PhD Subject: Middle Bronze Age Metallurgy in the Southern Levant: Technology, Provenance, and Social Networks

The Southern Levant Middle Bronze Age (‘MBA’, ca. 1950–1550 BCE) was the height of the Canaanite culture. Both land- and maritime-based trade networks flourished, evident by imports from Egypt, Cyprus, Anatolia, the Aegean, and Mesopotamia. One such material, copper, played a vital role in MBA society. Significant copper resources are known from the Arabah Valley, though evidence for local MBA exploitation has not been well established, as well as from neighboring regions of Cyprus, Egypt, Anatolia, and the Aegean. Notably, Southern Levantine MBA copper sources utilized remain unknown. Preliminary lead isotopic results from Southern Levant MBA objects show results congruent with Arabah Valley and Anatolia/ Aegean copper ores, though most samples exhibit mixing between multiple sources, as confirmed when viewed using a Pb vs 206Pb/204Pb mixing model. My project study seeks to analyze a large sample of MBA Southern Levantine copper-based artifacts, using elemental and lead isotope analysis to determine sources of copper (and lead). Results are to be integrated into a network analysis to investigate ancient Eastern Mediterranean and Near East metal trade networks.

Supervisors: Prof. Naama Yahalom-Mack (HUJI) and Prof. Assaf Yasur-Landau (University of Haifa)

Publications:

• Finn, Daniel M. 2023. "Copper Ingot Sources during the Late Bronze Age". M.A. Thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Yahalom-Mack, Naama, Daniel M. Finn, and Yigal Erel. 2023. “Assessing the Circulation of Arabah Copper (Timna vs. Faynan) from the End of the Late Bronze and Iron Age in the Southern Levant by Combining Lead Isotopic Ratios with Lead Concentrations.” In “And in Length of Days Understanding” (Job 12:12) Essays on Archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond in Honor of Thomas E. Levy, edited by Erez Ben-Yosef and Ian WN Jones, 1181–99. Springer.
• Yahalom-Mack, Naama, Daniel M. Finn, Yigal Erel, Ofir Tirosh, Ehud Galili, and Assaf Yasur-Landau. "Incised Late Bronze Age lead ingots from the southern anchorage of Caesarea." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 41 (2022): 103321.
• Finn, Nurit G., Justin R. Moe, Daniel M. Finn, Keith O. Young, Sara L. Anderson, Eleisha M. Barnett, Maria L. Schmid, and Michael R. Finn. 2022. “Archaeological Excavations at the Montauk Estate: Home of William Larrabee, Iowa’s Twelfth Governor.” Journal of the Iowa Archaeological Society 68: 53–70.

• Member of the Laboratory for Archaeological Materials and Ancient Technologies