Abstract
Our research project entitled “Comparative Studies of Burial Practices of Semitic Ancient Pastoral Nomads” shed light on Bronze Age cairn fields in the northwestern flank of Mt. Bishri, central Syria. A comparative study of a toggle pin from Burial Cairn No. 09 of Wadi Hedaja 1 enabled us to tentatively date them to a time range the end of Early Bronze Age to the beginning of Middle Bronze Age. This paper briefly discusses the dating from another viewpoint, namely, a chronological review of stone and faience beads. Their reexamination shows that the Bishri Bronze Age cairn fields include Types 3 and 16 beads of K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop’s classification, and that similar examples were also found at the Early to Middle Bronze Age settlements along the Middle Euphrates River Basin. Both observations revalidated our previous dating.
