Timing the M/LPPNB Transition

Piotr Jacobsson
Some aspects of the
M-/L-PPNB transition

How the calibration curve

affected its interpretation

Alternative interpretations

Photograph courtesy of GO Rollefson

Stage Chronology

PPNA Mid-10th to mid-9th millennium cal BC

E-PPNB Mid-9th to late 9th millennium cal BC

M-PPNB Late 9th to mid-8th millennium cal BC

L-PPNB Mid-8th millennium cal BC to turn of 8th and 7th millennia

Later Neolithic 7th-6th millennia cal BC

Kinzel 2004
Data: Simmons and Najjar 2007
Data: Henry and Beaver 2014
Data: Moore et al. 2000
Data: Garfinkel 2012
Data: Kenyon and Holland 1981; 1983
Photograph courtesy of GO Rollefson
Data: Rollefson 1998
Timing important to
understanding transitions

Need to understand
nuance of the dating
techniques used

Premium on technical
proficiency and sample
quality
Thank you for listening

(and):

Council for British Research in the Levant

Gary O Rollefson

David Chivall (ORAU)

Darden Hood (Beta Analytic)
Todd Lange (NSF AMS Facility)
Christine Oberlin (Lyon)
Andreas Scharf (Erlangen)
Erv Taylor (UC Riverside)
Hong Wang (ISGS)
Bernhard Weninger (Koln)
Data references:
Garfinkel, Y., Dag, D., Khalaily, H., Marder, O., Milevski, I. I., &
Ronen, A. (2012). The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Village of Yiftahel.
The 1980s and 1990s Excavations. Berlin: ex Oriente.

Henry, D. O., & Beaver, J. E. (2014). The Sands of Time. The

Desert Neolithic Settlement at Ayn Abu Nukhayla. Berlin: ex
Oriente.

Kenyon, K. M. (1981). Excavations at Jericho. (T. A. Holland, Ed.)

(Vol. 3). London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.

Kenyon, K. M., & Holland, T. A. (1983). Excavations at Jericho

(Vol. 5). London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.

Moore, A. T. M., Hillman, G. C. & Legge, A. J. (2000). Village on

the Euphrates: from foraging to farming at Abu Hureyra. London:
Oxford University Press.

Rollefson, G. O. (1998). Expanded Radiocarbon Chronology from

’Ain Ghazal. Neo-Lithics, (2), 8–10.

Simmons, A. H., & Najjar, M. (2006). Ghwair I: A Small,

Complex Neolithic Community in Southern Jordan. Journal of
Field Archaeology, 31, 77–95.