Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom: new excavations and14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan)
Abstract
An international team of researchers show how high-precision radiocarbon dating is liberating us from chronological assumptions based on Biblical research. Surface and topographic mapping at the large copper-working site of Khirbat en-Nahas was followed by stratigraphic excavations at an ancient fortress and two metal processing facilities located on the site surface. The results were spectacular. Occupation begins here in the eleventh century BC and the monumental fortress is built in the tenth. If this site can be equated with the rise of the Biblical kingdom of Edom it can now be seen to: have its roots in local Iron Age societies; is considerably earlier than previous scholars assumed; and proves that complex societies existed in Edom long before the influence of Assyrian imperialism was felt in the region from the eighth – sixth centuries BC.
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The large set of 14C readings from Khirbet en-Nahas seems to indicate that the site reached its peak prosperity in the first half of the 9th century BCE, in the early Iron IIA.
“The large set of 14 C readings from Khirbet en-Nahas (Levy et al. 2004(Levy et al. , 2005) ) seems to indicate that the site reached its peak prosperity in the first half of the 9th century BCE (Finkelstein and Piasetzky 2008), that is, in the early Iron IIA, parallel to the wave of settlement in the Beer Sheba Valley, Besor region, and Negev Highlands.”
From Radiocarbon Results from the Iron IIA Site of Atar Haroa in the Negev Highlands and their Archaeological and Historical Implications (2010) · cites this paper as Levy et al. 2004
The commencement of the wave of settlement in the Beer Sheba Valley, Besor region, and the Negev Highlands may have been connected to the increase in copper production at Khirbet en-Nahas.
“The commencement of the wave of settlement in the Beer Sheba Valley, Besor region, and the Negev Highlands may have been connected to the increase in copper production at Khirbet en-Nahas in the eastern Arabah, “the largest Iron Age copper-smelting site in the southern Levant” (Levy et al. 2004:867;Hauptmann 2007:127).”
From Radiocarbon Results from the Iron IIA Site of Atar Haroa in the Negev Highlands and their Archaeological and Historical Implications (2010) · cites this paper as Levy et al. 2004:867
Cited by
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Boaretto, E., Finkelstein, I., & Shahack-Gross, R. (2010) · Radiocarbon · doi:10.1017/s0033822200044982 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Iron Age Mediterranean Chronology: A Reply
Bruins, H. J., Nijboer, A. J., & van der Plicht, J. (2011) · Radiocarbon · doi:10.1017/s0033822200034470 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
- Authors
- Levy, T. E., Adams, R. B., Najjar, M., Hauptmann, A., Anderson, J. D., Brandl, B., Robinson, M. A., & Higham, T.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- McMaster University (CA)
- Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (DE)
- North Island College (CA)
- Israel Antiquities Authority (IL)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Antiquity
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2004-12
- Volume
- 78
- Issue
- 302
- Pages
- 865-879
- ISSN
- 0003-598X (ISSN-L)
- 1745-1744
- OpenAlex
- W2492480145
- Cited by
- 97
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 76.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Antiquity (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Johnson Family Foundation
- American Center of Research
- University of California, San Diego
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Archaeology and Historical Studies
- Keywords
- Edom, radiocarbon dating, chronology, Iron Age, ancient fortresses, metalworking, Assyrian imperialism, biblical archaeology
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