Radiocarbon dates and the emergence of southern Levantine MB IIa culture
Ezra. Marcus

The absolute chronology of the southern Levantine Middle Bronze Age has long relied solely on its synchronization with the astronomically-based historical chronologies of Egypt and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Mesopotamia. This reliance has been further complicated by the relative paucity of Egyptian finds in the southern Levant and vice versa during the Middle Bronze Age IIa/Middle Kingdom, particularly in the early phases of this period. As such, correlating local social, economic and political processes with concomitant developments in other regions (e.g., Egypt) has lacked sufficient chronological refinement for any meaningful assessment. Moreover, the correlation of process among even interregional relative sequences within the MB IIa southern Levant has often been frustrated by ceramic typological regionalism whose temporal relationship is unclear. This presentation will address the temporal relationship between the resettlement and reurbanization of the southern Levant and the emergence and floruit of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, based on archaeological and historical data and, in particular, high precision AMS and conventional radiocarbon dates. In addition, the temporal relationship between the emergence of MB IIa culture in the Coastal Plain and that of the Jordan Valley, and the latter's relationship with the preceding cultural period (EBIV/IBA/MB I), will also be addressed.