The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant: From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700–1000 BCE

Conventional theory described two settlement waves in the Negev Highlands in the third millennium BCE—in the EB II and the Intermediate Bronze Age— and a period with no evidence for stone architecture between them in the EB III. Arad in the Beer-sheba Valley was presented as an EB I–II site, which lay deserted in the EB III. Old and new radiocarbon dates and other lines of evidence from the copper mining districts in the Arabah, Arad and the Negev Highlands make this scenario obsolete. The new data indicate a long period of activity in the south—throughout the Early Bronze and the first half of the Intermediate Bronze Age. Certain changes in the settlement patterns took place in the transition from the EB III to the Intermediate Bronze Age— abandonment of Arad and the rise of central trading sites within the Negev Highlands. Activity in the Negev Highlands was related to the copper industry in the Arabah and transportation of copper to the north and west. Demand for copper in Egypt played an important role in the settlement history of the arid regions: the peak prosperity in the EB III and first half of the Intermediate Bronze Age corresponds to the time of the Old Kingdom in Egypt and deterioration of the Negev system tallies with the collapse of the Old Kingdom ca. 2200 BCE. The data for the third millennium BCE enables the structuring and presentation of a broader model of human activity in the Negev Highlands and neighbouring regions in the Bronze and Iron Ages.

The Negev Highlands arid region (southern Levant) shows evidence of sharp settlement fluctuations, with several periods of strong human activity separated by centuries with no evidence of sedentary life. In this study, we used the palynological method in order to shed light on the region’s demographic history in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Fifty-four samples of pollen were collected and analyzed from secure archaeological contexts in four Negev Highlands sites: Nahal Boqer 66, dated to the Early Bronze Age and Early Intermediate Bronze Age (ca. 3200–2200 BCE); Ein Ziq, dated to the Early Intermediate Bronze Age (ca. 2500–2200 BCE); Mashabe Sade, dated to the Intermediate Bronze Age (ca. 2500–2000 BCE); and Haroa, dated to the Iron Age IIA (ca. late 10th through 9th centuries BCE). Our study revealed no evidence of cereal cultivation, with some hints that the inhabitants’ diets may have included plants gathered from the wild. Only one of the sites, Nahal Boqer 66, showed micro-indicators of animal dung remains, suggesting that the inhabitants herded animals. The palynological evidence did, however, emphasize that the livestock there were not fed or supplemented with agricultural by-products but rather grazed freely on wild vegetation. The pollen data also suggest that all four sites were occupied only during late winter and spring. The activity in the Negev Highlands during the third millennium BCE was probably related to the copper industry in the Arabah and to copper transportation to settled neighboring lands, especially Egypt. A relatively humid climate supported the trade through the Negev Highlands. Deterioration in both climate conditions and settlement activity was documented in the second half of the Intermediate Bronze Age.

Grave Matters: Mediating Corporeal Objects and Subjects through Mortuary Practices

This article presents the role of climate fluctuations in shaping southern Levantine human history from 3600 to 600 BCE (the Bronze and Iron Ages) as evidenced in palynological studies. This time interval is critical in the history of the region; it includes two phases of rise and decline of urban life, organization of the first territorial kingdoms, and domination of the area by great Ancient Near Eastern empires. The study is based on a comparison of several fossil pollen records that span a north-south transect of 220 km along the southern Levant: Birkat Ram in the northern Golan Heights, Sea of Galilee, and Ein Feshkha and Ze'elim Gully both on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The vegetation history and its climatic implications are as follows: during the Early Bronze Age I (∼3600–3000 BCE) climate conditions were wet; a minor reduction in humidity was documented during the Early Bronze Age II–III (∼3000–2500 BCE). The Intermediate Bronze Age (∼2500–1950 BCE) was characterized by moderate climate conditions, however, since ∼2000 BCE and during the Middle Bronze Age I (∼1950–1750 BCE) drier climate conditions were prevalent, while the Middle Bronze Age II–III (∼1750–1550 BCE) was comparably wet. Humid conditions continued in the early phases of the Late Bronze Age, while towards the end of the period and down to ∼1100 BCE the area features the driest climate conditions in the timespan reported here; this observation is based on the dramatic decrease in arboreal vegetation. During the period of ∼1100–750 BCE, which covers most of the Iron Age I (∼1150–950 BCE) and the Iron Age IIA (∼950–780 BCE), an increase in Mediterranean trees was documented, representing wetter climate conditions, which followed the severe dry phase of the end of the Late Bronze Age. The decrease in arboreal percentages, which characterize the Iron Age IIB (∼780–680 BCE) and Iron Age IIC (∼680–586 BCE), could have been caused by anthropogenic activity and/or might have derived from slightly drier climate conditions. Variations in the distribution of cultivated olive trees along the different periods resulted from human preference and/or changes in the available moisture.

A core drilled from the Sea of Galilee was subjected to high resolution pollen analysis for the Bronze and Iron Ages. The detailed pollen diagram (sample/~40 yrs) was used to reconstruct past climate changes and human impact on the vegetation of the Mediterranean zone of the southern Levant. The chronological framework is based on radiocarbon dating of short-lived terrestrial organic material. The results indicate that the driest event throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages occurred ~1250–1100 BCE—at the end of the Late Bronze Age. This arid phase was identified based on a significant decrease in Mediterranean tree values, denoting a reduction in precipitation and the shrinkage of the Mediterranean forest/maquis. The Late Bronze dry event was followed by dramatic recovery in the Iron I, evident in the increased percentages of both Mediterranean trees and cultivated olive trees.Archaeology indicates that the crisis in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age took place during the same period—from the mid- 13th century to ca. 1100 BCE. In the Levant the crisis years are represented by destruction of a large number of urban centres, shrinkage of other major sites, hoarding activities and changes in settlement patterns. Textual evidence from several places in the Ancient Near East attests to drought and famine starting in the mid-13th and continuing until the second half of the 12th century. All this helps to better understand the ‘Crisis Years’ in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the quick settlement recovery in the Iron I, especially in the highlands of the Levant.

Multiple arguments for or against the presence of ‘urban’ settlements in the Early Bronze Age of the southern Levant have identified the need to compare these settlements against their rural hinterlands through multiple lines of evidence. This meta-analysis of zooarchaeological data from the region compares and identifies patterns of animal production, provisioning and consumption between the supposed “urban” and rural sites of the southern Levant from the Early Bronze (EB) against the (more widely recognised urban) Middle Bronze (MB) Ages. It also identifies distinct and regionally specific patterns in animal production and consumption that can be detected between urban and rural sites of the southern Levant. The taxonomic and age profiles from EB Ia and Ib sites do not demonstrate any urban versus rural differentiation patterning, even though fortifications appear in the EB Ib. Beginning in the EB II and clearly visible in the EB III, there is differentiation between rural and urban sites in the taxonomic and age proportions. Differentiation is repeated in the MB II. The clear differentiation between “urban” and rural zooarchaeological assemblages from the EB II-III and MB suggest that rural sites are provisioning the larger fortified settlements. This pattern indicates that these sites are indeed urban in nature, and these societies are organized at the state-level. From the EB II onwards, there is a clear bias in the large centres towards the consumption of cattle and of subadult sheep and goats with a corresponding bias in smaller rural sites towards the consumption of adult sheep and goats and a reduced presence of cattle. After the emergence of this differential pattern, it disappears with the decline in social complexity at the end of the Early Bronze Age, only to come ‘back again’ with the re-emergence of urban settlement systems in the Middle Bronze Age.

This paper provides a new perspective on the long-debated issue of “collapse” at the end of the urban Early Bronze Age III (EB III, traditionally ca. 2300 BCE) in the southern Levant. In the past, the facts on the ground – manifesting the classic characteristics of a devastating collapse (destruction/abandonment) at the end of EB III – appeared to be followed by a rural “dark age” or “pastoral-nomadic” interlude in Early Bronze IV (EB IV), also known as the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA). The “dark age” then ended upon the regeneration of urbanism after 2000 BCE in the Middle Bronze Age (MBA). This conceptualization of dramatic culture change in the Early Bronze Age has dominated the scholarly literature since the mid-20th century, bolstered by the widespread acceptance of evolutionary theories on the collapse of nations and civilizations. Current theoretical constructs on collapse look to the post-collapse period for insights on the process itself. A post-collapse urban-to-rural process, documented by nine continuous occupational phases at the EB III/IV transition, has recently come to light at Khirbat Iskandar, Jordan. This archaeological profile suggests strong local resilience in the aftermath of collapse, evident in the maintenance of traditions and social memory of settled life at the ancestral home. This adaptive cycle militates against traditional “collapse” modeling positing an apocalyptic break in Early Bronze Age civilization; instead, it resonates with resilience and resilience theory. Moreover, a plethora of new evidence has accumulated illuminating a type of “rural complexity” witnessed by a considerable database of EB IV permanent, multi-phased agricultural settlement sites belying the so-called pastoral-nomadic interlude rubric. Applying the construct of societal transformation, the hypothesis driving this research is that archaeological stratification at Khirbat Iskandar supports a process of recovery, resilience, and societal transformation, a reevaluation particularly apropos when contextualized in the new higher Early Bronze Age chronology.

While the environment cannot be considered a ‘ deus ex machina ’ for any event in human history, it is becoming increasingly clear to prehistorians that the extraordinary developments in human social complexity documented in the archaeological record since the beginnings of sedentism in the Late Pleistocene occurred in concert with profound climatic and environmental changes. This chapter investigates settlement patterns in Jordan, Palestine and Israel during a key archaeological transition in the southern Levant, the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age (EBA). We summarise regional settlement location in relation to potential forcing factors which themselves may be indicative of societal and climatic change, such as springs, wadis, routes and permanent sites. We make a geospatial analysis and calculate ‘cost distance’ values between these forcing factors and the settlement data. We then analyse how these cost distance values change over time in different altitudinal belts. We find that the cost distance patterns varied at different altitudes during the transition period. In some altitudinal belts in the EBI and EBA, springs appear to determine settlement location, showing the importance of climate, while in other altitudinal belts formalisation of settlements around the longer-standing sites and routes suggest that socio-political changes may have been more influential in the EBA. The value of this method and the implications of our results are then discussed in the light of existing and emerging research on the transition from the ‘prehistoric’ to the ‘historic’ period.

The Early Bronze Age I–II transition in the southern Levant (c. 3000 BCE) is attested by significant changes in the organization of settlement systems, and economic modes of production and distribution. This study examined settlement patterns in the mountainous Upper Galilee and adjacent regions during the Early Bronze (EB) I–II. The regional settlement history was studied using a systematic survey of archaeological sites, as well as an analysis of all available archaeological data from previous surveys and salvage excavations. This study demonstrates that, despite the complexity of surveying multi-period mountainous sites, a systematic survey can contribute to reconstructing individual site histories and the region’s history as a whole. In the Early Bronze Age, the Mountainous Upper Galilee, usually considered peripheral to the large, newly-established urban centres of the lowlands, played a significant role that has previously been overlooked. In addition, this study offers an integrative highland–lowland model for the changing settlement landscapes at this transition.

The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity, Yahweh before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name and Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God

Dating archaeological sites in an arid environment: A multi-method case study in the Negev Highlands, Israel

Introduction to the Broadening Horizons 4 Conference Proceedings (Affanni Giorgio, Baccarin Cristina, Cordera Laura, Di Michele Angelo, Gavagnin Katia) Settlement patterns and exchange network: Copper Mining Community in Transcaucasia during Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages (Gailhard Nicolas) Circulating through the city: an analysis of movement and urban space of a Northern Mesopotamian city (Tome Andre) A Comparative Analysis of the Cultural Interaction Between the Western and Central Areas of Anatolian in the Third Millennium BC (De Vincenzi Tommaso) The socio-economic landscape of the Early Bronze IV period in the Southern Levant: a ceramic perspective (D'Andrea Marta) The Transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Northern Palestine (Soennecken Katja) Transferred Religion - Can Faith be exchanged? (Gropp Andrea) Palmyra, City and Territory through the Epigraphic Sources (Gregoratti Leonardo) Looking at and beyond Late Chalcolithic Pottery of the Burdur Plain, southwest Turkey (Vandam Ralf - Poblome Jeroen) Architecture and Use of Space in Middle Bronze and Late Bronze Ages in Mesopotamian Temples (Di Michele Angelo) Socio-economic reconstruction of ancient societies based on archaeological, historical or environmental records: Demolition and Restoration at Giza: the Egyptian Sense of History and Heritage (Gilli Barbara) The Modelling Skulls from the Ancient Near East (Marchand Florine) The 'Hammerhead Bowls' in Syrian-Jezirah: a Case-Study from Tell Barri (Raccidi Mattia) Wagons and Wine in Early Bronze Age central Anatolia (Whalen Jess) The Early-Middle Bronze Age transition in Transcaucasia: the Bedeni pottery case (Carminati Eleonora) Human Iconography on Metal Vessels From Bronze Age Middle Asia (Morello Martina) The Oracle at Didyma, Hittite duddumar and the mercy of the gods (Walker Robert) Italian Excavations at Nimrud: Preliminary Studies about Shell, Glass and Stone Small Finds (Somma Lorenzo) Ceramics from Achaemenid and Post Achaemenid Qaleh Kali (Tappeh Servan, Jinjun), Iran: Political Reality versus Cultural Actuality (McRae Iona Kat) Influence of the social class division on the Sassanian burial rituals (224-650 AD) (Farjamirad Mahdokht) New Sealings from Old Nisa (Manassero Niccolo) The Islamic relief-moulded jugs from Tell Barri (Syria) (Pappalardo Raffaella) Investigating the origin of Early Bronze Age monumental chamber tombs in the Middle Euphrates Valley (Baccarin Cristina) Application of new technologies in archaeological research: Unlocking stories from objects: Some Ancient Near Eastern case-studies based on new research at the British Museum (Simpson St John) Inferential analysis in archaeology: the Chi Square and its application to ceramic studies. A case study from Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age pottery of Qatna (Iamoni Marco) Organic Remains from Middle Bronze Age Ceramic Vessels at Tell Ahmar (North Syria) (Perini Silvia) Close Encounters between Archaeology and Archaeometry in Cyprus (Chelazzi Francesca - Davit Patrizia) Basalt Vessels Distribution in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age (Squitieri Andrea) Broadening the Horizons of Space and Place. A new interdisciplinary, multiscalar approach on settlement patterns (Andreou Georgia Marina) New technologies in archaeological research at Palmyra: the case of the Italian-Syrian Mission PAL.M.A.I.S. (Palmieri Lilia - Rossi Giorgio) A Complete Operational Sequence of a Bone Industry Element from the Northern Near East: a Neolithic bevelled tool (Taha Buchra) Probable cases of leprosy in two skulls from the Koc-Oba Kurgan (Kazakhstan) (Pedrosi Maria Elena - Mariotti Valentina - Belcastro Maria Giovanna) Impact of human dynamics on landscape evolution: Frontiers and Fortifications in Assyria: an introduction (Morello Nathan) Exploitation of the natural environment and sustenance strategies: Iron Age Water Supply Systems regarding agriculture at al Madam, Sharjah (U.A.E.) (Del Cerro L. Carmen) The Jaghjagh river valley during the Roman period (II-IV century CE) (Palermo Rocco) Posters: Further Remarks about Lithic Production at Akarcay Tepe (Middle Euphrates Valley) during the Late PPNB (Borrell Ferran) Parthian period storage jars from the south west building in Old Nisa (Ceccarini Giampaolo) The TESS Database for the Cataloguing of the Mosaics of Crete (Greece) (Da Pieve Paola) The Defences of Hatra: a Revaluation through the Archive of the Italian Expedition (Foietta Enrico) A new Assessment of the End of the Oxus Civilization (Southern Central Asia, ca. 1750-1500 / 1400 BCE): Overview of the Transformations of the Society (Luneau Elise) Fortification Systems in Central and Lower Mesopotamia Between the Third and the First Half of the Second Millennium BC: an Overview (Zingarello Melania)

We report results of palynological investigation of a core of sediments extracted from the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. The core was sampled at high resolution for both palynological analysis (a sample was taken c. every 40 years) and radiocarbon dating. The article focuses on the Early Bronze and Intermediate Bronze Ages, c. 3600–1950 BC. The results enable reconstruction of the vegetation and thus climate in the lake's fluvial and alluvial catchment, which includes large parts of northern Israel and Lebanon and south-western Syria. The study sheds light on topics such as changes in olive cultivation through time and regions, processes of urbanization and collapse and settlement expansion and retraction in the arid zones.

The first urban culture of southern Levant collapsed and the first period of urbanisation of Canaan (Early Bronze Age I-III) terminated at around 4200 yrs BP. The Canaanites abandoned their walled cities, dispersed and underwent pastoralisation. However, the urban centres of southern Canaan were not destroyed. This fact may point to responsibility of the environmental factor and makes influence influence of anthropogenic factors uncertain, along with the most popular Amorite invasion/destruction hypothesis. A tremendous climatic change occurred at that time in many regions, affecting cultures and civilisations of the Ancient Near East and resulting in abandonment of cities, migrations and great civilizational changes. In southern Levant, virtually all cities were left in ruins with a mysterious exception in Transjordan where four cities: Aroer, Ader, Khirbet Iskander and Iktanu survived and existed throughout the period. Most probably when climatic conditions in Cisjordan excluded possibility of urban life, the ones in Transjordan conditions remained unchanged or altered in a very limited scale. It is now clear that after a period with quite humid and warm climate, the precipitation greatly diminished after 4200 yrs BP in a littoral zone of eastern Mediterranean. A part of Transjordan, probably due to presence of the Dead Sea that somehow created conditions that influenced precipitation, remained a climatic niche with decent rainfall that enabled concentration of population in and around big urban centres and continuation of urban civilisation. Warming in a littoral zone changed dew point temperature preventing formations of clouds above western slopes of Judean and Samarian Hills. Moist air, prevented from condensation was transported eastwards where it could reach ascending currents appearing over the Dead Sea. Masses of air with water vapour moving upwards could form rainy clouds in Transjordan.

ABSTRACTTel Hazor is one of only a few sites in Israel where remains of the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA) in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC were found on top of Early Bronze III (EB III) city remains. A probe excavation was held at Hazor in 2017 to explore the chronological relation between the EB III and the IBA occupation. The radiocarbon (14C) absolute dates generated from this probe excavation show that following the EB III city demise, the site was abandoned for up to a few hundred years before it was resettled in the IBA.14C dates obtained from the last level of the EB III city are well before 2500 BCE, fully aligned with the recent “High Chronology” for the EBA in the southern Levant. The excavation also produced dates associated with IBA “Black Wheel-Made Ware” vessels, which were found in large numbers at Hazor.