TY - JOUR AU - Fraser, James PY - 2017/01/16 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The visible dead: dolmens and the landscape in Early Bronze Age Jordan JF - BAF-Online: Proceedings of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum JA - BAF-O VL - 1 IS - 0 SE - Panel 3: Localising influence and identity DO - 10.22012/baf.2016.02 UR - https://bop.unibe.ch/baf/article/view/3498 SP - AB - <p id="docs-internal-guid-5b2a96cf-1c75-a606-5e8c-9b3fd63e11ca" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Overview:</span></strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dolmens are usually described as part of a regional megalithic phenomenon that spanned the 5</span><span style="font-size: 9.6px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">th</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">-2</span><span style="font-size: 9.6px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">nd</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> millennia BC. However, this presentation assumes that most ‘dolmens’ are mis-identified. When strictly defined, dolmens better reflect a local funerary tradition of the 4</span><span style="font-size: 9.6px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super;">th</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> millennium BC.</span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Definitions</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:</span></strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The term </span><em><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">dolmen</span></em><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> includes a variety of features whose only similarity is their use of large stone slabs. This presentation defines a dolmen as a freestanding,</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">rectangular chamber formed by two upright orthostats along each long side, and a single roof slab over the top. </span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dolmens have often been conflated with cairns. This presentation defines a </span><em><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">cairn</span></em><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> as a large pile of small stones. Such features may have contained a low, cist burial chamber; others may simply be piles of field clearance.</span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Distribution</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:</span></strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dolmens, as defined above, concentrate within a limited area of the east rift escarpment of the Jordan Valley, consistent with a local funerary tradition.</span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chronology</span></strong><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: </span></p><span style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Recent dolmen excavations have yielded assemblages that date exclusively to the EB I (c.3700-3000 BC). This talk examines the close spatial relationship between dolmens and EB I settlement sites in a discrete geographical zone.</span> ER -