Transitions, Urbanism, and Collapse in the Bronze Age - Essays in Honor of Suzanne Richard - Jesse C. Long, Jr.
15. Testing the Statistical EB IV Ceramic Study: New Excavations in Area C at Khirbat Iskandar
Transitions, Urbanism, and Collapse in the Bronze Age - Essays in Honor of Suzanne Richard - Jesse C. Long, Jr.
Stanley Holdorf [+]
Khirbat Iskandar Expedition
Description
This paper focuses on a quantitative study of the Khirbat Iskandar Area C EB IV ceramics. The original statistical probability study, published in Volume 1 of the Expedition (Holdorf 2010), demonstrated a correlation between three ceramic phases and three stratigraphical phases excavated in Area C. In a second application, the innovative study was able to link the chronology of the tombs in the vicinity with the site’s three-phase typo-chronology. Further, the quantitative results, when applied to Bab adh-Dhra‘, both the site and the cemeteries, offered a first-time quantitative correlation between the phasing of two regionally separated EB IV sites. Renewed excavations in Area C in 2016 and 2019, intended to recheck the critical three-phase EB IV stratigraphic/ceramic chronology of the area, allows us to test hypotheses put forth in the quantitative study of the area. This paper represents a preliminary study of the 2016 and 2019 ceramics, using the methods of the previously published quantitative analysis and phasing in Area C. Although a relatively small sample, this analysis, nevertheless, provides an opportunity to test some of the conclusions drawn previously. The paper offers a summary of previous work along with a first glimpse at the new discoveries in Area C, with a discussion of the process and lessons learned from the previously published quantitative study.