The Early Bronze Age Fortifications of Tel Bet Yerah

Abstract

Throughout much of its history, Early Bronze Age Bet Yerah (Khirbat al-Karak) was massively fortified. Using previously unpublished data, three superimposed fortification systems are described: the earliest (Fortification A), dated EB II (and possibly late EB I) is a massive mudbrick fortification including a paved direct-entry gateway and gate shrine; the latest (Fortification C), dated to late EB III, is an extraordinary stone and brick system furnished with numerous round and square towers. Between the two lies a rather poorly preserved, though by no means insubstantial, stone and mudbrick wall (Fortification B), also ascribed to EB III. Each of the fortification systems both reflected and reinforced important trends in the urbanization of Tel Bet Yerah and of the southern Levant throughout much of the third millennium BCE.