| Paleolithic Period | > 8300 BCE* | Prehistoric |
| Neolithic Period | 8300–5000 BCE* | |
| Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) | 8300–5800 BCE* | Emergence of (semi-)sedentary communities |
| Pottery Neolithic (PN) | 5800–5000 BCE* | Emergence of pottery |
| Chalcolithic | 5000–3400 BCE | Emergence of large, stratified communities |
| Early Bronze (EB) | 34000–2000 BCE | |
| EB I | 3400–3050 BCE | Proto-urban |
| EB II | 3050–2700 BCE | Urban density |
| EB III | 2700–2400 BCE | Urban collapse |
| EB IV (Intermediate Bronze, Middle Bronze I) | 2400–2000 BCE | Post-urban |
| Middle Bronze (MB) | 2000–1550 BCE | |
| MB I (IIA) | 2000–1750 BCE | Reoccupation of urban sites |
| MB II (IIB–C) | 1750–1550 BCE | Highly urbanized city-states |
| Late Bronze Age (LB) | 1550–1200 BCE | |
| LB I | 1550–1400 BCE | Reunification of Egypt, incursions to Canaan |
| LB II | 1400–1200 BCE | Amarna age, Egyptian hegemony in Canaan |
| Iron Age | 1200–586 BCE | |
| Iron I | 1200–1000 BCE | Collapse of world powers, arrival of the Sea Peoples, Israel’s pre-monarchic period |
| Iron II | 1000–586 BCE | Israel’s monarchic period |
| Babylonian Period | 586–538 BCE | Fall of Jerusalem to the fall of Babylon |
| Persian Period | 538–333 BCE | Fall of Babylon to the Battle of Issus |
| Hellenistic Period | 333–164 BCE | Battle of Issus to the Maccabean rededication of the Temple |
| Hasmonaean Period | 164–37 BCE | Rededication of the Temple to Herod’s conquest of Jerusalem |
| Roman Period | 37 BCE–325 CE | |
| Herodian (Early Roman) | 37 BCE–70 CE | Herod’s conquest to Titus’s destruction of Jerusalem |
| Late Roman | 70–325 CE | Titus’s destruction of Jerusalem to Constantine’s consolidation of the East |
| Byzantine Period (Late Antiquity) | 325–638 CE | Constantine’s consolidation to the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem |
* Periods marked with an asterisk are uncalibrated radiocarbon dates and thus speculative but roughly conventionalized in scholarship. All other dates are calibrated and therefore more reliable.
Bibliography
- Mazar, Amihai. 2009. Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000–586 B.C.E. New Haven: Yale University Press. Reprint, 1990. New York: Doubleday.
- Dever, William G. 1992. “Palestine, Archaeology of: Bronze and Iron Ages.” AYBD 5:109–14.
- Bar-Yosef, Ofer. 1992. “Palestine, Archaeology of: Prehistoric Periods.” AYBD 5:99–109.
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