Isotopic Evidence for Early Trade in Animals between Old Kingdom Egypt and Canaan.

Elizabeth R Arnold,Lindsay E Babcock,Haskel J Greenfield,Itzhaq Shai,Aren M Maeir,Gideon Hartman,Xiaoyan Yang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0157650

Elizabeth R Arnold, Lindsay E Babcock + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157650

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Abstract

Isotope data from a sacrificial ass and several ovicaprines (sheep/goat) from Early Bronze Age household deposits at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel provide direct evidence for the movement of domestic draught/draft and husbandry animals between Old Kingdom Egypt (during the time of the Pyramids) and Early Bronze Age III Canaan (ca. 2900–2500 BCE). Vacillating, bi-directional connections between Egypt and Canaan are known throughout the Early Bronze Age, but here we provide the first concrete evidence of early trade in animals from Egypt to Canaan.

Highlights

Trade and cultural connections between Egypt and ancient Canaan (= the southern Levant) are known from many periods, commencing with the Chalcolithic period [1]
The accepted view was that intensive connections between Egypt and the Levant existed during the preceding EB I and EB II periods, while during the EB III, direct trade between Egypt and Canaan ceased or at least was substantially curtailed [3,4,5,6,7,8]
Setting mean annual precipitation (MAP) (Mean Annual Precipitation) to 600mm/yr, with Paleocene and Eocene 87Sr/86 Sr bedrock of 0.7077–0.7078, the resulting 87Sr/86 Sr rendzina range is 0.7084–0.7085 [32,33], which characterizes the area to the east of the site

Summary

Introduction

Trade and cultural connections between Egypt and ancient Canaan (= the southern Levant) are known from many periods, commencing with the Chalcolithic period [1]. The accepted view was that intensive connections between Egypt and the Levant existed during the preceding EB I and EB II periods (though of fluctuating nature and mechanisms), while during the EB III, direct trade between Egypt and Canaan ceased or at least was substantially curtailed [3,4,5,6,7,8]. Archaeological evidence for these connections include both mundane (such as various agricultural products, fish from Egypt and oil from Canaan) and prestige objects (such as stone vessels and decorated stone palettes from Egypt, decorated pottery from Canaan) [3,4,5,6,7,9]. There is no doubt that exchange relationships continued, albeit on a much smaller scale, during the EB III

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