Ricerc@Sapienza

Abstract - In Greater Mesopotamian societies, the ruling elites rooted their power on rural communities mainly through the control on raw material, among which staple food was one of the most important goods. Accumulation and redistribution of food, in ceremonial and administrative contexts, were basic factors for this process, which led to early state formation, and were essential political, social and economic instruments in the hands of the elites.

Until recently, the study of interconnections between the northern and southern Levant has focused on the Early Bronze IV period, in part due to the ill- defined nature of Early Bronze III in the northern Levant. The analysis of north- south connections during Early Bronze III has been limited mostly to the diffusion of particular ware classes in both regions, such as the Red- Black Burnished Ware and the Levantine Combed Ware. Lately, important advancements in the scholarly knowledge on Levantine archaeology have occurred.

Forests in the Mediterranean region have been subject to environmental changes since time immemorial. The region’s geography and location has made it a conducive environment between biomes, resulting in significant biodiversity. Since the beginning of human history, forests have adapted to pressures caused by human development, resulting in a complex socio-ecological balance. These pressures, however, have never been more extreme than they are today.

The beginning of Iron Age in Central Italy witnessed increasing social complexity, urbanization processes and climatic instability. However, understanding the mutual relations of these events as well as their effects on past agriculture is still a complex matter. This research aims at investigating changes in agricultural systems and environmental variability through the analysis of macrobotanical samples retrieved from multiple archaeological contexts dating between the 10th and the 6th century BCE.

The comparison of two sites of Tell es-Sultan and Tall al-Ḥammām, facing each other on the
opposite sides of the Jordan, needs a reliable cultural and chronological correlation. Something which
has been pursued by archaeologists with different methods and approaches: synchronization in time
and culture is never easy. This leads to the issue of relative and absolute chronology. A recent reassessment
of Early Bronze Age absolute chronology of Syria-Palestine, stemmed from a reexamination