 3,000 years