Correlation between isotopes in Soreq Cave stalagmites, Dead Sea levels as found in salt caves, Mediterranean levels and the Lake Van humidity curve, related to paleo-climates and historical periods in the Near East. The Holy of Holies of the Israeli temple in the fortress of Arad (Photo A.S. Issar).
List of Abbreviations
Zak, “The Holocene Climatic Record of the Salt Caves of Mount Sedom, Israel”, The Holocene1, nr. Galili, “Recent Maritime Archaeological Research in Israel – A Preliminary Report”, The International Journal of Nautical Arkeology and Underwater Exploration14, nr.
Introduction
As far as archaeological research is concerned, classical archaeology, as a branch of history and linguistics, belongs to the humanities. On the other hand, most of the paleo-time series proxy data are based on studies in the physical (mainly environmental isotopes), geological (mainly sedimentological) and life sciences (mainly pollen and dendro-chronology).
Acknowledgements
The Pendulum of Paradigms
Summarizing their findings in The Wilderness of Zin3, both contradict Huntington's conclusions about the abandonment of cities in this region. Weiss presented his opinion that the decline of the Late Bronze Age civilization in the Middle East was due to climate change.
Constructing the Jigsaw Puzzle of Palaeo-Climates
The Climatological and Historical Background (Table 1)
It is this sinking and sinking of the salty water that keeps the Gulf Stream circulation moving. On the other hand, Issar's studies have shown that global warming causes warming and drying of the Mediterranean area.
Time Series of Proxy-Data to Decipher Climates of the Past
All the carbon in plants comes from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The water of Issar will flow from the rock - Hydrogeology and climate in the lands of the Bible.
The Near East: A Bridge from the Garden of Eden to the Fields of Toil
In Jordan, Quaternary lake and marsh deposits have been observed and mapped in the El Jafr Depression and Faynan area in southern Jordan, in the El Azraq Basin in eastern Jordan, and in Wadi Hisma along the southern edge of the Jordan Plateau. Montague “Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Environment and Subsistence in the Azraq Basin” Paleorient.
A Epi Palaeolithic
Bartov, Geology of the Lisan Formation in the Massada Plain and the Lisan Peninsula, mag. Geyh, "Paleohydrology of the Eastern Mediterranean" in: Late Quaternary Chronology and Paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean, ed. Additional similar sites were found in the central part of Galilee, often far from a permanent water source or marsh.
Garrod, “The Natufian culture: the life and economy of a Mesolithic people in the Near East” in: Proceedings of the British Academy.
The Establishment of Agricultural Villages – The Pre Pottery Neolithic – (6000–8000 B.C.E.)
The PPNA culture in Jericho came to an abrupt end sometime in the first quarter of the eighth millennium BC. Horowitz studied the pollen spectrum in the sediments of PPNB Sde Divshona in the Negev. The Middle Eastern climate pattern extends eastward to the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian Plateau.
Bar Yosef, “The Land of Israel During the Neolithic Period” in: The History of the Land of Israel, vol.
The Great Transition –
From Farming Villages to Urban Centers
Earthenware soon assumed a central importance in society, and eating and drinking habits became distinct cultural elements, often with ceremonial and spiritual connotations. Some of the oldest isolated evidence of pottery still within a Mesolithic/Epi-Paleolithic context is found in central and western Africa and the Far East.2 There is evidence of similar early attempts to produce vessels in the Near East, such as EG White Ware” on the Syrian coast – a limestone ware made of finely crushed limestone that adheres like cement without firing. However, the gradual appearance of baked clay pottery in the Near East had a wider effect on technology.
Unlike locally important but isolated innovations or cultural events in other parts of the world, the effects of developments in the Near East were felt throughout the Old World, as the area was a crossroads connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.
The Progress of Climate
Fluctuations in the composition of the oxygen isotopes indicate variations in the annual average rainfall. Most of the pottery Neolithic sites in Israel are in the Jordan Valley and the coastal plain. The Pottery Neolithic B period ended in the middle of the fifth millennium B.C.E. and was followed by the Chalcolithic period.
The earliest agricultural communities are found in the Fayum Depression, west of the Nile Valley.
From Copper to Bronze – The Beginning of the Early Bronze Age
Braun, "The Problem of the 'Apsidal' House and Some Notes on Early Bronze I Architecture in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon" Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 3100 to 2900 BCE, is a transition to the "Early Dynastic Period" of Mesopotamia and the urban Early Bronze Age in other parts of the Near East. The arrival of pastoral nomads was an important turning point in the history of our region.
Zohar, “Pastoralism and the Spread of Semitic Languages” in: The Levant: Archaeological Materials in Anthropological Perspectives, Monographs in the Old World.
The Urban Revolution and the Dawn of History
The First Cities and a New Order (Table 3)
We have already seen its inherent aggressiveness as an important element of Mesopotamian urban culture in the 'Ubaid period, a trait that initiated the spread of civilized societies and would be bequeathed to all its descendants. These and several other explanations for the origins of cities have been extensively advanced and discussed in literature ranging from the monumental work of L.
The Climate Background – When Cities Drowned and the Desert Bloomed
With these climate change data as a background, we will present an overview of the archaeological evidence of the first half of the third millennium BC, starting from Syria-Palestine, followed by Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The Early Bronze Age in the Levant and Anatolia
The economy of the early bronze settlements in the Negev was based on agriculture, pastoralism and hunting. 13. Canaanite' is a term applied to the Semitic speaking population of the Middle/Late Bronze and Iron Ages and is inappropriate for the Early Bronze Age, third millennium BC. Unlike other parts of the ancient Near East, but similar to the preceding Early Bronze Age I, there are very few reports of performance art from this period in the Levant.
Arad was already abandoned by the beginning of the Early Bronze Age III and, like other sites in the southern Levant, shows no evidence of destruction or other catastrophic disasters.
The Great Civilizations
Evidence for this emerges from the paleolevels of the Dead Sea and the Tigris-Euphrates. The benefit of the rivers to the people living in the plain varies depending on the nature of the rivers. On the importance of the date palm for the economy of certain regions in the Near East, see chapter.
In the center of the southern plain, another mound forms the ancient state of Lagash.
Dark Age, Renaissance, and Decay
Part of this migration pattern was also recorded by the Egyptians, who mention a host of warring people, some coming from the west, but most from the east and, especially, from the northern parts of the Fertile Crescent. Here, like their Amorite counterparts in Mesopotamia, they eventually managed to become rulers in some parts of the country, without however being integrated into the local population. The inhabitants of the new Middle Bronze Age cities of Canaan began to develop their first underground water systems to irrigate the land and withstand siege in their fortified cities (see Appendix I).
Eventually the climate improved and a wetter climate followed after the Late Bronze and during the early Iron Age.
The Crisis Years – The Climate Evidence
Soon thereafter the climate changed to better facilitate the cultural and material renaissance of the Middle Bronze Age. This phenomenon of significant fluctuations during the last centuries of the third quarter to the first quarter of the second millennium B.C. Later studies, already mentioned, showed that the ancient levels of the Dead Sea, which reached a peak during the Early Bronze Age, fell at the end of this period.
Richard, "Towards a Consensus on the End of the Early Bronze Age in Palestine-Trans-Jordan" BASOR.
The Archaeological and Historical Evidence About the Intermediate Bronze Age
The proliferation of cemeteries is a sign of the growing importance of a mobile lifestyle and changes in the social order. Their traditional stronghold was in the mountainous region of the Basar Mountains, known to the Sumerians as the. This can be learned from the archives of the Larsa Irrigation Bureau, written in.
In the foundation inscription of the temple he erected to the sun god Shamash, he also boasts of a campaign he had led.
The ‘Winning of the South’ – the Migration Southward
Shamsi-Adad was an old antagonist of Yahdun-Lim, a descendant of another Amorite dynasty, who settled in the city on the banks of the Tigris. The Beginning of the Middle Bronze Age in Syria-Palestine” in: Magnalia Dei: The Mighty Acts of Gods. Despite the fact that many Hurrians and Indo-Europeans arrived in the Levant during this period, a Western Semitic dialect related to Amorite became dominant.
Was Anitta a resident of the palace that was burned down, or was he the attacker.
The Crisis Years in Egypt
The term Canaanites appeared in the Late Bronze Age to denote the people of the Levant. This cloth, dyed purple with the juice of the murex shell, was traded throughout the Mediterranean world. Between them and the invading Sea Peoples in the early 12th century B.C.
Ramses II's descriptions of the battle at Kadesh mention the enrollment of a multitude of young men participating in the fray.
Migrations and Settlings
The End of the Age of Bronze and the Beginning of a New World (Table 4)
One of the main migration routes was the Balkan Peninsula, where the Mycenaean culture had disintegrated. Homer's Iliad in the saga of the 'Battle of Troy' immortalized the memory of many battles fought during this period. The Egyptians are said to have fought them back and settled some tribes in Egypt, while others were sent under Egyptian rule to settle on the southern banks of the Levant.
Focus on the impact of climate on the events of the late second millennium B.C.
Focussing on the Impact of Climate on the Events at the End of the Second Millennium B.C.E
The impact of these climate changes on the natural environments of the Near East can be easily understood. First, the hot and dry periods of the Late Bronze Age in the middle of the second millennium B.C. Later, during the cold and humid period, which became more extreme towards the end of the second millennium BC, i.e.
Woldring, “Anthropogenic Indicators in the Pollen Record of the Eastern Mediterranean” in: The Human Role in the Shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape.
The Wave Pattern of Migrations and the “Sea Peoples”
Malamat, “The Egyptian Decline of Canaan and the Sea Peoples” in: The World History of the Jewish People, vol. An unresolved issue concerns the coasts of the Levant in the area known as Phoenicia. The settlement of the 'Sea Peoples' in Canaan was probably a propaganda ploy for internal consumption to turn defeat into victory.
The chain of events began with the attack of the 'Sea People' who had destroyed Cilicia.
A Glance at Ugarit
The urgency and despair of the sudden disaster is evident in the letters "from the furnace" found in a courtyard of the so-called little palace:41. Does not my father know that all the soldiers of the lord my father are in the land of Hatti, and that all my ships are in the land of Lukka. Now seven ships of the enemy arrived and they did terrible things to us.
If there are more ships of the enemy please send me information so I can know.
