Location Map
Location Map

  • Figure 4.1 - Map of major archaeological and historical site in central and northern Israel and Jordan from Mazar et. al. (2020 v.1)
Fig. 4.1

Map of major archaeological and historical site in central and northern Israel and Jordan

Mazar et. al. (2020 v.1)

Chronology
Iron Age of the southern Levant

Mazar (2014)

Divisions of the Iron Age in Israel Table 2.1

Divisions of the Iron Age in Israel

Mazar in Levy and Higham (2014)


Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2009)

Synchronic Table of Main Iron Age Sites in Israel Table 2

Stratigraphic-ceramic horizons in northern Israel and their 14C dates; grey boxes mark synchronization with southern Israel

Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2009)



Table 3

Stratigraphic-ceramic horizons in southern Israel and their 14C dates; grey boxes mark synchronization with northern Israel

Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2009)


Synchronic Table of Main Iron Age Sites in Israel


Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2010)

Iron Age in the Levant Table 2

Dates of six ceramic phases in the Iron Age in the Levant and the transition between them according to the Bayesian model (63% agreement).

Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2010)


Bayesian model for phases and transitions in the Iron Age from Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2010)

Bayesian model for six phases and six transitions in the Iron Age Figure 5

Results of the Bayesian model for six phases and six transitions in the Iron Age

Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2010)


Synchronic Tables of Main Iron Age Sites in Israel

Mazar (2014)

Synchronic Table of Main Iron Age Sites in Israel Table 2.2

Synchronic Table of Main Iron Age Sites in Israel

Mazar in Levy and Higham (2014)


Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2009)

Synchronic Table of Main Iron Age Sites in Israel Figure 4

Synchronization of the ten destruction horizons, pottery horizons and historical events (Destruction 2, middle Iron I, Shiloh, not marked).

Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2009)


Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2010)

Synchronic Table of Main Iron Age Sites in Israel Figure 3

The Bayesian model for six phases and six transitions in the Iron Age. Destruction layers are underlined with a thick black line; historical constraints are indicated by arrows. The late Iron IIA strata were entered in the order of the four destruction horizons that we identified elsewhere

(Finkelstein & Piasetzky 2009)

Finkelstein and Piasetzky (2010)


Finkelstein’s Low Chronology

Finkelstein’s Low Chronology according to Finkelstein (2013)

Figures
Figures

  • Fig. 2 - Strata in Area H in Megiddo from Finkelstein (2013:9)

Discussion


2. Recent Advances in Archaeology

A clarification about chronology is in place here. Our knowledge of the chronology — both relative and absolute — of the Iron Age strata and monuments in the Levant has been truly revolutionized. In terms of relative chronology, intensification of the study of pottery assemblages from secure stratigraphic contexts at sites such as Megiddo and Tel Rehov in the north and Lachish in the south opened the way to establish a secure division of the Iron Age into six ceramic typology phases:
  • early and late Iron I (Arie 2006; Finkelstein and Piasetzky 2006)
  • early and late Iron IIA (Herzog and Singer-Avitz 2004, 2006; Zimhoni 2004a; A. Mazar et al. 2005; Arie 2013)
  • Iron IIB and Iron IIC (Zimhoni 2004b)
In terms of absolute chronology, intensive radiocarbon studies enable accurate dating of these phases in a resolution of fifty years and less. his can now be done free of past arguments, which were based on uncritical reading of the biblical text (e.g., Yadin 1970; Dever 1997). In this book I will be using the dates that result from two studies:

  1. A statistical model based on a large number of radiocarbon determinations: 229 results from 143 samples that came from 38 strata at 18 sites located in both the north and south of Israel (Finkelstein and Piasetzky 2010, based on Sharon et al. 2007 and other studies; Table 1 here3). The radiocarbon results from Israel are the most intensive for such a short period of time and small piece of land ever presented in the archaeology of the ancient Near East.

    Table 1

    Dates of ceramic phases in the Levant and the transition between them according to recent radiocarbon results (based on a Bayesian model, 63 percent agreement between the model and the data)

    Finkelstein (2013:7)


  2. A statistical model for a single site — Megiddo: circa 100 radiocarbon determinations from about 60 samples for 10 layers at Megiddo, which cover circa 600 years between circa 1400 and 800 B.C.E. (Tofolo et al. forthcoming; demonstration in Fig. 2). Megiddo is especially reliable for such a model because the time span in question features four major destruction layers that produced many organic samples from reliable contexts. This, too, is unprecedented: no other site has ever produced such a number of results for such a dense stratigraphic sequence. The general model (table 1) represents a conservative approach for determining the dates. It creates certain overlaps in the dates of the phases and a fairly broad range for the transition periods. When this model is adapted to historical reasoning (e.g., the end of Egyptian rule in the Late Bronze III), one gets the following dates, which will be used in this book (Finkelstein and Piasetzky 2011):
    Phase Date
    Late Bronze III twelfth century until circa 1130 B.C.E.
    Early Iron I late 12th century and 1st half of the 11th century B.C.E.
    Late Iron I 2nd half of the 11th century and 1st half of the 10th century B.C.E.
    Early Iron IIA last decades of the 10th century and the early 9th century B.C.E.
    Late Iron IIA rest of the 9th century and the early 8th century B.C.E.
    Iron IIB rest of the 8th century and the early 7th century B.C.E.

Footnotes

3. The model divides the period discussed in this book slightly differently from the six ceramic phases mentioned above. It adds the Late Bronze III, divides the Iron I into three rather than two phases, and ends with the late Iron IIA. he reason for the latter is the Hallstatt Plateau in the radiocarbon calibration curve, which prevents giving accurate dates to samples that come from Iron IIB and Iron IIC contexts.

Finkelstein’s Low Chronology according to Mazar (2014)

Finkelstein’s Low Chronology (LC)

Since 1996, Finkelstein (1995, 1996) went one step further by suggesting the wholesale lowering by 50 - 80 years of archaeological assemblages traditionally attributed to the 12th—10th centuries BC E. His first point was the date of the appearance of the local Mycenaean IIIC or ‘Philistine Monochrome’ pottery. Following Ussishkin (1985), he suggested lowering the appearance of this pottery by 50 years until after the end of the Egyptian presence in Canaan. This subject is beyond the scope of the present discussion, but it should be mentioned that several recent studies and discoveries, such as those at Ashkelon, negate this approach; in fact, none of the excavators of Philistia find this suggestion acceptable. It also creates unsolvable problems in correlating the archaeology of Philistia with that of Cyprus (Dothan and Zukerman 2003 ; Mazar 1985 and forthcoming; Sherratt and Master [Chapters 9 and 20, this volume;). 14C dates for this period are not of much help, due to the many wiggles and complicated shape of the calibration curve for the 11th and 12th centuries BCE . Consequently, Finkelstein suggested lowering the dates of late Iron Age I assemblages from the late 11th century to the 10th century BCE and the lowering of traditional 10th century BCE assemblages to the 9th century BCE. His view became known as the ‘Low Chronology’ for the Iron Age of Israel. This suggestion empties the 10th century BCE of its traditional contents. Sites and strata that were traditionally dated to the late 11th century BCE, such as Megiddo VIA, are dated to the 10th century BCE, until Shishak’s campaign (Finkelstein 1998a, 1998b, 1999b, 2002a, 2002b, 2004, and Chapters 3 and 17, this volume). In a separate study based on 14C dates from Tel Dor, Ayelet Gilboa and Ilan Sharon suggest an even lower chronology from that suggested by Finkelstein (see below).

Notes and Further Reading
References

Articles and Books

Arie, E. 2006. The Iron Age I Pottery: Levels K-5 and K-4 and an Intra-site Spatial Analysis of the Pottery from Stratum VIA. Pages 191–298 in Finkelstein, Ussishkin, and Halpern 2006.

Arie, E. 2013. The Late Bronze III and Iron I Pottery. Pages 475–667 in Megiddo V: The 2004–2008 Seasons. Edited by I. Finkelstein, D. Ussishkin, and E. H. Cline. Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology Tel Aviv University 31. Tel Aviv: Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology.

Dever, W. G. 1997. Archaeology and the “Age of Solomon”: A Case Study in Archaeology and Historiography. Pages 217–51 in The Age of Solomon: Scholarship at the Turn of the Millennium. Edited by L. K. Handy. Leiden: Brill. - can be borrowed with a free archive.org account

Finkelstein, I., and E. Piasetzky. 2006. The Iron I-IIA in the Highlands and beyond: 14C Anchors, Pottery Phases and the Shoshenq I Campaign. Levant 38:45–61.

Finkelstein, I., and E. Piasetzky. 2011. The Iron Age Chronology Debate: Is the Gap Narrowing? NEA 74:50–54.

Finkelstein, I. and Piasetzky, E. 2009. Radiocarbon-dated Destruction Layers: A Skeleton for Iron Age Chronology in the Levant. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 28: 255–274.

Finkelstein I. and Piasetzky, E. 2010. Radiocarbon Dating the Iron Age in the Levant: A Bayesian Model for Six Ceramic Phases and Six Transitions, Antiquity 84: 374–385.

Finkelstein, I. (2013) The Forgotten Kingdom: The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel, Atlanta 2013

Finkelstein, I. (2014), A Low Chronology Update in Levy, T. and T. Higham ed. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science, Taylor & Francis. - can be borrowed with a free archive.org account

Gorner, Aaron BY, (2023) Mazar's Modified Modified Chronology: The Preservation of Solomonic Possibilities, BYU Scholars Archive

Herzog, Z., and L. Singer-Avitz. 2004. Redefining the Centre: The Emergence of State in Judah. Tel Aviv 31:209–44.

Herzog, Z., and L. Singer-Avitz. 2006. Sub-dividing the Iron IIA in Northern Israel: A Suggested Solution to the Chronological Debate. Tel Aviv 33:163–95.

Levy, T. and T. Higham ed. (2014) The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science, Taylor & Francis. - can be borrowed with a free archive.org account

Mazar, A., H. J. Bruins, N. Panitz-Cohen, and J. van der Plicht. 2005. Ladder of Time at Tel Rehov: Stratigraphy, Archaeological Context, Pottery and Radiocarbon Dates. Pages 193–255 in The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. Edited by T. E. Levy and T. Higham. London: Equinox. - can be borrowed with a free archive.org account

Mazar, A. and Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. 14C Dates and the Iron Age Chronology of Israel: A Response. Radiocarbon 50: 159-180.

Mazar, A. (2011)“The Iron Age Chronology Debate: Is the Gap Narrowing? Another Viewpoint.” Near Eastern Archaeology 74, no. 2 (2011): 105–11.

Mazar, A. (2014), The Debate over Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: It's history, the current situation, and a suggested resolution in Levy, T. and T. Higham ed. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science, Taylor & Francis. - can be borrowed with a free archive.org account

Sharon, I., A. Gilboa, T. A. J. Jull, and E. Boaretto. 2007. Report on the First Stage of the Iron Age Dating Project in Israel: Supporting A Low Chronology. Radiocarbon 49:1–46.

Zimhoni, O. 2004a. The Pottery of Levels V and IV and Its Archaeological and Chronological Implications. Pages 1643–1788 in D. Ussishkin, The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973–1994). Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology Tel Aviv University 22. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, Institute of Archaeology.

Zimhoni, O. 2004b. The Pottery of Levels III and II. Pages 1789–1899 in D. Ussishkin, The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973-1994). Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology Tel Aviv University 22. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, Institute of Archaeology.



Websites

Israel Finkelstein web page