Fig 1.
Map showing the Orontes Valley of Northwest Syria and Southeast Anatolia and all the sites discussed in this study.
This map was produced in ArcGIS v 10.7.1 at the CRANE funded Archaeology Centre Digital Innovation Laboratory of the University of Toronto by compiling GIS Shapefiles and Digital Elevation Data built from publicly available sources including NASA/JPL/NIMA.
Table 1.
The Tell Tayinat general stratigraphic sequence indicating contexts of radiocarbon dated samples.
Descriptions of associated stratigraphy and material culture can be found in [48, 50, 51, 53, 110, 118]. The conventional dates for the associated periods are indicated following [105–106] for the Iron Age and [34] for the Early Bronze Age, while previously published dates for the main Tayinat phases are indicated in parentheses and italics following [53].
Table 2.
Samples for 14C dating from Tell Tayinat obtained by this project.
For comments on some of the sample contexts, see the notes below the table. Tayinat General Period Scheme refers to the General Site Phases as identified in Table 1. Local Field Phase refers to the individual phasing schemes devised independently for each excavation area, outlined in Table 1.
Table 3.
14C dates on the samples in Table 2.
Fig 2.
The portion of Model 1 showing the period 6 data to illustrate the very large outlier OxA-32139 on sample SA5113 (see text).
This sample is excluded from the remainder of the modeling in our study. Data from OxCal 4.3.2 and IntCal20 with calibration curve resolution set at 1 year. The OxCal Agreement (A) values, the Posterior v. Prior values from the OxCal General Outlier model (O) for the short-lived samples, and the Convergence (C) values are all shown. The dates on wood charcoal samples with the Charcoal Outlier Plus model applied always have an outlier value of 100/100. The light-shaded red probability distributions for each dated sample are the non-modeled calibrated age probability distributions for each sample in isolation. The dark red probability distributions are the modeled (posterior density) calendar age probability distributions. The lines under each probability distribution indicate the modeled 68.2% and 95.4% highest posterior density (hpd) ranges. (Note: OxCal from version 4.4.1 uses 68.3% hpd ranges, however, since we employed OxCal 4.3.2 in this paper, we list 68.2% ranges following OxCal version 4.3.2.).
Table 4.
Selected modeled calendar age ranges from the models and outputs shown in Figs 3–5.
TPQ refers to a date solely from a long-lived sample(s). Typical results shown; very small variations (often of around 1 year) occur between different model runs (we illustrate by giving results from a very similar but different model run in S3 File, where a number of start/end dates for some of the ranges are 1 year different). For comparison of the results for Model 2 with the previous IntCal13 [134], see below in Table 6. Whole ranges only are listed (compare with S3 File where sub-ranges are listed). The Time Span Phases 4&3 Date estimate combines the separate start (Phase 4) and end (Phase 3) Date estimates in the model.
Fig 3.
Model 2 (excluding OxA-32139): Bayesian chronological model for Tell Tayinat Iron Age sequence, part 1.
The Amodel and Aoverall values are satisfactory versus the threshold value of 60 (Table 4). Data from OxCal 4.3.2 and IntCal20 with calibration curve resolution set at 1 year. The Individual OxCal Agreement values (A), the Posterior v. Prior values from the OxCal General Outlier model for the short-lived samples (O), and the Convergence (C) values are all shown. The wood charcoal samples with the Charcoal Plus Outlier model applied all have a Posterior/Prior value of 100/100. The light-shaded red probability distributions for each dated sample are the non-modeled calibrated age probability distributions for each sample in isolation. The dark red probability distributions are the modeled calendar age probability distributions. The line under each probability distribution indicates the modeled 95.4% highest posterior density (hpd) range. Cyan color indicates the start and end Boundaries of the model. Green color indicates the Boundaries calculated within the Tell Tayinat Sequence. Blue color indicates an OxCal Date estimate query for a Phase (this quantifies the time period within the start and end Boundary for the relevant Phase).
Fig 4.
Model 2 (excluding OxA-32139): Bayesian chronological model for Tell Tayinat Iron Age sequence, part 2.
Otherwise, see caption to Fig 3.
Fig 5.
The Tell Tayinat Phase 7 data from Model 2 in Fig 3 shown in more detail.
The lines under each probability distribution indicate the modeled 68.2% and 95.4% highest posterior density (hpd) ranges.
Table 5.
Suggested correlations between Tayinat Phases, absolute dates as reconstructed here by Bayesian modelling of 14C dates, rulers attested in historical sources, and conventional northern Levantine Iron Age periodization.
For Iron I, alternating pale orange and white coloration denotes the four-period division as outlined in [51]; for Iron II-III, gray and white coloration denotes the separation between Tayinat Phases.
Table 6.
Comparison of the modeled calendar age ranges from Model 2 with IntCal20 [133] (Table 4) versus runs of Model 2 using the previous IntCal13 calibration curve [134] and the Hd GOR Mediterranean dataset [180].
Data from example runs with satisfactory Amodel and Aoverall values (>60) and with all dated elements with satisfactory Convergence values (≥95). Whole ranges listed. Phase 4 and 3 Date estimates combined as start Phase 4 to end Phase 3.