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Abstract
Dating terraces, the most prominent feature of the agricultural landscape in many parts of the world, is a problem for archaeologists. This study presents an interdisciplinary approach that combines archaeological survey and excavations with direct sediment dating of terrace fill using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). The study focuses on Ramat Rahel, a multi-period site located in the southern outskirts of modern Jerusalem, Israel, where, on a defined terraced slope chosen for a small-scale landscape archaeology project, three main phases of terrace construction and use were identified. The earliest phase dates to the Late Byzantine/Early Islamic period, the second to medieval times, and the last to the Ottoman period. The results enable a comprehensive reconstruction of the changing local landscape through time and demonstrate the validity of OSL, when combined with archaeological investigations, as a reliable method for terrace dating.
This study was supported by an Early Israel grant (New Horizons project), Tel Aviv University. The fieldwork was conducted as part of the 2009 season of excavations at Ramat Rahel, and we wish to thank Prof. M. Oeming of Heidelberg University, the co-director of the expedition, for his continuous support of the research. The archaeological investigations were carried out with the assistance of D. Appler (assistant area supervisor), P. Shargo (photography), B. Arubas and S. Emmanuilov (surveying), and numerous volunteers. S. Emmanuilov also prepared . The preliminary survey was aided by L. Barda of the Israel Antiquities Authority. We thank Z. Dolgin for preparing the samples for OSL, O. Yoffe and D. Stuber for the chemical analyses, and M. Kitin for carbonate determinations. Finally, we are grateful to J. Conolly and the two anonymous reviewers who made valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.
Uri Davidovich (M.A. 2008, The Hebrew University) is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Institute of Archaeology and a Fellow at the Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies, both at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. His main research concerns settlement patterns in the Judean Desert during the Chalcolithic, Bronze, and Iron ages. Additional interests include environmental archaeology, survey methodology, site formation processes, and the archaeology of natural caves. He served as an area supervisor in the Ramat Rahel expedition from 2007 to 2010 and was responsible for the survey and excavations of the terraces.
Naomi Porat (Ph.D. 1989, The Hebrew University) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Geological Survey of Israel (GSI). Her expertise is in luminescence dating and Quaternary geochronology. In 1994 she established the luminescence dating laboratory at the GSI and since then has published a large number of papers in that field.
Yuval Gadot (Ph.D. 2004, Tel Aviv University) is a Research Associate at the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. Since the summer of 2011 Gadot has been the director of a new research project at the Rephaim Valley, the breadbasket of ancient Jerusalem, designed to reconstruct human strategies for the exploitation of the valley within their historical setting. He is the field director of the Ramat Rahel excavations and the archaeological director of Reconstructing Ancient (Biblical) Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective, a project funded by the European Research Council (ERC). He is also the co-director of a community-based archaeological project at the city of Lod.
Yoav Avni (Ph.D. 1998, The Hebrew University) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Geological Survey of Israel. His expertise lies in landscape evolution and environmental processes including natural processes of soil erosion and land degradation and their relation to agricultural activities in arid zones.
Oded Lipschits (Ph.D. 1997, Tel Aviv University) is Professor of Jewish History at the Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, the Director of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, and the Head of the Ancient Israel Studies Program at Tel Aviv University. Since 2004 he has been the director of the renewed excavation project at Ramat Rahel, Jerusalem, Israel (together with Prof. Manfred Oeming from the University of Heidelberg), and since the summer of 2011 he has been the director of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition (together with Prof. Manfred Oeming). His research is focused on Judah (including its administration) under the rule of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires.