Dafna Langgut

Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Southern Levant

Abstract A core drilled from the Sea of Galilee was subjected to high resolution pollen analysis for the Bronze and Iron Ages. The detailed pollen diagram (sample/~40 yrs) was used to reconstruct past climate changes and human impact on the vegetation of the Mediterranean zone of the southern Levant. The chronological framework is based on radiocarbon dating of short-lived terrestrial organic material. The results indicate that the driest event throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages occurred ~1250–1100 BCE—at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This arid phase was identified based on a significant decrease in Mediterranean tree values, denoting a reduction in precipitation and the shrinkage of the Mediterranean forest/maquis. The Late Bronze dry event was followed by dramatic recovery in the Iron I, evident in the increased percentages of both Mediterranean trees and cultivated olive trees. Archaeology indicates that the crisis in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age took place during the same period—from the mid- 13th century to ca. 1100 BCE. In the Levant the crisis years are represented by destruction of a large number of urban centres, shrinkage of other major sites, hoarding activities and changes in settlement patterns. Textual evidence from several places in the Ancient Near East attests to drought and famine starting in the mid-13th and continuing until the second half of the 12th century. All this helps to better understand the ‘Crisis Years’ in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the quick settlement recovery in the Iron I, especially in the highlands of the Levant.

Fossil Pollen Reveals the Secrets of the Royal Persian Garden at Ramat Rahel, Jerusalem

The ancient tell (mound) of Ramat Rahel sits on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It features an impressive residency and palatial garden that flourished during the seventh to fourth centuries BCE, when biblical Judah was under the hegemony of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian empires. Until recently, the gardens flora has been a mystery, as standard archaeological procedures were unable to retrieve secure archaeobotanical remains. A unique method of extracting fossil pollen from ancient plaster has now enabled researchers to reconstruct the exact vegetation components of this royal Persian garden and for the first time to shed light on the cultural world of the inhabitants of the residence. The plaster layers and garden are dated archaeologically and by Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) methods to the Persian period (fifth to fourth centuries BCE), and produced evidence of importation by the ruling Persian authorities of special and highly valued trees to the garden from remote parts of the empire. The most surprising find, and marking its earliest appearance in the southern Levant, was the citron (Citrus medico), which later acquired a symbolic-religious role in Judaism. Other imported trees found to have been grown in the garden are the cedar, birch and Persian walnut. The pollen evidence of these exotic trees in the Ramat Rahel palatial garden suggests that they were probably brought to flaunt the power of the imperial Persian administration. Native fruit trees and ornamentals that were also grown there include the fig, grape, olive, willow, poplar, myrtle and water lily. The identification of the ancient gardens plant life opens a course for future research into the symbolic role of flora in palatial gardens. It also offers new opportunities for studying the mechanism by which native flora was adopted in a particular geographical area and proliferated by humans across the world.

Dry Climate in the Middle Bronze I and Its Impact on Settlement Patterns in the Levant and Beyond: New Pollen Evidence*

* We are grateful to Tony Wilkinson and Glenn Schwartz for reading this manuscript and commenting on the archaeology and environmental history of northern Mesopotamia. Needless to say, responsibility for the ideas expressed in this article rests only with us. This study was funded by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 229418. We wish to thank F. Neumann from the University of Münster and M. Pollak, S. Salem, Y. Gottlieb, I. Ben-Ezra, and S. Ben-Dor Evian of Tel Aviv University for their help in the field and laboratory, and to M. Stein of the Israel Geological Survey and T. Litt and his team from the Bonn Palynological Laboratory as our partners in the Sea of Galilee drilling operation. 1 D. Langgut, I. Finkelstein, and T. Litt, “Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Southern Levant,” Tel Aviv 40: 149–75; D. Langgut et al., “Dead Sea Pollen Record and History of Human Activity in the Judean Highlands (Israel) from the Intermediate Bronze into the Iron Ages (~2500–500 Bce),” Palynology 38 (2014): 1–23, respectively; for pollen identification, a reference collection of Israeli pollen flora was used (Steinhardt lution of dense 40-year time intervals between one pollen sample and another2 and deployed a robust radiocarbon dating scheme. This enabled, for the first time, a detailed reconstruction of climate conditions in historical periods, including the identification of short-term events that can be missed in low resolution pollen studies. The Sea of Galilee and Zeʾelim (Dead Sea) records corroborate each other and hence strengthen the reliability of the results. Tracing these climate fluctuations is based on the identification of shifts in vegetation frequencies: high arboreal pollen percentages of the members of the Mediterranean forest/maquis3 represent humid climate conditions,

Climate, settlement patterns and olive horticulture in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze and Intermediate Bronze Ages (c. 3600–1950 BC)

We report results of palynological investigation of a core of sediments extracted from the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. The core was sampled at high resolution for both palynological analysis (a sample was taken c. every 40 years) and radiocarbon dating. The article focuses on the Early Bronze and Intermediate Bronze Ages, c. 3600–1950 BC. The results enable reconstruction of the vegetation and thus climate in the lakes fluvial and alluvial catchment, which includes large parts of northern Israel and Lebanon and south-western Syria. The study sheds light on topics such as changes in olive cultivation through time and regions, processes of urbanization and collapse and settlement expansion and retraction in the arid zones.

The Impact of Olive Orchard Abandonment and Rehabilitation on Pollen Signature: An Experimental Approach to Evaluating Fossil Pollen Data

Abstract For millennia the olive was an important cultivated tree in the southern Levant, as evidenced by numerous archaeological finds and Holocene pollen assemblages. However, the impact of abandonment and rehabilitation of olive orchards (a recurrent historical process) on the fossil pollen record has not been studied. We documented quantitative differences in the olive pollen signature in a well-managed traditional olive orchard, an abandoned orchard, and an orchard rehabilitated after decades of abandonment, establishing the biological basis for understanding the olive pollen signature. The results indicate a strong decline in flowering and pollen production for decades following the cessation of cultivation and a rapid increase following rehabilitation. This strong response suggests that the fossil pollen curves are a reliable marker for determining the extent of olive oil production in ancient times. In terms of agricultural/economic efficiency, rehabilitation of an orchard takes much less time than establishing a new orchard. This could have been one of the reasons why the same sites were reoccupied during peaks of settlement activity in antiquity. The recent field results are compared to fossil pollen data from the Sea of Galilee during the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Studies in botanical archeology, ethno-botany and plant domestication: honoring Professor Daniel Zohary

Professor Dani Zohary with “his beloved artichokes.” With his friend and partner Jehuda Basnizki, Dani Zohary developed seed propagation of the traditionally vegetatively propagated globe artichoke...

Late Pleistocene palynological sequence from Ohalo II, Sea of Galilee, Israel

A new high-resolution palynological record from the Sea of Galilee (Israel), roughly spanning the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) obtained from a trench dug in the vicinity of the well-dated prehistoric site of Ohalo II (23–24 ka cal. BP) — combined with detailed litho-stratigraphic and magnetic susceptibility analyses — provides evidence of vegetation, lake levels and climate change in the northern Jordan Valley. The sequence begins with laminated marls of the last Lake Lisan high stand and ends with the near-shore deposits containing the prehistoric site. Palynologically, the early phase of the high stand (pollen zone 1) is characterised by high-AP (mainly Quercus ithaburensis), reflecting a relatively humid climate. During its later part (zone 2), the increase in Artemisia indicates a regional drying. Several fluctuations in lake levels and humidity are recorded (pollen zones 3–4) prior to human occupation at the prehistoric camp, during a renewed humid climate (pollen zone 5); in its early phase Quercus calliprinos spread again in the mountainous areas around the lake, while the maquis of the later phase was typified by the deciduous Q. ithaburensis. The fact that a variety of data sets were retrieved from the very same section renders their correlation and combined environmental interpretation reliable and unique for this time period in the southern Levant. The reconstructed palaeoenvironmental picture indicates a rather mild LGM in the northern Jordan Rift. Although there are 17 14C and U-Th dates from the studied section, dating inconsistencies prevent direct correlations between the observed regional fluctuations and global events.

The Earliest Lead Object in the Levant

In the deepest section of a large complex cave in the northern Negev desert, Israel, a bi-conical lead object was found logged onto a wooden shaft. Associated material remains and radiocarbon dating of the shaft place the object within the Late Chalcolithic period, at the late 5th millennium BCE. Based on chemical and lead isotope analysis, we show that this unique object was made of almost pure metallic lead, likely smelted from lead ores originating in the Taurus range in Anatolia. Either the finished object, or the raw material, was brought to the southern Levant, adding another major component to the already-rich Late Chalcolithic metallurgical corpus known to-date. The paper also discusses possible uses of the object, suggesting that it may have been used as a spindle whorl, at least towards its deposition.

Reconstructing Ancient Israel: Integrating Macro- and Micro-archaeology

The study of ancient Israel’s texts and history has been a keystone of European scholarship since the Enlightenment. From the beginning of the 19th century, biblical exegesis contributed impressively to our understanding of these topics. Biblical archaeology joined in about a century later and provided critical evidence for the material culture of ancient Israel, shedding new light on its history. Yet, until recent years (and in certain circles up until today) biblical archaeology was dominated by a conservative interpretation of the texts and was not given a true independent role in recon-

The Earliest near Eastern Wooden Spinning Implements

Abstract A unique set of circumstances has preserved a group of rare wooden artefacts deep within burial caves in the southern Levant. Identified as spindles and distaffs, they are fashioned from tamarisk wood and date to the Late Chalcolithic period. Analysis suggests that these implements were used to spin flax fibres, and they provide the earliest evidence for two distinct spinning techniques, drop spinning and supported spinning (with rolling on the thigh). One wooden spindle with the whorl still in place is the oldest such tool to survive intact in the Near East. The lead forming the whorl may have originated in Anatolia, and it is evidence, perhaps, of early long-distance trade.