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1. BAYESIAN MODELING OF A PERIPHERAL MIDDLE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT AT ZAHRAT ADH-DHRA‘ 1, JORDAN

   https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2023.99  

   Fall, Patricia L; Ridder, Elizabeth; Pilaar Birch, Suzanne E; Falconer, Steven E (October 2023, Radiocarbon)

   ABSTRACT Analysis of 20 calibrated accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS¹⁴C) ages reveals a chronology for the habitation of a unique peripheral settlement at Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1 (ZAD 1), Jordan during the Middle Bronze Age of the Southern Levant. Bayesian modeling distinguishes three phases of occupation between the first settlement at ZAD 1, perhaps as early as about 2050 cal BCE, and its abandonment by 1700 cal BCE. ZAD 1 represents a marginal community, both environmentally and culturally, on the hyperarid Dead Sea Plain, and exemplifies the peripheral settlements that are envisioned as important elements of Bronze Age Levantine society. Most importantly for this study, it is the only peripheral site in the Southern Levant that provides a Bayesian model for its habitation during the growth of Middle Bronze Age urbanized society. The timing of ZAD 1’s constituent phases, early in Middle Bronze I, across the Middle Bronze I/II transition and in Middle Bronze II, correspond well with emerging chronologies for the Middle Bronze Age, thereby contributing to an ongoing reassessment of regional social and settlement dynamics. 

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2. NEW AMS CHRONOLOGY FOR THE EARLY BRONZE III/IV TRANSITION AT KHIRBAT ISKANDAR, JORDAN

   https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2022.22  

   Fall, Patricia L; Richard, Suzanne; Pilaar Birch, Suzanne E; Ridder, Elizabeth; D’Andrea, Marta; Long, Jesse C; Hedges-Knyrim, Geoffrey; Porson, Steven; Metzger, Mary; Falconer, Steven E (April 2022, Radiocarbon)

   ABSTRACT We present the first Bayesian 14 C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representing continuous occupation across the Early Bronze III/IV interface in the Southern Levant. This new high-precision modeling incorporates 12 calibrated AMS ages from Khirbat Iskandar Area C using OxCal 4.4.4 and the IntCal 20 calibration curve to specify the EB III/IV transition at or slightly before 2500 cal BCE. Our results contribute to the continuing emergence of a high chronology for the Levantine Early Bronze Age, which shifts the end of EB III 200–300 years earlier than the traditional time frame and increases the length of EB IV to about 500 years. Data from Khirbat Iskandar also help direct greater attention to the importance of sedentary communities through EB IV, in contrast to the traditional emphasis on non-sedentary pastoral encampments and cemeteries. Modeling of AMS data from Khirbat Iskandar bolsters the ongoing revision of Early Bronze Age Levantine chronology and its growing interpretive independence from Egyptian history and contributes particularly to re-examination of the EB III/IV nexus in the Southern Levant. 

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3. New Bayesian radiocarbon models for Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan.

   https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2020.104  

   Fall, P.L.; Falconer, S.E; Höflmayer, F. (February 2021, Radiocarbon)

   Jull, A.J.T. (Ed.)

   ABSTRACT. We present two new Bayesian 14C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated AMS ages for Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, located in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan. These freshly augmented suites of carbonized seed dates now include 25 AMS dates from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and 31 AMS dates from Tell el-Hayyat. The modeled founding date for Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj strengthens an emerging high chronology for Early Bronze IV starting by 2500 cal BC, while the end of its habitation by 2200 cal BC may exemplify a regional pattern of increasingly pervasive abandonment among late Early Bronze IV settlements in the Southern Levant. In turn, our modeled date for the Early Bronze IV/Middle Bronze Age transition at Tell el-Hayyat around 1900 cal BC pushes this interface about a century later than surmised traditionally, and its abandonment in Middle Bronze III marks an unexpectedly early end date before 1600 cal BC. These inferences, which coordinate Bayesian AMS models and typological ceramic sequences for Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Tell el-Hayyat, contribute to an ongoing revision of Early and Middle Bronze Age Levantine chronologies and uncoupling of their attendant interpretive links between the Southern Levant and Egypt. 

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4. Domestic herbivore mobility and herd management at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-025-02226-2  

   Pilaar_Birch, Suzanne E; Metzger, Mary; Ridder, Elizabeth; Falconer, Steven E; Fall, Patricia L (May 2025, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences)

   Abstract This study presents stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ¹³C) and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) from goat, sheep, and cattle teeth excavated from the Bronze Age village of Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. The δ¹⁸O of local water sources and converted δ¹⁸O_{drinking water}values are used to demonstrate the dietary inputs for goats as compared to those for sheep and cattle. We infer the browsing and grazing behavior of these taxa to reflect different herd management strategies implemented by agropastoral villages during the development of pre-urban Bronze Age society. The δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values suggest higher mobility and a more diverse diet for goats in contrast to more constrained ranges and dietary supplementation for sheep and cattle. These conclusions augment our interpretations of animal management at Politiko-Troulliabased on previous osteological and isotopic analysis of faunal remains from the site. We contextualize our findings with those of closely comparable faunal and isotopic studies of herd management at contemporaneous Bronze Age settlements. 

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5. Scale of time-averaging in archaeological shell middens from the Canary Islands

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683619883020  

   Parker, Wesley_G; Yanes, Yurena; Mesa_Hernández, Eduardo; Hernández_Marrero, Juan_Carlos; Pais, Jorge; Surge, Donna (November 2019, The Holocene)

   Characterizing the degree of disturbance in archaeological deposits is critically important for archaeologists assessing foraging strategies, environmental conditions, or behavior patterns of ancient human groups. Qualitative techniques (e.g. micromorphology analysis) have previously been applied to assess the degree of disturbance (age-mixing) in archaeological sites; however, quantitative dating of material in the sites provides a more robust assessment of potential age-mixing. Unfortunately, because of budget constraints, archaeologists are frequently forced to rely on few quantitative age dates for an assemblage, thus obfuscating the signal of age-mixing of the deposit. The development of an affordable and rapid carbonate-target accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dating method provides a cost-effective way to retrieve more quantitative dates from carbonate material in archaeological assemblages to assess the degree of age-mixing in the deposit. This study tests this new technique and dates numerous harvested marine limpet shells from archaeological sites in the Canary Islands to determine whether there is multidecadal to multicentennial age-mixing. A total of 58 shells retrieved from six sites and three islands yielded uncalibrated radiocarbon ages ranging from 2265 ± 40 to 765 ± 35 BP, coinciding with the time of prehistoric human occupation in these islands. While most shells from the same stratum showed statistically equivalent ages, in some cases we detected age ranges that exceeded the imprecisions from analytical errors. This investigation is one of the first to quantitatively illustrate that shells retrieved from depth intervals without evident stratigraphic disturbance do not always contain contemporaneous remains and, therefore, dating each specimen is valuable for developing further paleoclimatic and paleoanthropological inferences. This study presents the first report of carbonate-target¹⁴C ages from archaeological shell middens, and suggests that this novel radiocarbon methodology can be applied to these sites, thus allowing the generation of a more comprehensive chronology. 

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