Contrasts, Contacts, and Interconnections — Tel Kinrot as an Early Iron Age Key Site in the Northern Jordan Rift Valley at the Dawn of the 1st Millennium BCE

Ancient Kinneret (Tēl Kinrōt [Hebrew]; Tell el-ʿOrēme [Arabic]) is located on a steep limestone hill on the northwestern shores of the Sea of Galilee (2508.7529 [NIG]). The site, whose settlement history began sometime during the Pottery-Neolithic or the early Chalcolithic period, is emerging as one of the major sites for the study of urban life in the Southern Levant during the Early Iron Age (c. 1130–950 BCE). Its size, accessibility by major trade routes, and strategic location between different spheres of cultural and political influence make Tēl Kinrōt an ideal place for studying the interaction of various cultures on urban sites, as well as to approach questions of ethnicity and regionalism during one of the most debated periods in the history of the ancient Levant. The paper will briefly discuss the settlement history of the site during the Early Iron Age. However, the main focus will lie on the material culture of the late Iron Age IB city that rapidly evolved to a regional center during the transition from the 11th to the 10th century BCE. During this period, ancient Kinneret features a multitude of cultural influences that reach from Egypt via the Central Hill Country until the Northern parts of Syria and the Amuq region. While there are indisputably close ties with the ‘Aramaean’ realm, there are also strong indications that there were – at the same time – vivid socio-economic links with the West, i.e. the Southern and Northern Mediterranean coasts and their hinterland. It will be argued that the resulting ‘cultural blend’ is a typical characteristic of the material culture of the Northern Jordan Rift Valley in the advent of the emerging regional powers of the Iron Age II.

Wetland-Archaeology in the Alpine Space. Overview and actual research issues.

First indications of prehistoric sites in lakes of Switzerland go back more than 200 years and in 1854 Ferdinand Keller (1800-1881) published his famous book The Celtic Pile Dwellings in Swiss Lakes. Since these times, large-scale rescue excavations as well as survey and research projects have extended our knowledge about Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in lakes, bogs and rivers around the European Alps. In 2011 a representative choice of 111 sites out of nearly 1000 in six countries around the Alps (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland) were recognized by the UNESCO World Heritage committee as serial World Heritage. The lecture will give a general overview on prehistoric lake dwellings around the Alps (distribution, types of lakes/bogs and environment of sites, chronology/cultural units in the time scale 5300 to 800 BC) and present examples of well-documented settlement structures. The intense use of dendrochronological dating allowed the building up of a well-fixed chronological framework. In some cases dendrochronology is the basis for year-by-year reconstructions of prehistoric village biographies and detailed insights in the life cycle of early agrarian settlements. Beside these local events the grouped repartition of lake dwelling remains on the time scale makes a more global correlation between Holocene lake levels and the preservation of archaeological layers likely.

Holocene vegetation development in the catchment of Sagistalsee (1935 m asl), a small lake in the Swiss Alps

Pollen and plant macrofossils were analysed at Sägistalsee (1935 m asl), a small lake near timber-line in the Swiss Northern Alps. Open forests with Pinus cembra and Abies alba covered the catchment during the early Holocene (9000–6300 cal. BP), suggesting subcontinental climate conditions. After the expansion of Picea abies between 6300 and 6000 cal. BP the subalpine forest became denser and the tree-line reached its maximum elevation at around 2260 m asl. Charcoal fragments in the macrofossil record indicate the beginning of Late-Neolithic human impact at ca. 4400 cal. BP, followed by a extensive deforestation and lowering of the forest-limit in the catchment of Sägistalsee at 3700 cal. BP (Bronze Age). Continuous human activity, combined with a more oceanic climate during the later Holocene, led to the local extinction of Pinus cembra and Abies alba and favoured the mass expansion of Picea and Alnus viridis in the subalpine area of the Northern Alps. The periods before 6300 and after 3700 cal. BP are characterised by high erosion activity in the lake's catchment, whereas during the phase of dense Picea-Pinus cembra-Abies forests (6300–3700 cal. BP) soils were stable and sediment-accumulation rates in the lake were low. Due to decreasing land-use at higher altitudes during the Roman occupation and the Migration period, forests spread beween ca. 2000 and 1500 cal. BP, before human impact increased again in the early Middle Ages. Recent reforestation due to land-use changes in the 20th century is recorded in the top sediments. Pollen-inferred July temperature and annual precipitation suggest a trend to cooler and more oceanic climate starting at about 5500 cal. BP.

Middle to Late Holocene vegetation history of the Upper Engadine (Swiss Alps): the role of man and fire

o reconstruct the vegetation and fire history of the Upper Engadine, two continuous sediment cores from Lej da Champfèr and Lej da San Murezzan (Upper Engadine Valley, southeastern Switzerland) were analysed for pollen, plant macrofossils, charcoal and kerogen. The chronologies of the cores are based on 38 radiocarbon dates. Pollen and macrofossil data suggest a rapid afforestation with Betula, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus cembra, and Larix decidua after the retreat of the glaciers from the lake catchments 11,000 cal years ago. This vegetation type persisted until ca. 7300 cal b.p. (5350 b.c.) when Picea replaced Pinus cembra. Pollen indicative of human impact suggests that in this high-mountain region of the central Alps strong anthropogenic activities began during the Early Bronze Age (3900 cal b.p., 1950 b.c.). Local human settlements led to vegetational changes, promoting the expansion of Larix decidua and Alnus viridis. In the case of Larix, continuing land use and especially grazing after fire led to the formation of Larix meadows. The expansion of Alnus viridis was directly induced by fire, as evidenced by time-series analysis. Subsequently, the process of forest conversion into open landscapes continued for millennia and reached its maximum at the end of the Middle Ages at around 500 cal b.p. (a.d. 1450).

Der Körper als Gefäß. Eine Studie zur visuellen Anthropologie des Alten Orients

The perception of the human body as container is widespread in cognitive linguistics, psychology and anthropology and is estimated to be universal. But what can we say about the specific context of the Hebrew Bible as well as Ancient-Near-Eastern texts and material culture, and more especially about anthropomorphic vessels in the Levant? Biblical, Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts compare the human body with pottery in order to emphasize its status of having been created (Geschöpflichkeit) on the one hand, and its fragility (Zerbrechlichkeit) on the other. Not in every case does the metaphor refer to an individual. Very often, however, it is used with relation to groups of people (nations) and requires particular caution when it comes to drawing a conclusion about the embodiment. The archaeological-iconographic record demonstrates that the human body, especially the female body, was imagined as a container. The fact that vessels in the shape of female bodies are the majority can partly be explained with the association between container and pregnancy. This essay aims at stimulating the discussion about embodiment in the Ancient Near East, concepts of emotion the body as a container in the Hebrew Bible, and its relation to the material culture.

Archaeology in Switzerland between lakes and mountains.

Switzerland has an extraordinarily rich archaeological heritage from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, dating back nearly 7000 years. Since the mid-19th century, the first pile dwellings were discovered in the lakes of the Central Plateau. Since 2011 these sites are part of the UNESCO world heritage „Prehistoric pile-dwellings around the Alps“. Not only lakes, but also Swiss mountains preserve extraordinary archaeological remains: from an alpine pass in the Bernese Alps prehistoric objects are melting out from the ice. Perfect preservation conditions and modern archaeological methods allow exploring the development of early agrarian societies in this part of the world. We can reconstruct their settlements and follow their exchange with other communities. Archaeology under water and in alpine environments allows fascinating insights into the beginnings of our history.

Vegetation Changes and Timberline Fluctuations in the Central Alps as Indicators of Holocene Climatic Oscillations

Pollen and plant-macrofossil data are presented for two lakes near the timberline in the Italian (Lago Basso, 2250 m) and Swiss Central Alps (Gouille Rion, 2343 m). The reforestation at both sites started at 9700-9500 BP with Pinus cembra, Larbc decidua, and Betula. The timberline reached its highest elevation between 8700 and 5000 BP and retreated after 5000 BP, due to a mid-Holocene climatic change and increasing human impact since about 3500 BP (Bronze Age). The expansion of Picea abies at Lago Basso between ca. 7500 and 6200 BP was probably favored by cold phases accompanied by increased oceanicity, whereas in the area of Gouille Rion, where spruce expanded rather late (between 4500 and 3500 BP), human influence equally might have been important. The mass expansion of Alnus viridis between ca. 5000 and 3500 BP probably can be related to both climatic change and human activity at timberline. During the early and middle Holocene a series of timberline fluctuations is recorded as declines in pollen and macrofossil concentrations of the major tree species, and as increases in nonarboreal pollen in the pollen percentage diagram of Gouille Rion. Most of ·the periods of low timberline can be correlated by radiocarbon dating with climatic changes in the Alps as indicated by glacier ad­ vances in combination with palynological records, solifluction, and dendrocli­ matical data. Lago Basso and Gouille Rion are the only sites in the Alps showing complete palaeobotanical records of cold phases between 10,000 and 2000 BP with very good time control. The altitudinal range of the Holocene treeline fluc­ tuations caused by climate most likely was not more than 100 to 150 m. A possible correlation of a cold period at ca. 7500-6500 BP (Misox oscil­ lation) in the Alps is made with paleoecological data from North America and Scandinavia and a climatic signal in the GRIP ice core from central Greenland 8200 yr ago (ca. 7400 yr uncal. BP).

Stable isotope record of northeastern Australian Margin

Stable isotopic data obtained from planktonic and benthic foraminifers were used to study paleoceanographic changes along the northeastern Australian margin from late Miocene (10 Ma) to Holocene time, and to evaluate the influence of these changes on reef growth. The data indicate that variations in surface-water temperatures may have had an important effect on the reef complexes on the Queensland Plateau and possibly off the northeastern Australian margin. Three sites were studied: Leg 21, Site 209 on the eastern edge of the Queensland Plateau, and Leg 133, Site 811 on the western margin, and Site 817 on the lower southern slope of the plateau. Shallow-water bioclasts recovered from Holes 811A and 817A indicate extensive reef growth on the Queensland Plateau during the middle Miocene (before 12 Ma), signifying surface-water temperatures of 20°C or greater. The amount of reefal detritus produced during the late Miocene (10.0-5.2 Ma) decreased progressively, resulting in a reduction in area of the reef complexes. The isotopic data from planktonic foraminifers in these late Miocene age sediments indicate the presence of relatively cool surface waters (16°-19°C), which may have been a major factor contributing to the demise of the reefs on the Queensland Plateau. Surface waters remained cool until the middle Pleistocene (1.2-0.5 Ma), when the surface-water temperature apparently increased to approximately 25°C, recorded both in the isotopic data and by renewed reef growth. This increase occurred simultaneously (within the error of the age model) with the initiation of the Great Barrier Reef. We propose that cooling of surface waters during the early late Miocene contributed to reef decline on the Queensland Plateau, and that subsequent warming of surface waters during the middle Pleistocene promoted the initiation of reef growth on the northeastern Australian margin. Reef development on the Queensland Plateau never recovered to the middle Miocene extent because of a combination of tectonic (accelerated subsidence of the plateau) and paleoceanographic (the cooler surface waters present from the late Miocene throughout the Pliocene) factors. Variations in seafloor d18O appear to be controlled by regional factors, as indicated by the similarity of data from Sites 811 and 817 to those from Site 590 on Lord Howe Rise.

Organic geochemistry of Cretaceous black shales at DSDP Hole 75-530A

Five-hundred ten meters of Cretaceous sediments were drilled north of the Walvis escarpment in Hole 530A during Leg 75. An immature stage of evolution for organic matter can be assigned to all the samples studied. Black shales are interbedded with red and green claystone in the bottom sedimentary unit, Unit 8, which is of Coniacian to late Albian age. The richest organic carbon contents and petroleum potentials occur in the black shales. Detrital organic matter is present throughout the various members of a sequence, mixed with largely oxidized organic matter in the gray and green claystone or marlstone members on both sides. Detrital organic matter also characterizes the black streaks observed in the claystones. Vertical discontinuities in organic matter distribution are assigned to slumping. Several types of black shales can be identified, according to their content of detrital organic matter, the more detrital black levels corresponding to the Albian-Cenomanian period. Cyclic variations of organic matter observed for a sequence can occur for a set of sequences and even for some consecutive sets of sequences. Climatic factors are proposed to account for the cyclic sedimentation and distribution of organic matter for every sequence that includes a black bed.

Calcareous nannofossils of ODP Hole 123-765C and DSDP Hole 27-261

Sediments from the Argo Abyssal Plain (AAP), northwest of Australia, are the oldest known from the Indian Ocean and were recovered from ODP Site 765 and DSDP Site 261. New biostratigraphic and sedimentologic data from these sites, as well as reinterpretations of earlier findings, indicate that basal sediments at both localities are of Late Jurassic age and delineate a history of starved sedimentation punctuated by periodic influx of calcareous pelagic turbidites. Biostratigraphy and correlation of Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous sediments is based largely on calcareous nannofossils. Both sites yielded variably preserved nannofossil successions ranging from Tithonian to Hauterivian at Site 765 and Kimmeridgian to Hauterivian at Site 261. The nannofloras are comparable to those present in the European and Atlantic Boreal and Tethyan areas, but display important differences that reflect biogeographic differentiation. The Argo region is thought to have occupied a position at the southern limit of the Tethyan nannofloral realm, thus yielding both Tethyan and Austral biogeographic features. Sedimentary successions at the two sites are grossly similar, and differences largely reflect Site 765's greater proximity to the continental margin. Jurassic sediments were deposited at rates of about 2 m/m.y. near the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) and contain winnowed concentrations of inoceramid prisms and nannofossils, redeposited layers rich in calcispheres and calcisphere debris, manganese nodules, and volcanic detritus. Lower Cretaceous and all younger sediments accumulated below the CCD at rates that were highest (about 20 m/m.y.) during mid-Cretaceous and Neogene time. Background sediment in this interval is noncalcareous claystone; turbidites dominate the sequence and are thicker and coarser grained at Site 765. AAP turbidites consist mostly of calcareous and siliceous biogenic components and volcanogenic smectite clay; they were derived from relatively deep parts of the continental margin that lay below the photic zone, but above the CCD. The Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous section is about the same thickness across the AAP; turbidites in this interval appear to have had multiple sources along the Australian margin. The Upper Cretaceous-Cenozoic section, however, is three times thicker at Site 765 than at Site 261; turbidites in this interval were derived predominantly from the south. Patterns of sedimentation across the AAP have been influenced by shifts in sea level, the CCD, and configuration of the continental margin. Major pulses of calcareous turbidite deposition occurred during Valanginian, Aptian, and Neogene time-all periods of eustatic lowstands and depressed CCD levels. Sediment redeposited on the AAP has come largely from the Australian outer shelf, continental slope, or rise, rather than the continent itself. Most terrigenous detritus was trapped in epicontinental basins that have flanked northwestern Australia since the early Mesozoic.

¿Agua, elemento importado en las cosmogonías griegas?

El agua ha sido un elemento presente en muchas cosmogonías. El agua es necesaria a la vida, sin ella no existiría la vida como la conocemos. Esta percepción sobre el agua es tan antigua como la misma humanidad, haciéndose particularmente importante en pueblos donde ella no abunda, pueblos donde la orografía es desértica o pueblos donde el agua en forma de ríos se hace fundamental a la cosecha y por consiguiente a la vida, como los pueblos del cercano oriente, en particular los pueblos de la región del levante. Siendo esto así, pareciera peculiar la importancia dada por los primeros pensadores griegos, llamados filósofos presocráticos, al elemento agua en su filosofía. Argumentaré que el elemento agua es extraño al pensamiento griego, como elemento primigenio. Para ello discutiré algunos de los textos cosmogónicos griegos y del cercano oriente

Late Pliocene carbonate mineralogy of ODP Hole 133-818B

Shedding of shallow carbonate material toward the deep slopes and basin floors is clearly tied to the position of the carbonate bank tops relative to the photic zone. The onset of bank shedding in periplatform sediments can record either the flooding of the bank tops within the photic zone during a rise in sea level following a period of exposure, referred to in the literature as the "highstand shedding" scenario, or the reentry of the bank tops into the photic zone during a lowering of sea level following a period of drowning, referred to as the "lowstand shedding" scenario. Results from Leg 133 post-cruise research on the Pliocene sequences, drilled in six sites within different slope settings of the Queensland Plateau, seem to point out that the latter "lowstand shedding" scenario can be applied to this particular carbonate system. At the Queensland Plateau sites, the early Pliocene (5.2-3.5 Ma) and the earliest part of the late Pliocene (3.5-2.9 Ma) age sequences were characterized, especially in the ôdeepö Sites 811 and 817, by pelagic sediments (foraminifers and coccoliths) and by typically pelagic sedimentation rates not exceeding 20 mm/k.y. The earliest part of the late Pliocene age section was characterized by well-developed hardgrounds in the "shallow" Sites 812 and 814 and by normal pelagic sediments mixed with reworked phosphatized planktonic foraminifers in Site 813. Finally, the early part of the late Pliocene (2.9-2.4 Ma) section was characterized by high sedimentation rates, related to the shedding and admixture into the pelagic sediments of bank-derived materials. These bank-derived materials consist of either diagenetically unaltered fine aragonite with traces of dolomite in Site 818 or micritic calcite resulting from seafloor and/or shallow burial alteration in the deepest Sites 817 and 811. The highest sedimentation rates (163 mm/k.y.) were recorded in Site 818, drilled nearest the modern carbonate bank of Tregrosse Reef. The sedimentation rates decrease with increasing distance from Tregrosse Reef - 120 mm/k.y. in Site 817 and 47.5 mm/k.y. in Site 811. The initial appearance of fine aragonite in Site 818, corresponding to the transition from pelagic to periplatform sedimentation rates, has been dated at 2.9 Ma. This Pliocene sediment pattern on the Queensland Plateau is different from the pattern observed in sediments from two earlier ODP legs (i.e., Leg 101 in the Bahamas and in Leg 115 in the Maldives), where aragonite-rich sediments, characterized by high periplatform sedimentation rates, were observed in the lower Pliocene section (5.2-3.5 Ma), whereas the upper Pliocene (3.5-1.6 Ma) sediments are more pelagic in nature and are characterized by low sedimentation rates or major hiatuses. These Pliocene periplatform sequences in the Bahamas and in the Maldives and late Quaternary age periplatform sequences worldwide have pointed out that "highstand shedding" was the typical response of carbonate platforms to fluctuations in sea level, just opposite to a "lowstand shedding" response to sea-level fluctuations, typical of siliciclastic shelves. Assuming that the envelope of Haq et al.'s (1987) sea-level curve, showing a well-defined lowering of sea level between 3.5 and 2.9 Ma, can also be applied to the southwest Pacific Ocean, based on a high-resolution Pliocene d18O record from the Ontong Java Plateau recently published by Jansen et al. (1993, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.sr.130.028.1993), the Pliocene periplatform sequences on the Queensland Plateau would have recorded the reentry of the bank tops into the photic zone during a general lowering of sea level, following an interval characterized by high sea level, during which the shallow carbonate system on the Queensland Plateau was drowned. The early Pliocene age (5.2-3.5 Ma) sediments deposited on the Queensland Plateau, an established interval of eustatic sea-level highstand, are typically pelagic in character. In addition, relatively cold surface temperatures (estimated to have ranged from 18° to 20°C by Isern et al. [this volume]) might have also stressed the reefs during early Pliocene time and contributed to the drowning of the Queensland Plateau carbonate system during the late Miocene and early Pliocene. Differential and relatively high subsidence rates, inferred by variations in paleodepth of water (based upon benthic foraminifer assemblages; Katz and Miller, this volume) may also have influenced the drowning of the carbonate bank tops on the Queensland Plateau during the late Miocene and early Pliocene. The sediments of early late Pliocene age (2.9-2.4 Ma), a well-established interval of lowering of sea level, are clearly periplatform and cyclic in nature. High-frequency (~40 k.y.) aragonite cycles, well-developed between 2.9 and 2.45 Ma, correlate with the planktonic high-resolution Pliocene d18O record from the Ontong Java Plateau, a good sea-level proxy (Jansen et al., in press). Contrary to late Quaternary age aragonite cycles from the Bahamas, the Nicaragua Rise, the Maldives, and the Queensland Plateau, the late Pliocene aragonite cycles in Hole 818B display high levels of aragonite during glacial stages and, therefore, lowstands of sea level. In addition, sediments deposited during the earliest part of the late Pliocene (3.5-2.9 Ma), transition between the early Pliocene highstand and the late Pliocene lowering in sea level, have recorded the first evidence of a fall in sea level, by (1) the occurrence of synchronous submarine hardgrounds in the two shallowest sites (Sites 812 and 814), (2) the deposition of reworked material from the shallower part of the slope into the intermediate Sites 813 and 818, and (3) the deposition of pelagic sediments in the deepest Sites 817 and 817. In summary, contrary to previous findings, the Pliocene periplatform sediments on the Queensland Plateau appear to have recorded a regional shedding of shallow carbonate bank tops during an interval of sea-level lowering, a good illustration of the "carbonate lowstand shedding" scenario, occurring during the reentry of previously drowned carbonate bank tops into the photic zone related to a decrease in sea level.