Climate Context
Droughts Defined the Archaeological Periods in the Levant
(August 9, 2022) Like most regions of the earth, correlating the archaeology of the southern levant with carbon 14 dating and absolute dating has been undergoing some debate. The best correlation with linguistics is the chronology proposed by Amihai Mazar in 2014. This chronology is reproduced below:
References
Langut, D. Finkelsein, I, Litt, T. (2013) Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Levant. Tel Aviv 40:149-175. Online at https://www.academia.edu/6053886/Climate_and_the_Late_Bronze_Collapse_New_Evidence_from_the_Southern_LevantMazar, Amihai (2005) The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: its History, the Current Situation and a Suggested Resolution. pp. 15-30 in: T. Levy and T. Higham (editors), The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating - Archaeology, Text and Science. London. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/2632501/The_Debate_over_the_Chronology_of_the_Iron_Age_in_the_Southern_Levant_its_History_the_Current_Situation_and_a_Suggested_Resolution_2005
Tree Ring Data Where Available Provides Higher Climate Resolution
The juniper trees found in the tomb were Juniperus excelsa and Juniperus foetidissima.
References
Manning, S.W., Kocik, C., Lorentzen, B. et al. (2023) Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198–1196 bc. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05693-y
Nutt, David (Feb 8, 2023) Rare drought coincided with Hittite Empire collapse. Online at: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/02/rare-drought-coincided-hittite-empire-collapse
Severe droughts seem to occur at a rate of 3 per every 100 years yet only multi-year droughts over a wide area lead to social instability due to lack of food. Three instances of the driest 6.25% of years occurring consecutively in Anatolia exist. Only the Bronze Age Collapse drought covered enough territory to be history changing. This data was assembled from tree rings and isotope ratios within those wood samples. (Manning and all, 2023)
- 1494–1492 BCE
- 1198–1196 BCE (Bronze Age Collapse shown with gray bar)
- 871–869 BCE