Steven E Falconer
Biographic Data
| ID | 119910 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven E Falconer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven E |
| FAMILY NAME | Falconer |
| SIGNATURE | FALCONER S E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Arizona State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2460-0839 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 132 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Bronze Age agropastoral management in central Cyprus and along the Jordan Rift
Domestic herbivore mobility and herd management at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus
This study presents stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) from goat, sheep, and cattle teeth excavated from the Bronze Age village of Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. The δ18O of local water sources and converted δ18Odrinking water values are used to demonstrate the dietary inputs for goats as compared to those for sheep and cattle. We infer the browsing and grazing behavior of these taxa to reflect different herd management strate…
Prehistoric Bronze Age Radiocarbon Chronology at Politiko- Troullia , Cyprus
Politiko- Troullia has generated the largest radiocarbon ( 14 C) dataset from a Prehistoric Bronze Age settlement on Cyprus. We present Bayesian modeling of 25 calibrated AMS ages, which contributes to an emerging multi-site 14 C chronology for Cyprus covering most of the Prehistoric Bronze Age. Our analysis places the six stratified phases of occupation at Troullia between about 2050 and 1850 cal BCE, in contrast to a longer estimated occupation…
Bayesian Modeling of a Peripheral Middle Bronze Age Settlement at Zahrat Adh-Dhra‘ 1, Jordan
Analysis of 20 calibrated accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14 C) ages reveals a chronology for the habitation of a unique peripheral settlement at Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1 (ZAD 1), Jordan during the Middle Bronze Age of the Southern Levant. Bayesian modeling distinguishes three phases of occupation between the first settlement at ZAD 1, perhaps as early as about 2050 cal BCE, and its abandonment by 1700 cal BCE. ZAD 1 represents a margina…
Polities and Power
Sacred Spaces and Liminal Behavior in Levantine Temples in Antis
Temples in antis provide clearly defined liminal spaces for ritual behaviors that are readily recognizable both textually and archaeologically. This architectural form and the religious tradition it embodied were remarkably widespread geographically and temporally, spanning the Levant and Greater Syria from the end of the Early Bronze Age until the early Iron Age. Although the Southern Levant has been characterized as highly urbanized during the …
New Ams Chronology for the Early Bronze Iii/Iv Transition at Khirbat Iskandar, Jordan
We present the first Bayesian 14 C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representing continuous occupation across the Early Bronze III/IV interface in the Southern Levant. This new high-precision modeling incorporates 12 calibrated AMS ages from Khirbat Iskandar Area C using OxCal 4.4.4 and the IntCal 20 calibration curve to specify the EB III/IV transition at or slightly before 2500 cal BCE. Our results contribute to the continui…
Agriculture as Metaphor of the Andean State
This chapter explores how agriculture served as a powerful metaphor for the Andean state, shaping its ideology, organization, and relationship with the natural world. Hastorf argues that the Andean state's control and manipulation of agricultural production, particularly through large-scale irrigation systems and terracing, became a central symbol of its power and legitimacy. This agricultural metaphor permeated various aspects of Andean society,…
Crop management and agricultural responses at Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni'aj, Jordan
New Bayesian Radiocarbon Models and Ceramic Chronologies for Early Bronze Iv Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell El-Hayyat, Jordan
We present two new Bayesian 14 C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated AMS ages for Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, located in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan. These freshly augmented suites of carbonized seed dates now include 25 AMS dates from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and 31 AMS dates from Tell el-Hayyat. The modeled founding date for Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj strengthens an emerging high chronolog…
Archaeobotanical inference of intermittent settlement and agriculture at Middle Bronze Age Zahrat adh-Dhra'1, Jordan
A Radiocarbon Sequence from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, Jordan and its Implications for Early Bronze IV Chronology in the Southern Levant
Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, an agrarian Early Bronze IV village in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan, provides a series of 24 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) seed dates spanning seven stratified phases of occupation. Bayesian analysis of these ages reveals that habitation at Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj began between 2600 and 2500 cal BC and ended just before 2000 cal BC. This sequence provides the longest radiocarbon record of occupation for an Early Bronze IV…
Bronze age fuel use and its implications for agrarian landscapes in the eastern Mediterranean
A Stone Plank Figure from Politiko- Troullia , Cyprus
Plank figures are hallmark anthropomorphic depictions that illuminate Bronze Age society on Cyprus. The excavation of a rare limestone plank figure from a public space at Politiko-Troullia is interpreted in conjunction with spatial patterning of ceramic plank figures, plant macrofossils, animal bones, ground stone, spindle whorls, and metallurgical evidence to infer communal behavior at this Early/Middle Cypriot—period settlement. The Politiko-Tr…
Modeling vegetation dynamics in the Southern Levant through the Bronze Age
Household and community behavior at Bronze Age Politiko- Troullia , Cyprus
We investigate intrasite patterns of artifacts and floral and faunal data to interpret household and community behavior at the Middle Cypriot (Bronze Age) village of Politiko-Troullia in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus. Floral evidence indicates cultivation of orchard crops (e.g., olive and grape), as well as the persistence of woodlands that provided wood for fuel. Animal management combined herding of domesticated sheep, goat, pi…
Long-term agrarian landscapes in the Troodos foothills, Cyprus
Spatial and Statistical Inference of Late Bronze Age Polities in the Southern Levant
The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1200 B. C.) marks the earliest opportunity to apply substantial historical archives to the inference of spatially defined polities in the southern Levant. A series of analyses of the Amarna Letters suggests numerous, small, bellicose "city-states" differing considerably in political prominence and demographic composition. We propose quantitative methods for analyzing archaeological settlement data to explore the spat…
Agricultural Intensification and the Secondary Products Revolution Along the Jordan Rift
Society and Polity at Bronze Age Pella
Seeds of Civilization
This paper considers the economic and environmental impacts of emerging regional commerce that accompanied the rise and collapse of early Near Eastern urbanism. We integrate regional data on settlement and vegetation with detailed evidence of rural agriculture from two Bronze Age villages in the Jordan Valley. This approach is explicitly rural, in light of the largely rural character of Levantine civilization, and in response to more orthodox ana…
Archaeological Views from the Countryside
Archaeological Views from the Countryside
Rural Responses to Early Urbanism
Temporal and spatial patterns of faunal, floral, and ceramic deposition reveal several aspects of household and village economy at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Hayyat was a modest farming hamlet (0.5 ha) with 100–150 inhabitants, which was occupied in six major phases between ca. 2100 and 1500 B.C. This timespan covers the entire Middle Bronze Age, commonly considered the heyday of early urbanism in the southern Levant. Ethnographic and ancient histor…
Settlement and Society in the Early Bronze Age I and II Southern Levant
Heartlands and Hinterlands
Comparative rank-size analyses reveal highly variable courses of urbanization in ancient Mesopotamia and the southern Levant during the fourth through early second millennia B.C. While traditional rank-size methods do not consider the effects of archaeological sampling, we propose a revised approach based on Monte Carlo simulation, which incorporates site-recovery rates and demonstrates the advantages of 'full-coverage' survey. We highlight the r…
Seeds of Civilization
This paper considers the economic and environmental impacts of emerging regional commerce that accompanied the rise and collapse of early Near Eastern urbanism. We integrate regional data on settlement and vegetation with detailed evidence of rural agriculture from two Bronze Age villages in the Jordan Valley. This approach is explicitly rural, in light of the largely rural character of Levantine civilization, and in response to more orthodox ana…
Rural Responses to Early Urbanism
Temporal and spatial patterns of faunal, floral, and ceramic deposition reveal several aspects of household and village economy at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Hayyat was a modest farming hamlet (0.5 ha) with 100–150 inhabitants, which was occupied in six major phases between ca. 2100 and 1500 B.C. This timespan covers the entire Middle Bronze Age, commonly considered the heyday of early urbanism in the southern Levant. Ethnographic and ancient histor…
Agricultural Intensification and the Secondary Products Revolution Along the Jordan Rift
Long-term agrarian landscapes in the Troodos foothills, Cyprus
Household and community behavior at Bronze Age Politiko- Troullia , Cyprus
We investigate intrasite patterns of artifacts and floral and faunal data to interpret household and community behavior at the Middle Cypriot (Bronze Age) village of Politiko-Troullia in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus. Floral evidence indicates cultivation of orchard crops (e.g., olive and grape), as well as the persistence of woodlands that provided wood for fuel. Animal management combined herding of domesticated sheep, goat, pi…
New Bayesian Radiocarbon Models and Ceramic Chronologies for Early Bronze Iv Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell El-Hayyat, Jordan
We present two new Bayesian 14 C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated AMS ages for Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, located in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan. These freshly augmented suites of carbonized seed dates now include 25 AMS dates from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and 31 AMS dates from Tell el-Hayyat. The modeled founding date for Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj strengthens an emerging high chronolog…
Modeling vegetation dynamics in the Southern Levant through the Bronze Age
Community, Polity, and Temple in a Middle Bronze Age Levantine Village
The social and economic implications of rural ritual behavior during the development of early urbanized society are inferred from material evidence from households and temple compounds at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Textual sources, primarily from the second millennium BC Syria, show that some temples were dependent upon institutional support (e.g. from palaces), while others were firmly embedded in the domestic economy of their surrounding community…
A Radiocarbon Sequence from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, Jordan and its Implications for Early Bronze IV Chronology in the Southern Levant
Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, an agrarian Early Bronze IV village in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan, provides a series of 24 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) seed dates spanning seven stratified phases of occupation. Bayesian analysis of these ages reveals that habitation at Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj began between 2600 and 2500 cal BC and ended just before 2000 cal BC. This sequence provides the longest radiocarbon record of occupation for an Early Bronze IV…
Bronze age fuel use and its implications for agrarian landscapes in the eastern Mediterranean
Crop management and agricultural responses at Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni'aj, Jordan
Archaeobotanical inference of intermittent settlement and agriculture at Middle Bronze Age Zahrat adh-Dhra'1, Jordan
New Ams Chronology for the Early Bronze Iii/Iv Transition at Khirbat Iskandar, Jordan
We present the first Bayesian 14 C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representing continuous occupation across the Early Bronze III/IV interface in the Southern Levant. This new high-precision modeling incorporates 12 calibrated AMS ages from Khirbat Iskandar Area C using OxCal 4.4.4 and the IntCal 20 calibration curve to specify the EB III/IV transition at or slightly before 2500 cal BCE. Our results contribute to the continui…
Domestic herbivore mobility and herd management at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus
This study presents stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) from goat, sheep, and cattle teeth excavated from the Bronze Age village of Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. The δ18O of local water sources and converted δ18Odrinking water values are used to demonstrate the dietary inputs for goats as compared to those for sheep and cattle. We infer the browsing and grazing behavior of these taxa to reflect different herd management strate…
Prehistoric Bronze Age Radiocarbon Chronology at Politiko- Troullia , Cyprus
Politiko- Troullia has generated the largest radiocarbon ( 14 C) dataset from a Prehistoric Bronze Age settlement on Cyprus. We present Bayesian modeling of 25 calibrated AMS ages, which contributes to an emerging multi-site 14 C chronology for Cyprus covering most of the Prehistoric Bronze Age. Our analysis places the six stratified phases of occupation at Troullia between about 2050 and 1850 cal BCE, in contrast to a longer estimated occupation…
Agriculture as Metaphor of the Andean State
This chapter explores how agriculture served as a powerful metaphor for the Andean state, shaping its ideology, organization, and relationship with the natural world. Hastorf argues that the Andean state's control and manipulation of agricultural production, particularly through large-scale irrigation systems and terracing, became a central symbol of its power and legitimacy. This agricultural metaphor permeated various aspects of Andean society,…
Preliminary Report of the First Season of the Tell el-Hayyat Project
Archeology
Community, Polity, and Temple in a Middle Bronze Age Levantine Village
The social and economic implications of rural ritual behavior during the development of early urbanized society are inferred from material evidence from households and temple compounds at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Textual sources, primarily from the second millennium BC Syria, show that some temples were dependent upon institutional support (e.g. from palaces), while others were firmly embedded in the domestic economy of their surrounding community…
Rural Responses to Early Urbanism
Temporal and spatial patterns of faunal, floral, and ceramic deposition reveal several aspects of household and village economy at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan. Hayyat was a modest farming hamlet (0.5 ha) with 100–150 inhabitants, which was occupied in six major phases between ca. 2100 and 1500 B.C. This timespan covers the entire Middle Bronze Age, commonly considered the heyday of early urbanism in the southern Levant. Ethnographic and ancient histor…
Settlement and Society in the Early Bronze Age I and II Southern Levant
Heartlands and Hinterlands
Comparative rank-size analyses reveal highly variable courses of urbanization in ancient Mesopotamia and the southern Levant during the fourth through early second millennia B.C. While traditional rank-size methods do not consider the effects of archaeological sampling, we propose a revised approach based on Monte Carlo simulation, which incorporates site-recovery rates and demonstrates the advantages of 'full-coverage' survey. We highlight the r…
Archaeological Views from the Countryside
Archaeological Views from the Countryside
Society and Polity at Bronze Age Pella
Seeds of Civilization
This paper considers the economic and environmental impacts of emerging regional commerce that accompanied the rise and collapse of early Near Eastern urbanism. We integrate regional data on settlement and vegetation with detailed evidence of rural agriculture from two Bronze Age villages in the Jordan Valley. This approach is explicitly rural, in light of the largely rural character of Levantine civilization, and in response to more orthodox ana…
Agricultural Intensification and the Secondary Products Revolution Along the Jordan Rift
Spatial and Statistical Inference of Late Bronze Age Polities in the Southern Levant
The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500-1200 B. C.) marks the earliest opportunity to apply substantial historical archives to the inference of spatially defined polities in the southern Levant. A series of analyses of the Amarna Letters suggests numerous, small, bellicose "city-states" differing considerably in political prominence and demographic composition. We propose quantitative methods for analyzing archaeological settlement data to explore the spat…
Long-term agrarian landscapes in the Troodos foothills, Cyprus
Household and community behavior at Bronze Age Politiko- Troullia , Cyprus
We investigate intrasite patterns of artifacts and floral and faunal data to interpret household and community behavior at the Middle Cypriot (Bronze Age) village of Politiko-Troullia in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus. Floral evidence indicates cultivation of orchard crops (e.g., olive and grape), as well as the persistence of woodlands that provided wood for fuel. Animal management combined herding of domesticated sheep, goat, pi…
A Stone Plank Figure from Politiko- Troullia , Cyprus
Plank figures are hallmark anthropomorphic depictions that illuminate Bronze Age society on Cyprus. The excavation of a rare limestone plank figure from a public space at Politiko-Troullia is interpreted in conjunction with spatial patterning of ceramic plank figures, plant macrofossils, animal bones, ground stone, spindle whorls, and metallurgical evidence to infer communal behavior at this Early/Middle Cypriot—period settlement. The Politiko-Tr…
Modeling vegetation dynamics in the Southern Levant through the Bronze Age
Bronze age fuel use and its implications for agrarian landscapes in the eastern Mediterranean
A Radiocarbon Sequence from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, Jordan and its Implications for Early Bronze IV Chronology in the Southern Levant
Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, an agrarian Early Bronze IV village in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan, provides a series of 24 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) seed dates spanning seven stratified phases of occupation. Bayesian analysis of these ages reveals that habitation at Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj began between 2600 and 2500 cal BC and ended just before 2000 cal BC. This sequence provides the longest radiocarbon record of occupation for an Early Bronze IV…
Archaeobotanical inference of intermittent settlement and agriculture at Middle Bronze Age Zahrat adh-Dhra'1, Jordan
Crop management and agricultural responses at Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni'aj, Jordan
New Bayesian Radiocarbon Models and Ceramic Chronologies for Early Bronze Iv Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell El-Hayyat, Jordan
We present two new Bayesian 14 C models using IntCal20 that incorporate 17 new calibrated AMS ages for Early Bronze IV Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and Middle Bronze Age Tell el-Hayyat, located in the northern Jordan Valley, Jordan. These freshly augmented suites of carbonized seed dates now include 25 AMS dates from Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj and 31 AMS dates from Tell el-Hayyat. The modeled founding date for Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj strengthens an emerging high chronolog…
Polities and Power
Sacred Spaces and Liminal Behavior in Levantine Temples in Antis
Temples in antis provide clearly defined liminal spaces for ritual behaviors that are readily recognizable both textually and archaeologically. This architectural form and the religious tradition it embodied were remarkably widespread geographically and temporally, spanning the Levant and Greater Syria from the end of the Early Bronze Age until the early Iron Age. Although the Southern Levant has been characterized as highly urbanized during the …
New Ams Chronology for the Early Bronze Iii/Iv Transition at Khirbat Iskandar, Jordan
We present the first Bayesian 14 C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representing continuous occupation across the Early Bronze III/IV interface in the Southern Levant. This new high-precision modeling incorporates 12 calibrated AMS ages from Khirbat Iskandar Area C using OxCal 4.4.4 and the IntCal 20 calibration curve to specify the EB III/IV transition at or slightly before 2500 cal BCE. Our results contribute to the continui…
Agriculture as Metaphor of the Andean State
This chapter explores how agriculture served as a powerful metaphor for the Andean state, shaping its ideology, organization, and relationship with the natural world. Hastorf argues that the Andean state's control and manipulation of agricultural production, particularly through large-scale irrigation systems and terracing, became a central symbol of its power and legitimacy. This agricultural metaphor permeated various aspects of Andean society,…
Archaeology (26 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (24 works) · Geography (23 works) · Bronze Age (21 works) · History (18 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (14 works) · Bronze (12 works) · History (12 works) · Ancient history (11 works) · Southern Levant (9 works)