Archaeological science brightens Mediterranean dark age

Recent advancements in the integration of methods from the exact and natural sciences are the foundation on which an ongoing revolution in the archaeological research of the Levant is being built, mirroring similar trends in other places around the world (1, 2). After more than a century of large-scale excavations and macrotypological studies, priority is shifting toward microanalyses of archaeological remains (3); these are often conducted on materials from past excavations, augmenting research possibilities without relying on the destructive endeavor of digging. Such is the case of the study in PNAS by Eshel et al. (4), who conducted comprehensive chemical and isotopic analyses on silver items archived in museums and storage facilities of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Based on the ratio of lead isotopes (LIs) in the silver, the authors are able to demonstrate interactions between the Levant (in particular, Phoenicia) and the western Mediterranean during the early Iron Age (1200 to 800 BCE), a period that has been considered a “dark age” within the longue duree of the region. Following the collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations of the Ancient Near East [ca. the 12th century BCE (5)], the Levant embarked on a period of sociopolitical instability that witnessed the emergence of local polities, including the Phoenician centers on the Mediterranean coast and the much-debated kingdom of Ancient Israel. However, while a dramatic change in the world order between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age is evident in the archaeological … [↵][1]1Email: ebenyose{at}tauex.tau.ac.il. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1