The Northern and Southern Levant during the Late Early Bronze Age: A Reappraisal of the “Syrian Connection”

Abstract

During the second half of the 3rd millennium BC the whole Levant was involved in deep historical and cultural transformations. Yet, Syria and Palestine underwent different historical trajectories, and gave different responses to changes, achieving different socio-economic and political systems during this time-span. In north-western Syria, in fact, the floruit of the EB IVA period was followed by a crisis of the local political system, after the Akkadian military campaigns, then succeeded by a period of reorganisation rather than proper collapse, and by cultural continuity rather than break, despite some changes and innovations. On the other hand, during the Early Bronze IV period the Southern Levant witnessed deeper changes in the socio-political and socio-economic organisation, the settlement pattern, and the material culture. In fact, the region reverted to village life, and developed a markedly regionalised cultural horizon. A general “Syrian connection” has always been recognised in the Southern Levant within those centuries, when material culture shows both cultural autonomy and as complex as important phenomena of interaction with and emulation of the northern neighbours. The article seeks to investigate connections and interactions between the two areas at the end of the Early Bronze Age, analysing specific markers within the material culture, aiming at a possible definition of the nature of these relations in a socio-economic and cultural perspective.