Absolute chronology of Black Wheel Made Ware in the southern Levant and its synchronization with the northern Levant

Abstract

Black Wheel Made Ware (BWMW) is a distinguished pottery-type of the Intermediate Bronze Age (EB IV) in the Levant, a period dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE. Considerable research was done both on the origin of BWMW and on how these vessels reflect inter-regional relations. This paper presents the first radiocarbon-based absolute dating of BWMW contexts, sampled from a few sites in northern Israel. These ¹⁴C dates clearly point to the 23rd century BCE as the period when BWMW was a circulated commodity in the southern Levant. Pottery types that are commonly found together with BWMW are potential candidates for the same chronological horizon. BWMW examples found in the northern Levant have no associated absolute dates and are assigned in general to the EB IVB period. Thus, the new dates presented here are, currently, the only secure absolute dating of BWMW pottery and should be used to revisit the absolute chronology of northern Levant sites where BWMW pottery has been identified.

Keywords:

• Black Wheel Made Ware
• Intermediate Bronze Age
• radiocarbon
• southern Levant

Acknowledgements

The radiocarbon research was supported by the Exilarch Foundation for the Dangoor Research Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (D-REAMS) Laboratory. We wish to thank the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science and George Schwartzman Fund for the funding support to R. L., laboratory and for the material analysis. E. B. is the incumbent of the Dangoor Professorial Chair of Archaeological Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science.