The Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in the Levant includes the appearance of new material culture that is similar in styles to the Aegean world. In the southern Levant, the distribution of early styles of Aegean-like pottery, locally produced, is limited to the coastal areas of Canaan, making synchronization with the rest of the region difficult. Radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dating provides a high-resolution absolute chronological framework for synchronizing ceramic phases. Here, absolute ¹⁴ C chronologies of the Late Bronze to Iron Age transition in the sites Tel Beth Shean, Tel Rehov, Tel Lachish, and Tel Miqne-Ekron are determined. Results show that the ranges of transitions vary in an absolute time frame by 50–100 years between different sites and that the range of the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age transition in Canaan spans the 13th–11th centuries BC plateau. These chronologies, based on a site-by-site approach for dating, show that the change between early types of Aegean-like pottery (Monochrome) to developed types (Bichrome), occurred over 100 years in Canaan and that the transition occurred in southern sites prior to sites in the north. These ranges show that not only is the Late Bronze to Iron Age not contemporaneous, but also synchronization between sites based on their ceramic assemblages is problematic.

Hydraulic lime binders are considered a technological marvel which revolutionized construction techniques in antiquity. The core material is made of a binder that is a mixture of calcite and hydraulic phases, which are amorphous silicate compounds that nanostructurally polymerize into insoluble phases that harden even underwater, formed during the reaction between lime and reactive silicates such as volcanic ash. This is also what makes hydraulic lime so hard to radiocarbon (¹⁴C) date. These insoluble phases contain carbonates that may set centuries following their application, resulting in younger ages, which may contaminate the calcite fraction that is favorable for ¹⁴C dating. This calcite fraction forms upon the incorporation of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the setting of the hydrated lime. Therefore, different characterization methods are being constantly developed for identifying and characterizing the components of hydraulic lime-binders. In this work, we present a rapid characterization technique based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) that characterizes the atomic disorder and chemical environment of the carbonates and silicates fractions in the binder. The atomic disorder of the calcite crystallites was determined by the ν₂ and ν₄ vibrational modes, and the silicates were characterized by the main peak asymmetry and full width at half maximum (FWHM). Different hydraulic binders from Caesarea Maritima were examined, including Herodian mortars from the underwater breakwater and on-land plasters and mortars from the portʼs warehouse and vaults. Hydraulic binders, in which the calcite fraction in the binder shows atomic disorder that is comparable to modern plaster binders, was associated with silicates that have asymmetry and FWHM of clays and quartz. These materials are considered to be in good preservation state for ¹⁴C dating since their carbonates crystallites are disordered and did not interact with the environment chemically to form stable and ordered crystals. Interestingly, the atomic disorder of binders that underwent chemical alterations and recrystallization processes, are associated with reactive silicates aggregates such as volcanic ash (pozzolana). These results suggest a new way to prescreen materials for radiocarbon dating based on the composition of lime-binders and preservation state of the carbonate fraction and hydraulic products.

Local atomic disorder and crystallinity are structural properties that influence greatly the resulting chemical and mechanical properties of inorganic solids, and are used as indicators for different pathways of material formation. Here, these structural properties are assessed in the crystals of quartz based on particle-size-related scattering processes in transmission infra-red spectroscopy. Independent determinations of particle size distributions in the range 2–100 μm of a single crystal of quartz and defective quartz with highly anisotropic micro-crystallites show that particle sizes below the employed wavelength (approx 10 μm) exhibit asymmetric narrowing of absorption peak widths, due to scattering processes that depend on the intra-particle structural defects and long range crystallinity. In particular, we observe that the 1079 cm⁻¹ peak could be used to assess crystallinity, because it shows an asymmetric peak shape shift toward a higher wavelength, depending on the crystallite size. We observe that the 694 cm⁻¹ peak could be used to assess local atomic disorder as it does not show scattering and peak shape changes when absorption effects dominate, below 2 μm. We propose coupling particle size assessments with infra-red peak shape analysis as a method to characterize crystallinity and short range order for studying recrystallization in natural silica, as well as defectivity in many different types of silicas used for industrial and technological applications.

In 2013, an ivory bowl was discovered in a chalky matrix in the Early Iron Age (Philistine) levels in Area A at Tell es-Safi/Gath. Conservation revealed it to be a shallow vessel with a single lug handle, decorated in the interior and on the base with an incised twelve-petal lotus-rosette surrounded by five concentric circles. Applying an object biography approach, we investigate the history and far-flung socio-cultural connections of the Tell es-Safi/Gath bowl, which is unique within Philistia. Specific reference is made to parallels in the ivory hoard from the Late Bronze/Iron Age transition (c. late twelfth century/early eleventh century bce) palace at Megiddo, Stratum VIIA. It is proposed that the Tell es-Safi/Gath bowl was one of a set manufactured somewhere in Canaan. The vessel became separated from the set, ending up as a foundation offering at this Philistine site.