Constructing regional histories, time and transition in the southern Levant (5500-3500 BC)

grantor: University of TorontoFor all archaeological research, chronological frameworks are the foundation on which any reconstruction or interpretation of historical process must rest. Both the resolution of a chronology and the research objectives of the archaeologist determine what questions can be asked or answered. Rarely, however, are chronological sequences definitive and they are never entirely objective, despite the increasing sophistication of method. Their construction is guided not only by contemporary research paradigms but also by a number of theoretical and methodological assumptions. Chronologies, like social, economic, political, or ideological reconstructions, are interpretations of the data, and their validation rests not so much on experiment or empirical testing as it does on their coherence when all sources are considered. The objectives of this study are two-fold. The first objective is to introduce alternative methods for the construction of chronological frameworks in order to determine the developmental sequence of Chalcolithic (5100-3500 BC) society in the Jordan Valley region of the southern Levant. In this regard, it addresses a number of issues relating to settlement and social change throughout the period and proposes several explanations based on the sequence of events. The second objective is to evaluate the theoretical and methodological understandings associated with the classification of chronological units. This study advocates the integration of all sources of chronological information for the purpose of composing regional histories. It introduces the Unitary Association Method of Relative Dating (UAM) as a means of constructing relative sequences and demonstrates the usefulness of Bayesian methods for improving the precision of radiocarbon dates using stratigraphic information as 'a priori' statements. In the final analysis, the agreement of both the relative and the radiocarbon sequence is considered.Ph.D