Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: The Middle Bronze Age: The Zenith

of the Urban Canaanite Era

Author(s): William G. Dever
Source: The Biblical Archaeologist , Sep., 1987, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Sep., 1987), pp. 148-177
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The American Schools of
Oriental Research

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 Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine

The Middle Bronze Age

The Zenith of the Urban Canaanite Era

by William G. Dever
Archaeological periods. Sometime was halted, and improved conditions
A brief look at the succes-
sion of cultures in ancient
Palestine might almost
around 2000 B.C.E. the long process
of collapse in the southern Levant
soon set the stage for a sudden
revival of urban life, ushering in
convert us to a cyclical what is termed the Middle Bronze
view of history. It seems that civili- Age (often abbreviated as MB).
zations rose briefly, only to fall, then The Middle Bronze I-III termi-
repeated the process over and over. Sometime around nology that has recently been sug-
In this series for Biblical Archaeolo- gested (Dever 1980; Gerstenblith
gist we have already surveyed the
first such cycle (Richard 1987), in
2000 B.C.E. the 1980, 1983: 2-3), and which is used
here, retains the conventional three
which the initial urban phase in the long process of phases of Middle Bronze first dis-
Early Bronze I-III periods (around tinguished in the 1920s by William
3400-2350/2300 B.C.E.) collapsed collapse in the E Albright at Tell Beit Mirsim in his
toward the end of the third millen-
Southern Levant Middle Bronze IIA-C. The changed
nium B.C.E. This was followed by a numerical designation, however, is
"dark age" of several centuries dura- was halted. A based on the current recognition
tion in Early Bronze IV (around that Albright's Middle Bronze I is
2350/2300-2000 B.C.E.), a period sudden revival of not the first phase of the true Middle
marked by a massive disruption and Bronze Age in the cultural sequence
dislocation of population from the urban life ushered of Palestine; rather, it is the last
urban centers and a reversion to a phase of the Early Bronze Age (now
pastoral nomadic life-style. But the
in the Middle generally termed Early Bronze IV-
light was soon to dawn again, and
the archaeological record reflects it Bronze Age. Dever 1980; Richard 1987). Simply
abandoning the older term, though,
brilliantly. would mean that the Middle Bronze

Comparative Chronology
Palestine Egypt
Present Terms Other Terms Dates B.C.E.
Albright Kenyon Israeli
Middle Bronze I MB IIA MB I MB IIA 2000-1800 Middle Kingdom
(Twelfth and
Thirteenth
Middle Bronze II MB IIB 1800-1650 Dynasties)
MB II MB IIB

Middle Bronze III MB IIC 1650-1500 Second Intermediate

(Fourteenth-Seven
Dynasties)

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 149

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 The great mound of Shechem, situated
between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal in
the Samaria hills, was the creation of Middle
Bronze engineers. They put up enormous
earthen embankments surrounded by mas-
sive walls, thus transforming a low, vulner-
able rise in the pass into a seemingly impreg-
nable fortress. Shown here is an exterior view
of wall A at Shechem. With its massive
cyclopean masonry built in typical inward-
sloping or "battered" construction, this was
both a retaining wall and a first line of de-
fense. Inside of it, leading up to the inner
wall B, was a tamped chalk glaqis. The
mound would have been an imposing sight.
Despite its indomitable appearance, how-
ever, Shechem has three layers of the ash
of destruction-evidence of violence shared
by many other Middle Bronze sites in Pales-
tine. Unless otherwise noted, photographs
and drawings of Shechem courtesy of
William G. Dever.

148 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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sequence would begin, rather awk-
wardly, with Middle Bronze II. Thus
Kenyon (1973) and others have re-
ferred to Albright's Middle Bronze
IIA as Middle Bronze I, and we carry
The New Archaeology
this approach to its logical conclu-
sion, adding Middle Bronze II and
Middle Bronze III.
N ew archaeology is a term coined by several Americanist archaeologists
in the late sixties and early seventies for a new-and then highly con-
The change in terminology is troversial-approach to New World archaeology. The new archaeology dif-
thus partly a matter of newer percep- fered from the old largely in arguing for the substitution of an overall theo-
tions of the transition between the retical framework that was in a sense less historical and more anthropological
and scientific.
Early Bronze and Middle Bronze
The new school contended that the traditional approach, which was
periods, as well as a means of keep-
basically concerned with studying culture history, had proven deficient. It had
ing the system of nomenclature
been too preoccupied with the relative dating, comparison, and classification
consistent and as convenient as pos- of regional archaeological assemblages. The principal tool employed was
sible. It must be noted, however, that usually typology, the exhaustive cataloguing of artifact types and their distri-
all terminologies agree on the essen- bution. The major goal was setting up a relative chronology of the develop-
tial unity and continuity of the sev- ment of types, usually with the assumption that charting the diffusion of
eral phases of the Middle Bronze artifacts could adequately account for cultural contact and change. But
Age in Palestine as a historical the traditional approach, argued the new archaeologists, remained merely
and cultural entity. Most Israeli descriptive; because of its narrow perspective it lacked true explanatory
archaeologists even go so far as only potential. The ultimate goal of archaeology, in the new view, should be a
science of cultural evolution.
acknowledging two phases, arguing
that there is still an insufficient The new archaeology demanded nothing less than a radical rethinking of
the fundamental methods and objectives of archaeology. The debate, which
stratigraphic and ceramic basis for
continued into the early 1980s in Americanist circles, was marked initially by
subdividing the second phase into a a bewildering variety of proposals and counterproposals, as well as by heated
second and third phase (Kempinski polemics. The leading American journals and the programs of the annual
1983). American authorities, on meetings of professional organizations like the Society of American Archae-
the other hand, generally retain ology reflected the trends. The proliferating literature gradually revealed,
Albright's threefold division, basing however, despite some extremist positions, a growing consensus.
their view on the fine-grained strati- Today, there is general agreement that the new archaeology is here to stay,
graphic sequence produced by recent and the significant trends in theory and method may now be enumerated
excavations, especially those con- somewhat as follows. As we shall see, several of these trends have had an
ducted at Shechem and Gezer. impact on Old World archaeology as well.
An ecological approach. This entails the study of sites in their total en-
There is also broad agreement
vironmental, as well as historical and cultural, settings. The fundamental
on several other aspects of the peri-
assumption is that culture is partly (though, of course, not exclusively) an
od. First, the Middle Bronze Age adaptation to basic physical factors, such as geographical situation, climate
represents not only a period of rapid and rainfall, natural resources, possibilities for exploiting plants and animals,
recovery and reurbanization after access to natural trade routes, and the like. One may adopt here a version of
the hiatus in Early Bronze IV but is, general systems theory, a theory first developed by economic geographers and
in fact, the zenith of urban develop- currently employed in many of the natural and social sciences today. The
ment in the long Bronze Age in Pales- fundamental principle of this theory is that any system, biological or social, is
tine (about 3400-1200 B.C.E.). Second, the result of the complex interaction of many components, and the system
Palestine was less isolated than it either grows or declines as a result of the changing balance (homeostasis) it is
had been in Early Bronze; indeed, it able to maintain. Subsystems of a culture, such as agriculture and other
economic strategies or population growth, will all preserve evidence to some
was so much an integral part of Syria
extent in the archaeological record and should be investigated as fully as pos-
that it may be properly regarded
sible. Central place theory may also be employed to study settlement patterns,
as simply the southern portion of the relation of sites to each other, urban-rural dynamics, and the function of
"Greater Canaan," whose existence marketing economics.
is well documented in the literary Multidisciplinary strategies. The broader objectives of the ecological
texts of the time, comprising approx- approach outlined above require the adoption of methods beyond the tradi-
imately modern coastal and south- tional tools of stratigraphy and typology. Thus the new archaeology pioneered
central Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the many innovative methods in fieldwork and analysis, often borrowed from
West Bank, Israel, and, probably, the other disciplines. Today, alongside traditional skilled excavators and ceramic
northern Sinai. Third, the geograph-

150 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 ical-historical entity thus demar-
cated may be designated Canaanite
experts, the modern dig staff may include geologists, geomorphologists,
climatologists, physical and cultural anthropologists, paleobotanists and
in a linguistic as well as cultural
paleozoologists, historians of technology, computer programmers, and other sense, since that term is well attested
specialists in allied disciplines. Thus a wide variety of data are collected, in contemporary texts. Indeed, the
term Canaanite now occurs even
analyzed, and integrated into a systemic reconstruction of a past culture.
Quantitative methods of analysis. The collection of so much more, and earlier, in Syria in the Ebla archive
more complex, data entails an attempt to quantify. This is necessary not only of the twenty-fourth and twenty-thi
to deal efficiently with a mass of information but also to provide meaningful centuries B.C.E., where a parallel
statistics that other disciplines can utilize. Increasingly, computers are term, Amorite, seems to refer to t
coming into use to process the new data. For example, radiocarbon dating and nonurban, or village-pastoral, ele-
neutron activation analysis to fingerprint the source of the clays used in
ment of the dimorphic population
ceramic production both depend upon computer counting. Even seed and
(Matthiae 1981). And, of course, bo
bone samples may be so voluminous that they are unmanageable without
computer analysis.
terms are correctly remembered a
A scientific (or nomothetic) orientation. The heavy borrowing from the
applied to Palestine by the writers
natural sciences and the desire to make archaeology a more systematic dis- the Hebrew Bible centuries later (o
cipline inevitably suggested to some new archaeologists that archaeology the Amorites, see further Luke 196
should itself aim at true scientific status. Thus it was argued that archaeolo- Buccellati 1966; Dever 1981). Near
gists should not merely excavate to "see what is there," however responsibly, 400 Middle Bronze sites are known
but should deliberately formulate and test hypotheses against the archaeo- in Palestine, but the basic archaeo-
logical record. Moreover, they should do so with the goal of arriving at univer- logical framework for the period has
sal laws governing the cultural process, laws that would then be capable of been elaborated over many years from
verification by prediction-exactly as in the natural sciences. Not all were so
such large tell-excavations as Tell
explicitly scientific but nearly all soon adopted research designs that were
Beit Mirsim (1926-1932), Megiddo
deliberately focussed on solving certain very specific problems-sometimes
traditional historical problems but more often problems derived from a (1926-1939), Jericho (1952-1958),
broader cultural-anthropological perspective. Hazor (1955-1958), Shechem (1957-
Behavioral-processual objectives. A natural outgrowth of the above trends 1973), Gezer (1964-1974), and Aphek
was the attempt to move beyond the older descriptive-historical goals of (1973-1986). More recently, many
archaeology, beyond the exclusive concern with artifacts and dates and iso- smaller sites and regional surveys
lated events, toward an understanding of human behavior in all its dimen- have added appreciably to the pic-
sions-indeed toward an explanation of the cultural process itself. Admittedly, ture and have brought it into better
this is an unattainable goal but it has broadened the horizons of archaeology perspective.
today and made it infinitely more exciting. Historical reconstruction. As much
Thus the new archaeology, which first developed in Americanist circles
as archaeology has revolutionized our
more than twenty years ago, made a somewhat belated impact on Near Eastern
knowledge of Palestine, or southern
and Syro-Palestinian archaeology in the seventies and eighties. Not all of its
Canaan, in the first half of the second
agenda has been adopted; and, because it was pioneered by anthropologists on
relatively recent and simple New World sites, it is not totally applicable to the millennium B.C.E., we are still not in
long historical sequence of complex Middle Eastern mounds. But aspects of a position to write a full history of
the new look are evident everywhere in our field: broader research designs, the Middle Bronze Age. Although
more sophisticated presentations at annual meetings and in publications, there are growing numbers of special-
more ecological and interdisciplinary projects, more liaison with anthropology ist studies, we have only a few at-
and the social sciences, and, particularly, a greater concern with professional tempts at a synthesis of the data.
and disciplinary status. It may be said simply that the older style archaeology Following Albright's early, funda-
of previous generations-always something of an amateur enterprise, and mental treatments (perhaps best
really a branch of biblical and theological studies-has finally come of age.
Although now an independent, secular discipline, Syro-Palestinian archae-
summarized in 1940; see also 1964),
the major archaeological summaries
ology today draws much from and contributes much to these and many other
are the masterly treatment of the
disciplines.
For more information, see William G. Dever, "The Impact of the 'New broader historical context by Ben-
Archaeology' on Syro-Palestinian Archaeology," Bulletin of the American yamin Mazar (1968; see also 1970),
Schools of Oriental Research, number 242 (1981), pages 15-29, and "Syro- an authoritative analysis of the
Palestinian and Biblical Archaeology," pages 31-74 in The Hebrew Bible and sites and stratigraphy by Kathleen
Its Modern Interpreters, edited by D. A. Knight and G. M. Tucker (Philadel- Kenyon (1973), and briefer overviews
phia: Fortress, 1980); G. Ernest Wright, "The 'New' Archaeology," The Biblical by G. Ernest Wright (1971) and myself
Archaeologist, volume 38 (1975), numbers 3 and 4, pages 104-15. (Dever 1976, 1977-both with
something of the history of scholar-

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 151

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ship). Syria remains less well known this view, culture is a uniquely
archaeologically, although it has human adaptation that cannot be To understand
yielded vastly more textual remains understood apart from the complex
(see Tocci 1960; Klengel 1969; Kupper interrelationships of a number of Middle Bronze
1973; and for the archaeology add subsystems, all of which leave traces
now Matthiae 1984). of patterned, human behavior in we must do more
We readily recognize the pioneer- material-culture remains, in the
ing achievements of the previous archaeological record, when properly than merely com-
generation or two of scholarship,
upon which our present understand-
observed and interpreted. Such sys-
temic components are: response to
pile a chronology
ing rests. It would be fair to say, how-
ever, that the preoccupation of that
environmental factors; settlement
distribution and type; subsistence
of great public an
generation with stratigraphy and and economy; technology; social political events.
problems of ceramic chronology, as structure; political organization;
well as models drawn largely from ideology, including art and religion;We must look at
what we may call "political history," and the larger setting of inter-
culture in all of its
resulted in a somewhat narrow pic- national relationships. The systemic
ture. Currently, newer approaches, approach is relatively new and has dimensions.
with models drawn more from an- not yet had time to produce suffi-
thropology and the natural sciences cient data to answer all the questions
(see Dever 1981 and the accompany- that we are now asking. I believe,
ing sidebar), are beginning to make however, that it is salutary, and thusFinally, the hundreds of small Early
their impact on Middle Bronze stud- I shall employ its basic categories asBronze IV villages and pastoral en-
ies. The ultimate objective, of course,an outline in what follows. campments in the marginal zones,
is to write a socioeconomic history mostly in Transjordan and the Negeb
of Palestine in this period. We are al-Settlement Patterns and Types Sinai desert, were abandoned, most
ready gaining a new perspective In Palestine, the revival of town life -
of them permanently, as the popula-
through several analyses of settle- and with it the beginning of a recog-tion moved back to the central re-
ment patterns and demographic nizable, distinctive new archaeologi- gions. The brief transition between
trends (Gophna 1984; Broshi and cal phase termed Middle Bronze- Early Bronze IV and Middle Bronze I
Gophna 1986; Mabry 1986). One of best seen first in a radical shift in
is witnessed the most dramatic shift of
the most ambitious studies is an the distribution, size, and character settlement patterns in the history of
attempt to employ the "central place of the settlements. A great transfor- Palestine. As we shall see, there was
theory" of economic geography to the mation took place just after approxi- also a nearly complete change in
distribution and relationship of both mately 2000 B.C.E. Nearly all the old technology, economic basis, social
the urban and rural Middle Bronze urban Early Bronze tell-sites, many ofstructure, and political organization
sites, so as to place these sites in them abandoned for centuries, were between approximately 2000 and
their full ecological and cultural set-reoccupied. Before very long they in- 1800 B.C.E., as urbanism increasingly
ting (Kotter 1986). Even treatments creased in area and density of settle- took hold. (For more on the Middle
of older themes-such as fortifica- ment, and soon they boasted impres-Bronze I period, see the r6sum6 of
tions, or chronology, or Palestine's sive new fortifications. In addition, Dever 1976, with full references; see
relation to the so-called Hyksos pe- many new sites were founded in pre- also Gerstenblith 1980, 1983;
riod in Egypt-are today much more viously unsettled regions during thisTubb 1983).
holistic. These are attempts to see initial phase (Middle Bronze I), The urban character of Middle
greatly expanding the area of settle- Bronze is reflected not only in the
the larger picture, to get at culture in
all its dimensions, not merely "his- ment along the coast and well up more nucleated and growing popula-
tory" (which usually meant chiefly into the hill country. Here the con- tion but also in the various types of
the chronology of great public and fluence of prime agricultural land, sites and their relationship to each
political events). access to trade routes, and defensible other. Using a modified form of loca-
One of the more important of conditions favored urban growth. tional analysis employed by modern
the new approaches to archaeology And, indeed, most of these new economic geographers (a common-
will be employed here-that is, a Middle Bronze towns, although small sense application of the central place
systemic approach (resting specifi- at the outset, continued to develop theory discussed in the accompany-
cally on general systems theory; foruntil they became major urban cen- ing sidebar), several recent studies
an orientation, see Dever 1987). In ters before the end of the period. have concentrated not so much on

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 Middle Bronze Sites
By about 1800
B.C.E., 65 percent Achzib

of the population Nahariyeh

Acco
lived in large
fortified cities.
The proliferation
of these is the
most character- Mevorakh

istic feature of %14

the period.

the few large urban centers, or city-

states, as previous scholars did, but
rather upon the relationship of these
centers to each other and to the hin-
terland. It appears that the nearly
400 known Middle Bronze Age sites
in Palestine can be grouped into three
categories, arranged in a three-tiered Tel Mor
hierarchy: large urban sites, about 20
to 175 acres, comprising some 5 per-
cent of the total; medium-sized
towns, about 7 to 20 acres, account-
ing for about 10 percent; and villages
and hamlets of about 1 to 7 acres,
making up about 85 percent (Kotter
1986). These data yield several in-
teresting results when analyzed. For
instance, demographic projections
(Mabry 1986) indicate that by the
Middle Bronze I period, some 65
percent of the population already
lived in a relatively few large fortified
cities of 50 acres or more; neverthe-
less, almost half of the settlements
were smaller than 2 acres. Cross-
cultural studies, both ancient and
modern, indicate that such three- been a true state in terms of central- planning, and especially in defensive
tiered, hierarchically arranged settle- ized administration. systems of the Middle Bronze Age.
ment patterns invariably character- The proliferation of massive fortifi-
ize a highly urbanized culture. Thus, Walled Cities cations is the single most character-
the larger sites were undoubtedly A combination of urban growth, istic feature of the fully developed
true city-states, dominating an complex social organization, in- phases of the period. This was no
economic hinterland, even though creased prosperity, and advanced doubt a response in part to the grow-
Palestine as a whole may not have technology may be observed in town- ing competition of local city-states,

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 153

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but it may also have been a conse- small chambers or guardrooms on
quence of the threat of international
intervention. These complex defense
The complexity each side (see Naumann 1971; Gre-
gori 1986).
works also imply, however, a supe- of MB defense Almost always this inner line of
rior engineering and industrial capa- defense is augmented with massive,
bility. More important, they reflect works is evidence steep earthen and plaster embank-
a highly centralized system of ments along the outer face. Farther
planning and deployment of men for superior downslope there may be an outer
and materiel-that is, an efficient revetment or retaining wall, and
socioeconomic organization that engin
0 0

sometimes beyond that a fosse (or

can produce surpluses, as well as a their massiveness dry moat) with its own counter-
bureaucracy that can control and, if scarp or wall. The earthworks, often
necessary, enforce public policy. (For
earlier studies, see Parr 1968; G. R.
suggests an termed terre pisee constructions, or
glacis, are among the most typical
H. Wright 1968; Dever 1973, 1974; appreciation of and intriguing elements. Each differs,
Seger 1975.) since they were designed for local
In seeking to chart the stages in psychological terrain, and they were constructed
Middle Bronze urban development, quite ingeniously of whatever local
scholars seem inevitably to have warfare. soils and fill materials were avail-
defined urban as meaning fortified, able. Yet the purpose of each earth-
and thus they have been especially work, however different, seems the
concerned with determining when (that is, before about 1800 B.C.E.). same: to consolidate and augment
the earliest city-walls emerged. But beginning with Middle Bronze the tell slopes, as well as to create a
Yigael Yadin questioned the assump- II, and continuing until the end of system of barriers for any attackers
tion, held by nearly all archaeologists Middle Bronze III, the archaeological
(see Parr 1968). The term glacis, from
since Albright, that defense systems record at nearly every site shows a the typical medieval free-fire zone
began in the first phase, Middle continual process of defensive con- surrounding the city- or castle-wall,
Bronze I, and tried in fact to date all structions. One element is added is probably a misnomer. These fills
the city-walls to Middle Bronze II atop another, in an almost bewilder-and plastered embankments do not
(Yadin 1973, 1978). The majority ing array and variety, as though eachseem designed to protect against
opinion, however, based on the latest city tried to outdo its neighbors. Notchariots, as Kenyon supposed, al-
excavations, holds that many sites only are all the larger sites fortified, asthough such vehicles were a formi-
were fortified early, by the nineteenth might be predicted, but even towns dable weapon being introduced at
century B.C.E. at the latest (see Dever and villages as small as 2 to 4 acres just this time. Rather, as Yadin
1976; Gerstenblith 1983). Among are surrounded by city-walls, such asshowed (1955), the embankments
these early walled towns would be the tiny coastal fort of Mevorakh, orwere probably a defense against the
Achzib and Acco in the north, as the small hill-country site of Shiloh. Mesopotamian-style battering ram;
well as a group of Sharon Plain sites Indeed, scarcely a single excavated the steep slopes and outer walls were
(Tel Zeror, Tel Poleg, Tel Burga, Middle Bronze Age site in Palestine meant to keep the ram away from
Yabneh-yam), and especially Aphek, has failed to yield formidable the principal city-wall, and also to
at the headwaters of the Yarkon fortifications. make the ram vulnerable to the
River. The latter is now one of our The basic defensive element is, defenders atop the wall.
most important Middle Bronze I of course, a city-wall, usually con- Whatever the exact rationale of
sites, thanks to the excavations of sisting of a high mudbrick super- the builders may have been, the de-
Moshe Kochavi and others since structure on a stone socle or foun- fense systems of the Middle Bronze
1973, which have revealed two phasesdation. Often the main wall is of Age exhibit two striking features.
of the city-wall and a "palace" that cyclopean masonry, with rough- First, there is an almost endless vari-
must be dated fairly early in Middle hewn stone blocks 8 to 10 feet long ety of constructional elements-all,
Bronze I (Kochavi and Beck 1976; and weighing a ton or more, laid to a however, well integrated. Second,
Kochavi and others 1979, specificallywidth of anywhere from 20 to 50 feet. there is an attempt at mass, almost
refuting Yadin). The Middle Bronze Age city-gate is as though psychological warfare were
Thus many of the larger sites inof a standard type, apparently derived being employed. The cumulative
Palestine had already been fortified from Syria and Anatolia, with three system not only required an enor-
with city-walls and gates before the entryways marked by pairs of oppos- mous investment of resources but it
end of the Middle Bronze I period ing stone piers, and in between two must also have been the work of

154 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 0 5 m Temp
Ph 3

Ph 2-

Wall B Casemate Wall E tE

Ph 4-- 3 -Ph I -as"" -.
Altar
Ph3-2 Palace
Ph 2

Building 7300 -Ph

Wall A Building 720 Northwest
Ph 3- 2 Gate Section
Ph 5 -1 Section SA
N Section Wall A Addition Ph 3 C
/ A "Peephole"

Above: Plan of major Middle Bronze installations at Shechem around the Northwest Gate. In
has been narrowed so that only one chariot at a time could pass through it. On the left of t
the "peephole" in outer wall A. On the right is a temple (building 7300). Below: Schematic se
area at Shechem. On the far right is wall A; built on a 3-meter-thick foundation, it continued
The earliest building phases, shown at the bottom of the drawing, rest on virgin soil or bed
phases (phases 5 and 4); eventually this area was filled in. Wall Bwas the original city-wall, 1
and 1), the casemate walls and buildings such as the barracks were added over the ruins of t
here all occurred within Middle Bronze II-III. Aerial photograph courtesy of Pictorial Archiv

' _3_sem
E e , Wall A
Building 7200 Addition, Ph 3
Ph 2A Threshold Ph 3-2
-20 m-20 m

. Ph - Section

WallBP3, Wal A

Phase
p
1
1
2pi
5

Phase 2 -16 m
Phase 3

Phase 4

M Phase 5 0 1 2 m

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 155

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many generations. A typical thick
city-wall might run for a mile or
more around the site, and it would
have had many towers, several gates,
and a huge embankment outside
that. Its construction would have
required perhaps hundreds of thou-
sands of man-hours and the moving
of thousands of tons of stone and
earth. Such a system was probably
under constant construction, alter-
flip",
ation, and repair-and for a contin-
uous period of 300 to 500 years at
many sites in Middle Bronze Age
Palestine.
Two sites may serve to illustrate
the walled towns of the Middle
Bronze Age. The great mound of
Shechem, situated between Mount
Gerizim and Mount Ebal in the
Samaria hills, was literally the cre- Above: Wall A and barracks or citad
ation of the Middle Bronze Age engi- at Shechem. This building had a sto
structure, all of which was plastere
neers. They put up enormous earthenhole" that looked out over the city
embankments that were surrounded wall A at Shechem.
by massive walls, thus transforming
a low, vulnerable rise in the pass into
a seemingly impregnable fortress.
The outer wall A, constructed of
cyclopean masonry, is a massive re-
taining wall for the deep artificial
fills behind it, and it still stands more
than 30 feet high. Atop that is wall
B, a double (or casemate) masonry
At
wall. Between the two principal city-
walls is the typical steep, faced slope,
or glagis. Two gates are known: the
East Gate, a rare, double-entryway
gate (otherwise known only at Tel
Mor, near Ashdod); and the North-
west Gate, a more typical, three-
entryway gate. Adjacent to the latter,
on the embankment between the lkI
city-walls, is an elaborate multi-
roomed structure cleared in 1972
that may best be understood as a bar-
racks or citadel, guarding both the
city-gate and the adjacent palace
(Dever 1974). The Middle Bronze 1965; Dever 1974; still standing
Seger as much as 15 feet 1975
1974,
defenses at Shechem-with at least Gezer is even high, more circles the entire site-a
impressive,
now that American excavations in
five phases, all within Middle Bronze length of about 1,600 yards, or nearly
II-MI and separated by no less than 1964 through 1974 have redated anda mile. The "South Gate" is a mag-
three destructions toward the end- clarified Macalister's monumental nificent triple-entryway mudbrick
illustrate most dramatically the phe-
architecture (partially cleared in structure at least two stories high.
nomenon of walled cities of this 1902 through 1909). The "Inner Still preserved are the springers of
period. (For more, see G. E. Wright Wall," some 12 to 14 feet thick and the arched roof made of mudbrick

156 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 R

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

that covered the passageway; these

are flanked by three pairs of massive
stone piers, or orthostats. The man-
ner in which these piers served to
mount swinging wooden doors at
the inner and outer gateway has now
been illustrated by the splendid city-
gate at Ebla (Tell Mardikh) in Syria,
where the basalt orthostats and their
door-sockets are still preserved
3::
(Matthiae 1984: 20). And more re-
cently, an almost intact triple-
entryway mudbrick gate of this type,
with the arches still standing, has
. . . ..........

been found at Tel Dan (Biran 1984).

Two quite remarkable features
S. A,

4.1
of the Middle Bronze Age defenses of
6.1
Gezer are "Glagis 8012" and "Tower
5017." The glagis, sloping up to the
.421 "Inner Wall" at an angle of about
45 degrees, is constructed of alter-
?. ep?.
nating layers of brown debris from
& R-A

'g
k."g,

the tell and of virgin chalk. These

fills are laid in almost geometric per-
. em

Mall
"Yo.w., :K ... lat:
......... x. iN
-

fection, tightly tamped, then sur-

ER
gig
faced over with a thick white plaster
osX.',

V:

01?
to make the slope not only imper-
t Ims.
?4-
meable to water and weather but
31

difficult to negotiate as well. "Tower

NPIX.e

5017" lies just west of the "South

MI.

Gate." Only the stone socle or foun-

4n dation of this elaborate, multistoried
m.- X
storied structure is preserved, but
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
... ... ....
this consists of nine courses of cyclo-
N?A

?:
'922.0. pean masonry, sunk entirely below
lelx..
le
ground level in a foundation trench
some 14 feet deep. This massive
sl?

UKIII-.'?
C1 tower or citadel is incorporated into
mzom?? M .:Ak a section of city-wall 53 feet thick-
one of the largest single-phase stone
le

M.M.Ml
1g, .

structures in pre-Roman Palestine.

(For more, see Dever and others
7bTop: The "South Gate" at Gezer was a mudbrick structure that was at least two stories high. 1971, 1974; Dever 1973; Seger 1975.)
The massive stone orthostats or jambs shown here framed the triple sets of wooden doors.
Photographs of Gezer courtesy of William G. Dever. Bottom: Located to the south and west of
Shechem, Gezer was occupied at a much earlier date. Shown here is a plan of the "South Gate" lbwn Planning and Domestic
complex at Gezer. A chalk glagis, or embankment, which would have inhibited any approach Architecture
to the city, was employed for defense along the outer perimeter. Connector wall 13004 was
The defense systems just described
faced with cyclopean masonry to mask its weakness. Preliminary findings suggested that the
destruction of the installations was associated with the campaigns of T7thmosis III around imply the existence, of course, not
1482 B.C.E. New findings, however, suggest an earlier date around the reigns of Amenophis I only of relatively sophisticated
(1546-1526) or Ththmosis I (1525-1512). (An x marks the place in a room inside wall 13004 engineering but also of the highly
where a small hoard of gold and the skeleton of a woman were found in 1973.) Drawing used
courtesy of Joe D. Seger. centralized planning that character-
izes urban centers. Another aspect
of town planning is spatial and func-
tional layout of the entire area within
the city-walls, virtually required by

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 157

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Though we don't
have a complete
plan for any MB
city, there is evi-
dence that town
PW
planning was aa

im

highly centralized
and sophisticated. AV
loom-

Greater Canaan
was no backwater.

urban life with its dense population

and varied activities. Thus we can
distinguish in several Middle Bronze
Age sites well-planned areas for ad-
ministrative structures, public
functions, temples, commercial and
perhaps juridical activities, domes-
tic housing, streets, courtyards,
water- and food-storage facilities,
stables, and industrial operations.
We do not yet have, of course, the
complete plan of any Palestinian
city of the Middle Bronze Age, but
the area of the Northwest Gate at
Shechem includes many well-coordi-
nated elements of what may have
been a typical administrative and ..............

Sir
public area. These include the city-
wall, gate, and barracks-citadel;
a two-story palace with administra-
tive hall; a large open-air plaza;
and a monumental public "fortress-
temple," possibly combined with a
temple-treasury (Dever 1974). Such
an arrangement clearly bespeaks
sophisticated city planning. Very
nearly the same basic plan is seen though on a grander scale, well up Bronze Age. Palestine may have been
in stratum VII at Alalakh, near the into central Anatolia and over into somewhat peripheral but it was no
mouth of the Orontes River in north northern Mesopotamia. These com- isolated backwater (as Kenyon con-
Syria, and also at Ebla (see Woolley mon features in urban planning cluded in the prestigious Cambridge
1953: 64-82; Matthiae 1984: 19-21; underscore the cultural continuum Ancient History).
Gregori 1986). Many of these ele- that we have already noted through- Commercial and domestic areas
ments are also encountered, al- out Greater Canaan in the Middle also attest planning. A typical suk,

158 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 laid out around streets, maticterraces,
reversal of thatand
pattern.
communal courtyards. Reurbanization,
The latter the fea-
return to town
ture ovens, food storage and
life, was madeprepara-
possible first by the
,,!; ?% I .........L tion areas, and animal shelters.
resumption Par-
of larger scale, intensive
ticularly noteworthy farming, is a system
then by the growth in in-
of run-off areas, with dustry and trade. and
plastered Increased agricul-
covered subterranean drains that con- tural production not only fed the
ducted rainwater to several deep cis- growing concentration of population
terns hewn into the bedrock. So suc- in cities but it also generated sur-
cessful was this water-storage system pluses, stimulated exchange of goods,
that the cisterns were periodically and increasingly created an urban
cleaned out and reused for centuries, elite. Although the revolution took
ii i iJ...... down into the Iron Age (Dever and place in the cities, it was fueled by
others 1971: 126, 127; 1987). All the hinterland.
these and other domestic Actual archaeological evidence
installations point to relatively for intensified agriculture is mini-
efficient planning as towns of the mal, since our previous generation
Middle Bronze Age grew into large of biblical archaeologists had little
and complex social units. interest in questions of subsistence
and did almost no systematic collec-
Subsistence, Technology, and Trade tion of floral and faunal data. Never-
Archaeology's more recent ecological theless, the very location of the
orientation, while seeking to avoid Middle Bronze settlements them-
any form of economic determinism, selves is ample evidence. They are
rightly calls attention to the depen- situated in well-watered regions
dence of all cultures on successful along the coast, in the river valleys,
adaptation to the physical environ- and in the hill country-always
ment and to available natural re- within range of extensive arable
Left: This close-up of the "Inner Wall" at
sources. Ancient Palestine's basi- lands. Defensible position and access
Gezer shows "Glacis 8013," made of alternat-
ing layers of tamped brown cally agrarian
debris economy
from thedepended to trade routes were, of course, fac-
tell and virgin chalk, in the section at the
heavily upon
left. Note the steep angle of its incline.
the large role of peas- tors in the growth of large tell-sites,
Above: Section of "7bTower ants
5017" in the social structure,
at Gezer. The thus
but the primary consideration was
glacis is shown clearly in upon
the what
white economists
(chalk) the agriculturally based subsistence
might call
and earthen debris layers on the left. Only
the domestic mode of production. economy, similar to that of the Early
the stone foundation of this elaborate, multi-
This consisted
storied structure is preserved, but it primarily
was oneof small-
Bronze Age. And, as I have already
of the largest single-phase scale
stone agriculture,
structures mixed in suggested, spatial analysis of the dis-
with some
pre-Roman Palestine. The size of the fortifi-
local crafts and cottage tances between and relationships
industry,
cations at Gezer and the great care and skill
shown in building them are supplemented
indicative by ofsporadic among the three tiers in the settle-
the trade in
luxury items.
level of development and organization evi- ment hierarchy strongly suggests
dent in Middle Bronze Age communities, as
This economic regime, well
well as of the dangers the people faced.
that villages, towns, and urban cen-
suited to the topography and climate
ters were closely linked in a market
of Palestine, had already been estab-
economy, where agricultural prod-
ucts were redistributed through the
lished by the Early Bronze Age, and
even earlier. But such a diversified larger "central places" (Kotter 1986).
economic strategy depends upon Among plants cultivated again
stable conditions, as well as upon a were wheat and barley, probably
delicate balance maintained by skill- dominant, along with cereals,
ful and, to some degree, centralized legumes, and various fodders. Olives,
or bazaar, not unlike planning.
those All ofthis had collapsed,
modern grapes, figs, and other fruits and
Middle Eastern towns, is seen
however, in Earlyat Bronze IV as vegetables were also grown and pro-
people abandoned
Jericho, where two-story shops-cities and towns cessed in various ways for home con-
residences line the street coming
and reverted up in the
to pastoralism sumption or export. All common
hinterland (Kenyon
the hill from the city-gate and the marginal and species of animals had long been
semiarid zones.
1957: 228-232). At Gezer, several What we see in domesticated, except perhaps the
Middle
private houses in field VI Bronze
are Iwell is simply the dra- horse, then coming into limited use,

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 159

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 The Middle Bronze Age in Palestine witnessed
the introduction of a true tin-bronze metallurgy.
The result was a metal that was more malleable
than that previously available, thus making it
possible to shape tools and weapons into en-
tirely new forms, ones that at the same time
held a sharper edge. Left: Typical bronze imple-
ments from the early part of Middle Bronze. On
top are two socketed spear blades and a dagger
blade; below is a notched "chisel" axhead. The
spear blades were attached to a wooden shaft;
later examples are longer and have a tang
instead of a socket. The broad, leaf-bladed
dagger is approximately 17.5 centimeters long,
with cast blood-rills down its length and two
rivet holes at the top to attach it to a wooden
handle. The axhead has a shaft hole (to the left)
and a notch to secure it to a handle with thongs.
Right: A beautifully cast duckbill ax with well-
defined socket and fenestrations. Like the other
bronze pieces shown here, it was found at cAin
es-Samiyeh, north of Jerusalem; this weapon,
which is about 10 centimeters in height, is a
refined version of an earlier type often found
from the end of the Early Bronze period.
Photographs courtesy of William G. Dever.

and the camel (probably not domes- dle Bronze Age were highly special- One factor was surely a more
ticated until around 1200 B.C.E.). ized and more efficient than ever efficient technology. For example,
Sheep and goats were predominant, before. Pastoral hinterlands, village the Middle Bronze Age, unlike the
but cattle are also well attested. All farmlands, and urban markets all Early Bronze, is characterized by the
were herded both by village farmers constituted a well-integrated and introduction and rapid diffusion of
and by less settled pastoral nomads stable economy that fueled the true tin-bronze metallurgy. Some-
in the marginal zones (although the strongest continual period of urban where in Syria and Mesopotamia in
latter have left few archaeological growth up to that time in the history the final quarter of the third millen-
traces and have scarcely been inves- of Palestine. nium B.C.E., it was discovered that
tigated for the Middle Bronze Age, The most conspicuous changes the superior qualities of native
unlike Early Bronze IV). The Univer- in the material culture of the Middle arsenical copper could be duplicated
sity of Arizona's recent excavation ofBronze Age in Palestine had already by alloying copper with up to 10 per-
Tell el-Hayyat, a small agricultural been well established before the end cent of tin (by convention, 2 percent
village in the northern Jordan valley, of the first phase, in Middle Bronze I,or more tin identifies "bronze"). The
has employed careful sieving and flo- which I surveyed above. These result was weapons and tools that
tation to retrieve floral and faunal changes were not only interrelated, were more malleable and could thus
remains. Nearly all the above plants since urbanism was obviously an be cast in entirely new forms, forms
and animals are represented (Fal- exceedingly complex, multifaceted that at the same time would take and
coner and Magness-Gardiner 1984). phenomenon, but they took place hold a sharper edge. Just before 2000
Of particular interest is the high per-relatively rapidly. So far I have B.C.E., as recent studies have shown
centage of pig bones, which indicatesdescribed, for the most part, chang- (Stech, Muhly, and Maddin 1985),
that certain species of animals were ing patterns of site location and new the new bronze technology reached
intensively bred where local condi- economic strategies, as cities and Palestine; thus, with the beginning
tions were conducive. It appears that urban population grew. But what of the Middle Bronze I period, a
agriculture and herding in the Mid- made these developments possible? whole new repertoire of sophisti-

160 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 The introduction of true tin-bronze
metallurgy and advances in ceramic
technology during Middle Bronze
brought new forms of weapons, tools
and pottery, all mass-produced.

on the Upper Euphrates. These tery a new people, possibly Amorites

eighteen-century-B.C.E. documentsfrom the north. Today we would
actually describe tin trade with two
explain change as more likely the
cities in northern Palestine, Dan and
result of advances in technology and
Hazor, known from excavations to trade, as well as of the development
have flourished precisely in this of new forms of social organization.
period (Malamat 1970). This new The new, mass-produced pottery of
technology alone-the mass produc-
Middle Bronze I in Palestine was
tion of bronzes-stimulated interna-the finest pottery ever produced in
tional trade and diplomacy. It created the pre-Roman period, and its basic
a whole new industrial and mercan- forms continued to evolve steadily
tile class, as well as probably a guild-
throughout Middle Bronze II-III, and
system of craftsmen. It brought even after (see Cole 1984). More than
immense wealth to some, opened upany other medium, this distinctive
new frontiers in agriculture and con- new pottery may express the new
struction to others, and may even technical mastery, as well as the
have helped to equip the first stand-heightened aesthetic sensibilities, of
ing army in Palestine. Thus, we the urban Middle Bronze Age in
cated bronze implements appeared cannot separate technology from Palestine (see Amiran 1970: 90-123).
in Palestine, all probably locally ideology. Both contributed to, and I have already suggested in look-
made but in imitation of Syrian pro-benefited from, the growth of urban- ing at the bronze implements that
totypes (see Oren 1971; Dever 1975).ism. And as the Middle Bronze technology, industry, and trade are
The implications of the bronzeperiod progressed, so did technology. interrelated; raw materials must
revolution must have been enor- In ceramic technology, too, thereoften be imported, and finished
mous. Copper was found locally, but were similar advances in Middle products need markets. Interna-
where did the tin come from, and howBronze I and II-III. Primitive, slow tional trade was certainly a decisive
was it acquired? The only known potter's wheels had been used factor, not only in the reurbaniza-
sources of tin in the ancient Near throughout the Early Bronze Age totion of Middle Bronze Palestine but
East were in Anatolia (beyond the smooth and finish ceramic vessels. also in bringing it out of its polit-
Caucasus Range, in modern south- But beginning in Middle Bronze I weical and cultural isolation. Tin was
ern Russia), in the Taurus Mountainsget a whole new repertoire of sophis-clearly imported via Syria, and
(in Turkey), or east of the Iranian ticated pottery. The characteristi- Syrian-style pottery is relatively
plateau (in modern Afghanistan). cally elaborate shapes and eggshell- abundant. Egyptian imports of the
We may suppose that tin from suchthin wares could only have been Twelfth and Thirteenth dynasties
sources was brought to Mesopo- fabricated by a new technique: that are even more conspicuous and in-
tamia and then shipped to Syria- of spinning by centrifugal force on aclude alabasters and faience (Sagona
Palestine by donkey caravan-a fast wheel. The basic forms, as well 1980), jewelry of semiprecious
distance of more than 500 miles. as the beautiful polished and paintedstones, and especially scarab signet-
This is not mere speculation. Evi- decoration, are clearly influenced rings, which appear for the first time
dence for such long-distance trade by the pottery of central and even in Palestine during this period and
in the Middle Bronze II period comesnorthern Syria (Dever 1976; Gersten- are found at nearly every Middle
from several cuneiform letters foundblith 1983: 59-87). A generation ago Bronze site. (On scarabs, see Martin
at Mari, the great Amorite city-state
we might have seen in this new pot- 1971; Tufnell 1984; and on Egyptian

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 161

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 /A

Early Bronze IV vessel found at Khirbet

Iskander. Photograph courtesy of Suzanne
/- -..
Richard.

relations generally, see Weinstein

1975). Not only was there extensive
overland exchange but Palestine par- Middle Bronze Palestine also saw si
ticipated in maritime trade for the wheels featured a disk-shaped stone
a stone basin. The potter either tur
first time. Cypriot pottery began to
the other or turned the wheel inter
be imported even before the end of proved version (and one still in use
Middle Bronze I, and by Middle stone wheels connected by a long sh
controlled by the potter's feet, whil
Bronze II-III it included several use both hands to work the clay int
varieties of Black-on-Red and White
of Middle Bronze pottery. The thin
Painted wares. The very end of Middle these vessels stand in contrast to co
Swanson. Photographs courtesy of W
Bronze III was characterized by Mono-
chrome, Base Ring, and Bichrome
wares, as well as by "Chocolate"
ware that may show Cypriot influ-
ence. (For more, see Amiran 1970:
121-123; on the Tell el-Yehudiyeh
ware, see Kaplan 1980; and on the
Bichrome ware, see Epstein 1966).
But what did Palestine export?
We have no textual documentation
from Palestine itself and little con-
clusive archaeological evidence of
Palestinian objects found in neigh-
boring lands. Working backward
from the evidence of the subsequent
Late Bronze Age, however, one can
suppose that Palestine's well-known
exports to Egypt had already begun
earlier. These included agricultural
commodities, especially grain, olive
oil, and wine; cattle; timber; possibly
copper; and probably even laborers,
including slaves. Palestinian mer-
chants and traders also transshipped
goods overland between Syria and
Egypt. A famous wall-painting from
a tomb at Beni Hasan of the time of

162 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 .43

..... . . . . . . .

Amenemhet I and (aro

interested in political history than Lord of the Goats" "The
depicts a party of
in social history, little useful infor- Princess" at Ebla: Matthiae 1984). t
caravanners,
mation has been collected. prob
Petrie's old "horse-burials" (or at least
traders, What evidence we docrossing
have re- equids of some kind) at Tell el-cAjjul, t
The inscription
flects increasing social differentia- with elaborate bronze weapons, are lis
style tion(West and stratification, which we probablySemiti
tombs of warriors, perhaps
tions should one expect in an urbanized product,
so- belonging to a professional military
pound used
ciety. Middle Bronze Age tombs in
class. (Similar burials mak
of Asiatics are
eye-shadow clearly demonstrate the existence much
also found at Tell ed-Dabca in the
for cosmetics.
of an elite upper class, as shown in Egyptian Delta from the The Hyksos
(which some cases bydates to
expensive, often im- period). By contrast, aro
the predominant
lists Asiatic
ported, luxury goods. Thus, burials Middle Bronzeslavesburial is that of some-
household at Gezer, Jericho, and elsewhere have in Uppe
one from the lower classes and is a
ing Amoriteproduced gold jewelry, Egyptian ala- rather pathetic name
affair, with adults
them basters no doubt
and scarabs, along with laid in a simple cist-grave fro and
ivory-inlaid wooden furniture, beau- children put into a storejar buried
Social Structure and Political tifully carved wooden utensilsi and beneath a courtyard surface; there
Organization other expensive items. The Jericho are usually few, if any, grave goods.
It has been observed that "archae- cave and shaft tombs excavated by Architectural traditions point
ologists do not dig up social systems." Kenyon had multiple, successive similarly to a society of "haves" and
Perhaps not, but these, like the other burials, with a considerable accu- "have-nots." We have already sug-
subsystems at which we have been mulation of wealth (Kenyon 1957: gested that the massive Middle
looking, do leave observable traces 233-55). They are probably the Bronze fortifications required not
in the archaeological record-insofar burial places of rich and powerful only centralized planning and heavy
as material culture may reflect social ruling famlies- merchants, aristo- taxation but possibly conscript labor.
organization as well as individual crats, possibly priests, and petty These defenses simply could not
human behavior. Since earlier ar- princes. (One may compare the have been built by an egalitarian
chaeologists, however, were more recently published tombs of "The society or with volunteer efforts.

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 163

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Above: Fish-shaped vessel, dating to around the eighteenth century B.C.E., found in a tomb at
Tel Poleg. Measuring 11 by 19 centimeters, it is an example of Tell el-Yehudiyeh ware, named
after the site in the Nile Delta where it was first found. This ware, which is always dark-
slipped and burnished, with white-filled punctured decoration, has also been found in the
Sudan, Cyprus, and as far north as Ugarit. Such a luxury product, spread over a wide area,
suggests a general economic prosperity Right: Jug with a snake handle. Measuring 32 centi-
meters high and dating to the mid-second millennium B.C.E., it is probably an example of
what Sir Flinders Petrie termed "chocolate-on-white-ware," a type of pottery covered with a
white slip, highly burnished, and decorated with a brown painted design. Although this ex-
ample lacks the painted decoration, its fine workmanship is characteristic of the type and
also suggests the tradition of excellence among potters of the time. Photographs by David
Harris courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Domestic architecture shows the known Palace G and its fabulous characterize as the state, which had
same trend. Most private houses arearchive of administrative documents typified both Egypt and Mesopo-
simple mudbrick structures, with (Matthiae 1984). Social stratification tamia since just before 3000 B.C.E.
only a few earthen-floored rooms; thein Palestine may not have been quite Given the complete absence of
houses are rather closely crowded as pronounced, or the wealthy as texts and properly historical evi-
together around communal court- wealthy, but class structure and dif- dence from Palestine, it is difficult
yards and narrow lanes. A few very ferential access to resources are evi- to be precise, but the country-wide
large, multi-room structures, how- dent; and the growth of urbanism unification, or centralized political
ever, resemble "patrician villas," must surely have promoted, even decision-making, that essentially
such as those at Hazor, Tell Beit required, growing social inequities. defines the state appears to be en-
Mirsim, and elsewhere. Finally, we The primary question about tirely lacking in Middle Bronze Age
have a growing number of even more political organization in the Middle Palestine. There is no evidence
elaborate buildings, such as the two-Bronze Age is whether Palestine whatsoever, on a nationwide scale,
story colonnaded structure near the constituted a state in the true sense. of a single dominant city or capital;
Northwest Gate at Shechem. These We have seen in earlier installments of institutionalized kingship; of cen-
are almost certainly the palaces of of this series (Levy 1986; Richard tralized policy and planning; of a
local dynasts, such as the "kings" of1987) that the tribal level of organi- standing army; or, for that matter, of
several Palestinian city-states who zation typical of the Neolithic gave any distinctive ethnic consciousness
are well known from the Amarna way to a chiefdom level in the Chal- as nation or people. Palestine is cer-
Age texts several centuries later. colithic period, then to a more ad- tainly not a primary or pristine state
Again, the palace of Yarim-Lim in vanced city-state level in the Early in the usage of social theorists; it
stratum VII at Alalakh in Syria pro- Bronze Age. With reurbanization does not even appear to be a second-
vides a close contemporary parallel, and the expansion of Palestine's hori-ary or peripheral state. Nearly all
complete with throne and audience zons in the Middle Bronze Age, we specialists would see the term state
room, as well as palace archive. And might expect a further evolution as properly denoting not only social
now Ebla has produced a Middle toward the highly specialized form complexity and integration, which
Bronze palace, succeeding the well- of political organization that we Palestine certainly had evolved even

164 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 .: . .'. . . ....

i~~1: :-i:i::iiil- , :::: L

Part of a wall-painting in a tomb at Beni Hasan in Egypt. The paintin

evidence for the presence of Asiatic peoples in Egypt before the Seco

by the Early Bronze BronzeAge,

Age. The butsame situation
also niture and boxes or chests (Liebowitz
centralization of seems power, decision-
to have prevailed in Syria, 1977). These were locally made,
making, and access where to resources
we see major city-states inlike the ivory coming either from Syria
the hands of a nonkinship-based Ebla, Yamkhad, Alalakh, Qatna, (where Egyptian records indicate
elite. Palestine, by contrast,
Ugarit, and the like, butremained
not a uni- that elephants were hunted in this
at an intermediate fied level of
national state political
such as Egypt or period) or from wild boars of the
development, which those inis Mesopotamia.
usually re- immediate region. Most Middle
ferred to as that of the city-state. Bronze sites produce these inlays,
Although the term Ideology,city-state
Art, and Religion is but the Jericho tombs have yielded
frequently used, it Theisideational
rarely and symbolic
defined.aspectsboth the inlays and the wooden fur-
Often the implication of a society,seems
particularly to be niture in an extraordinary state of
a preliterate
that while the regional society, may be urban
difficult to cen-
read preservation (apparently because
ters each control their own hinter- directly from the "mute" remains Jericho was located in a tectonic
land, they are in turn united in a of material culture. As Lewis Binford area, where gases seeping through
larger centralized confederation- reminds us, archaeologists are poorly rock fissures rendered organic
that is, they constitute a true state. equipped to be "paleo-psychologists." materials inert and prevented decay).
Yet there is little evidence of that Yet we do possess innumerable and Jewelry from elite tombs has
in Palestine of the Middle Bronze varied artifacts from Middle Bronze already been mentioned. There is
Age. Rather, it seems to have been Palestine that clearly had some artis-relatively little gold, which was
bound together only by what we tic or cultic significance-however imported and prohibitively expen-
may call a common southern difficult they may be to interpret. sive; there is some silver, although
Canaanite culture. Politically it Let us look first specifically at usually not well preserved. The most
probably remained divided: each artistic production (even though, common pieces are bead necklaces
city-state enjoying quasi-indepen- strictly speaking, we cannot in gen- of semiprecious stones, often made
dence and dominating the surround- eral separate art from religion in the of local red carnelian or the like but
ing countryside, most likely rivalling ancient world). There is no represen-frequently of Egyptian frit or faience.
other urban centers. I am giving, of tational art from Palestine in this Scarabs from Middle Kingdom Egypt
course, a theoretical reconstruction, period, and little figural art. We have became exceedingly common in
but such a situation of political frag- found nothing of Egyptian- or Meso- Palestine during the Middle Bronze
mentation would provide a fore- potamian-style statuary, or indeed Age; they were mounted in signet
runner for the '"Amarna Age" some monumental art of any kind. In the rings and probably meant to be both
three to four centuries later in the minor arts, however, Palestine has a articles of adornment (that is, pres-
Late Bronze, when we have ample tradition, albeit a provincial one. tige items) and practical devices
textual documentation for rival city- The principal arts include bone and for stamping seals on documents or
states-most of them precisely the ivory carving, particularly small geo- other pieces of personal property.
urban centers we see in the Middle metric strip inlays for wooden fur- These scarabs are usually of ivory

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 165

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 Left: Although there is no representa-
tional art from Middle Bronze Pales-
tine, and little figural art, there was a
tradition of minor arts. Among these
was bone and ivory carving, partic-
ularly small geometric inlays for
wooden furniture and boxes. Shown
here is a carved ivory inlay from
wooden furniture from tombs at
4w Jericho. From Jericho I (London: British
School of Archaeology, 1960), by
Kathleen Kenyon. Right: Shown here
is a selection of jewelry dating to the
mid-second millennium (the transition
from Middle to Late Bronze) found at
Tell el-cAjjul: a pendant depicting the
goddess Hathor, a star pendant, an
earring, and three fly amulets. The
pieces found at this site, most of
, 44
which came from private hoards, are
the finest Canaanite jewelry known
and they demonstrate the high level of
craftsmanship that had been attained.
Photograph by David Harris courtesy
of the Israel Department of Antiqui-
ties and Museums.

or bone, carved on the back in the room temples were once thought to at Shechem (the prototype of the
shape of a dung (or scarabaeus) beetle,be a typically urban style, but now a famous temple of Solomon-Dever
with either a name-formula or sequence of four successive mud- 1974: 48).
merely a decorative design on the brick temples of this type, on a Two cultic installations are
bottom. Many scarabs are imported somewhat smaller scale, has been unique. The first is the so-called
and sometimes even bear the name found at the tiny village-site of Tell Canaanite high place (Hebrew
of a well-known pharaoh, but othersel-Hayydt; these temples date from ba-mah) at Nahariyeh, on the coast
are local imitations and have only Middle Bronze I to III (Falconer just north of Acco; this features a
archaizing and often bungled decora- and Magness-Gardiner 1984, 1987). long rectangular structure with an
tive motifs. Mesopotamian-style Syrian-style bipartite or tripartite adjacent outdoor stone altar where
cylinder seals also exist but are rare.temples are also found, especially charred organic remains were found.
Also of Egyptian manufacture ?dw

are a variety of alabaster and faience

vessels, ranging from small unguen-
7C,
...... . . . . .

taria and cosmetic containers to AX,

... ..... . - ..,
ow
V do?
It 4??,

40

larger vessels (Sagona 1980). These

were often imitated in local calcite,
an inferior material. In both cases,
these vessels were probably status
symbols, for they are relatively
uncommon.

Some artistic and architectural

.A

remains attest to religious practices.

We have several styles of temples
from the Middle Bronze Age. Large Pr

R"F

single-room fortress (migdal) tem-

ples, with exceptionally thick walls,
are known from Middle Bronze III
levels at Shechem and Megiddo, with
a close parallel in the temple in area
D at Ebla. (On the Palestinian exam-
ples, see G. E. Wright 1965: 80-102;
Dever 1974: 39-48; on Ebla, see
Matthiae 1984: 20). These single- IL

166 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 Left: These three examples of scarabs found
at the Middle Bronze site at Hazor are in-
teresting because of their often bungled
hieroglyphs, which suggests either that the
scarabs were made locally to supply a taste
for Egyptian objects or that they are related Among the remains were also a
to the years of the Hyksos (or "foreign rulers") number of bronze and terra-cotta
in Egypt. They are, in any event, clear evi-
dence of Egyptian influence in Palestine in female figurines, as well as the
the Middle Bronze period. From Hazor: The molds for making them (Dothan in
Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible
Biran 1981: 77). Since the Nahariyeh
(New York: Random House, 1975), by Yigael
Yadin, courtesy of the estate of Yigael Yadin.temple is right on the seashore, it
Above: This alabaster fish, dating to the mid-may have been a shrine dedicated to
second millennium B.C.E., was found at Tell
Asherah, the consort of the Canaan-
el-cAjj ful. Almost six inches long, it could
Below left: Artist's reconstruction of a room have been used as an unguent container. This ite high-god, El; Asherah's principle
with Middle Bronze furniture like those luxury good is of Egyptian manufacture and epithet is 'Athiratu-yammi, "She who
pieces found in a tomb at Jericho. From thus suggests that Egypt and Canaan engaged
treads upon/subdues the sea."
Kenyon 1957. Below: Display at Royal in trade during Middle Bronze. Photograph
The other installation is the
Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, that by David Harris courtesy of the Israel
reproduces the scene in the reconstruction. Department of Antiquities and Museums. famous "High Place" at Gezer, exca-
Photograph courtesy of Louisa Curtis Ngote.
vated by Macalister in 1902-1909,
then recleared by the American ex-
pedition in 1968 and dated to Middle
Bronze III. It consists of ten enor-
mous stelae (standing stones) in a
north-south alignment, with an asso
ciated stone basin surrounded by a
plastered pavement. It was not a
mortuary installation, as previously
thought, but was probably an out-
door covenant-renewal shrine, the
ten stelae representing ten towns
in league (like the later Delphic
leagues). Charred sheep and goat
remains testify to animal sacrifice
(Dever 1973; Dever and others 1971:
120-24).
Religion in the Middle Bronze
Age is also attested by several types
of cultic paraphernalia, found not
only in temple but also in domestic
contexts. Cylindrical terra-cotta
stands, usually fenestrated and
topped by detachable bowls, were
probably used for food and libation

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 167

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 gq

mo.

A B C
SVA
Zt.

, _ _ , 10G
Plans of Middle Bronze for
This type of Canaanite tem
courtyard, entranceway, an
that may have given access
of the sanctuary for a stat "REj."

d&#hAt
'R

?.S ?5
..........

Female figurines were

usually inexpensively p
Relatively rare are ex
the two sheet-gold pen
The Middle Bronze "High Place" at Gezerof a (reexcavated
small hoard from
by th
the "South
Semitic Museum expedition in 1968) consists of tenGate" at G
standing
ment, with an associated stone basin surrounded
find (see the by a plaste
plan of "S
Measuring
ing was erected simultaneously and contains 16.1 biblical
all the and 10
the setting up of stones to commemoratetheytheare probably
occasion, repr
oath-
consort
representing ten towns in league), blood of the
sacrifice Canaani
(possibly re
graph
covenant meal (there were charred animal by David
remains foundHarris
in c
Department of Antiqu
Photograph courtesy of William G. Dever.

offerings, as women
well as for burning the
in-destruction of the
in conception, "South Gate"
childbirth,
cense. Other clearly
and lactation.cultic artifacts at Gezer; these
They may depict insafely
Syrian-style be
connected with the
are small terra-cotta figurines; in- veneration of bas-relief two females, representa-
terestingly, we Asherah,
have the principal
only Canaanite
female tions no doubt of Asherah. Similar
examples (the so-called Astartereliefs are found in the Late Bronze
mother goddess, whose cult con-
tinueddepict
figurines). These into the Late Bronze
the and Age, especially at Tell el-cAjjul
Age"mother
was popular even
goddess" nude, en face, often with in ancient Israel. (Seger 1976).
exaggerated sexual The most spectacular Middle
characteristics; Finally, votive offerings are
Bronze figurines
they are undoubtedly fertilityv of Canaanite deities known. Most consist of miniatures
figurines -thatareis, talismans
two sheet-gold pendants fromtoof aid common ceramic forms; these are

168 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 human and animal reproduction.
The Ugaritic texts of the Late Bronze
Age give us a particularly vivid and
Compared to
dramatic picture of this religion, and
we may safely project it back into
Egypt or Mesopo-
the Middle Bronze Age. Certainly
the temples and cult paraphernalia of
tamia, writing
the periods are in direct continuity. appeared late in
Toward the end of Middle Bronze,
around 1650-1600 B.C.E., the first Palestine. When it
system of writing emerges in Pales- did there was a
tine. Writing appears late in Pales-
tine, of course, in comparison with
Mesopotamia and Egypt, but when it
stunning advance:
does appear, it marks a stunning the introduction
advance. We have only a few frag-
ments of these early Proto-Sinaitic of a vastly simpli-
or Canaanite inscriptions, but they
introduce a vastly simplified alpha- fied alphabet.
betic system of writing with some
twenty-two characters, one that
became the basis for all modern
Western writing systems. For the than for each idea, word, or syllable.
first time in the world's history, The script developed by means of
literacy was within the grasp of thethe acrophonic principle, and it
ordinary individual. became possible thereby for a person
Before the turn of the present to write whatever he or she heard.
century, Sir William Flinders Petrie Thus the sound b came to be
discovered the first of these so-called represented by a much-simplified
Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions at Serabit picture of a house, because the
The religious practices in Palestine during al-Khadem, in the western Sinai. initial sound of the word for house
the Middle Bronze Age are suggested by this Here Asiatic slaves from Palestine
(beth) is b. Likewise, the sound m
so-called Astarte figurine, part of an incense
was represented by a rendition of
were kept by the Egyptians in the
stand, found at Shechem. Such figurines may
be connected with the veneration of Asherah, water, because the initial sound of
Middle Kingdom to work the tur-
quoise mines. These miserable
the principal Canaanite mother goddess, and the word for water (mem) is m. (See
were usually meant as talismans to aid in
slaves scrawled graffiti all around onthe accompanying chart for the full
conception, childbirth, and lactation.
the rock surface, mostly dedicatory alphabet and equivalents; see also
inscriptions specifying offerings, Albright 1966).
usually found in temple precincts, usually a lamb, to various West These simple signs, with very
often at the entrance or near the Semitic deities. Especially favored much the same order and even the
altar, which is characteristically were the male god, El, and his con- same names, eventually evolved into
located on the rear wall. Ceramic sort Bacalath/Elath, the "Serpent the modern alphabet employed by
zoomorphic figurines are also Lady." One inscription reads, under-all Western languages. Borrowed by
occasionally recovered in connec- standably, "O my god, rescue me the later Hebrews from the Canaan-
tion with these votives. All these from the interior of the mine!" ites, it was also adopted by the
vessels probably symbolize the prin- The language of these inscrip- Phoenician seafarers along the coast
cipal activity in worship: the presen- tions is Canaanite. The system of and thus spread to the Greek main-
tation of food and drink offerings to writing, however, is not the cunei- land by about 1000 B.C.E., thence to
the gods in their house. The Canaan- form script of Ugarit on the Syrian the Romans, then to Europe, and
ite deities, well known from contem-coast, much less the Akkadian finally to the New World. The orig-
porary and later texts in Syria, were cuneiform script of Mesopotamia inal aleph-beth-that is, alphabet-
mostly connected with the fertility with its hundreds of signs. Instead, signs
a remain transparently clear in
cult, and thus rites of worship were vastly simplified script is employed,modern signs (see the original signs
bound up with the agricultural year one that uses only about twenty-two for the modern letters A, Y, and M in
and its produce, as well as with signs-one for each sound, rather the accompanying chart), as well as

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 169

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 The Development of the Alphabet
Early Notes: The sc
Early Letter Monu- Modem this chart ar
Proto- Names and Early North- Early mental English Phonetic sources and
Hebrew Canaanite Meanings west Semitic Phoenician Greek Latin Capitals Value designation
cludes the Pr
Salp oxhead 14th 131 t A tions from the Serabit al-Khadem
mines in the Sinai (fifteenth cen-
0 10
A bat house 17th 13th B b tury B.C.E.) and both early and late
Palestinian inscriptions (seven-
teenth to twelfth centuries B.C.E.).
L gaml throwstick 15th 12th C g Proto-Canaanite inscriptions were
initially written in any direction;
a <
| digg fish 10th AD d they have been discovered written
left to right, right to left, vertically,
and boustrophedon. By the end of
the eleventh century B.C.E. the
direction of writing had become

St h6(?) man calling 1I E h

standardized, right to left.
The chart is keyed to the
9 w6yH modern Hebrew script and in-
(waw) mace Y10th F w cludes a number of phonemes that
existed in Proto-Canaanite but
ze(n) ? 16th 10th z were not adapted into Hebrew. Of
the original number of phonemes

h-(t) fence? 12th Ih H h in Proto-Canaanite (27 according to

Albright, 29 according to Naveh),
' hank of at least 5 were lost in Hebrew. The
S ha( ) yarn h following phonemes merged from
two or more originally separate
t(t) spindle? 16th 10th symbols: Proto-Canaanite z and d
became zayin in Hebrew; h and h

14yad arm 13t 10t t I y

became bet; s, z, and 4 merged to
sade; t, ? and ' merged to sin/shin;
and g and c became cayin.
kapp palm 17th 13th K k One may also trace the devel-
opment of the alphabet from Proto-
Canaanite to English. Around the
lamd ox-goad 14h 13th L 1 tenth century B.C.E., the Greeks
adapted the alphabet from the
mtm water 15th 13th 1 M m Phoenicians. It spread from them
to the Romans, and ultimately to
Europe.

nah?
? amksnake
?_T14th lth )A
10th /V N n This chart is based on those in
Albright (1966) and Naveh (1982).

4:3>
" o012th
can eye o(0)o
10th0C
C
' a ? 15th

pi't corner? 10th P p/f

rs a(d) plant 1 t' M

? ? ? ?

qu(p) ? I4t 1th 1qQ

Q ra', head of man 16th

composite W
tann bow 13th 10th S I/t

X+ t6 owner's
(taw) mark4 13th
> T T t

170 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 We have a few fragments of Akka- The Middle Kingdom (the Twelfth
dian tablets written in cuneiform and Thirteenth Dynasties) lasted for
(the language of North Syria and nearly 500 years. It not only revived
Mesopotamia). From Hazor come the glories of the Old Kingdom and
two tablets, one dealing with a real the legendary "Pyramid Age," it also
estate transaction, another a lexical carried Egyptian culture to new
text (Landsberger and Tadmor 1964). heights and enormously expanded
At Gezer, from destruction debris of Egyptian influence and power abroad.
Middle Bronze III, we found a frag- Among the first efforts of the
ment of the clay "envelope" of a early pharaohs of the Twelfth Dy-
tablet with a list of names. Most are nasty was the resumption of the old
Semitic, but one of them is clearly sea trade with Byblos and the
The "Gezer Potsherd," a surface find in Proto- Hurrian, the earliest evidence we Phoenician coast (see Posener 1971;
Canaanite script. The three characters per- have thus far of Indo-Aryans from Weinstein 1975; Dever 1976). Within
haps read "Caleb."
the Lake Van region pushing down a short time, Egyptian luxury goods
into Palestine (Dever and others were flowing into Syria. The con-
1971: 111-13). Only recently a much tents of the famous Royal Tombs of
in their earlier Latin, Greek, Phoe- longer cuneiform inscription has the local rulers at Byblos (north of
nician, and Ifebrew versions (Naveh been reported from Middle Bronze modern Beirut, on the Lebanese
1982). levels at Hebron, with a list of coast) reflect just how fond the
What is of note here is that this sacrifices. These are but tantalizing Syrians were of Egyptian culture.
astonishingly simple and nearly hints of the earliest known literary The Byblian princes not only filled
universal writing system was the tradition of Palestine, but we shall their treasury, and later their tombs,
work of some anonymous genius (or undoubtedly find more in the future. with expensive Egyptian imports,
perhaps a committee?) somewhere they also wrote their Semitic names
along the Levantine coast, probably International Relations in Egyptian hieroglyphs, and even
in Palestine, in the Middle Bronze As already suggested, Palestine's realadopted the Egyptian title "governor."
Age (the seventeenth and sixteenth international connections (that is, And that is not all. Elsewhere along
centuries B.C.E.). Early examples of beyond Syria), apart from sporadic the Phoenician coast, in the inland
Proto-Sinaitic (or, better, Proto- trade with Cyprus and Mesopotamia,centers and well down into Palestine,
Canaanite) inscriptions have been were largely with Egypt. Indeed, nearly all of the major sites of the
found at Megiddo, Shechem, Beth- Egypt provides not only part of the renascent Middle Bronze Age have
shemesh, Lachish, and elsewhere in stimulus for reurbanization in Pales- produced Egyptian artifacts of the
Palestine, as well as in ancient Syria, tine but its chronology is also the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasties.
all dating to the Middle and Late basis for a fixed chronology of the Among the most intriguing items
Bronze Ages. One of them was also Middle Bronze I-III period in are small carved-stone statuettes,
discovered at Gezer in 1929 by a visi- Syria-Palestine. inscribed with the names of a num-
tor on a field trip from the American In Egypt, the First Intermediate ber of high-ranking Egyptian offi-
School of Oriental Research in Jeru- Period-a "dark age" there, too-
cials of the early Middle Kingdom,
salem and published later by the ended just after 2000 B.C.E.. At that even of the royal family. Thus, from
director of the school, William F.E time, the Middle Kingdom was Syria we have several sphinxes of
Albright. The Gezer inscription is founded under the vigorous Twelfth Amenemhet III and IV, as well as of
scratched on a sherd of a typical Dynasty pharaohs, who reinstated their princess-daughters. These may
cylindrical cult stand of the Middle the old dynastic succession. The have been sent from the Egyptian
Bronze Age, the three characters date of 1991 B.C.E. for the accession court as temple gifts or, more likely,
perhaps reading Klb-the name of Amenemhet I (the founder of the were intended to cement diplomatic
"Caleb." Twelfth Dynasty) is our earliest and commercial relations with Syria.
The few texts we have just astronomically fixed date in ancient From Palestine, we have further
described in the local Canaanite Near Eastern history. We owe it to evidence of international relations.
script hardly constitute literature, the Egyptians' observation of a solar At Megiddo, there was found a broken
and they do not give us much insight eclipse and their correlation of that statue of one Thut-hotpe, a well-
event (which we can date, of course, known nomarch (or governor) at
into either the history or ideology of
the Middle Bronze Age. We know, to the exact year) with the accession Hermopolis, who served under
however, that some individuals weredates of early pharaohs of the dy- Amenemhet II (approximately 1929-
not only literate but multilingual. nasty mentioned in the King lists. 1895 B.C.E.) and Sesostris III (approxi-

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 171

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mately 1878-1843 B.C.E.). His in- the initial phase of the urban revival
scribed and decorated tomb has been in Middle Bronze I correlates with
excavated at Deir el-Bersha. What the renascent Twelfth Dynasty in
was he doing in Palestine-unless he Egypt (approximately 1991-1785
was a commercial attach6, or even B.C.E.). The second phase of develop-
a sort of ambassador, of the Twelfth ment and consolidation in Palestine,
Dynasty? Another contemporary occurring during Middle Bronze II, is
Egyptian official, Sebek-khu, left his roughly coeval with the succeeding
stele at Abydos; it describes an Egyp- Thirteenth Dynasty (approximately
tian campaign to ikmm, almost 1785-1652 B.C.E.). The zenith of the
certainly Shechem near Nablus, development of the local Canaanite
which German and American excava- culture in Middle Bronze III
tions have shown to have been (approximately 1650-1500 B.C.E.)
founded precisely in Middle Bronze I. then coincides almost precisely
Why would Egyptians be campaign- with the Second Intermediate Period
ing in northern Palestine and main- in Egypt (approximately 1652-1544
taining commercial and diplomatic B.C.E.). The latter, like the First
relations both there and in Syria? Intermediate Period, is a time of col-
To put it precisely, what were lapse and disorder; external factors
the Twelfth Dynasty interests in apparently played a part in this case,
Syria-Palestine and how may they however. (On the Hyksos periods,
have contributed toward the urban see especially von Beckerath 1964;
renascence there shortly after 2000 van Seters 1966; Redford 1970; Helck
B.C.E.? The artifacts show, without 1971; Hayes 1973; Bietak 1979, 1984;
any doubt, that the contacts existed; Weinstein 1981; Dever 1985).
they do not in themselves, however, Among the threats, real or per-
specify the exact nature of the re- ceived, to the old line of Theban
lationships. Again, just as they are rulers was the presence of increasing
on the beginning of the first urban numbers of Asiatics in Egypt. The
era in Early Bronze I, archaeologists Clay figurine from Saqqara of a captive Asiatics-Amu, or "Sand Dwellers,"
Asiatic prince with an execration text
are divided. Some prefer to see in thewritten across it in Egyptian script. Such as they were called-were alter-
artifacts only peaceful trade rela- figurines were smashed after the curse nately hated and feared as foreigners
tions, while others suppose that we (execration) was written, and thus a hex was by the xenophobic Egyptians. One
placed upon the enemy named in the text.
confront an actual Egyptian empire These texts form an important primary famous text describes vividly the
in Syria-Palestine (see Posener 1971; source for our knowledge of Levantine polit-miserable homeland of the Asiatics-
Weinstein 1981; Dever 1976). ical developments from the Middle Bronze from the Egyptian perspective -
period because they list the names of rulers
We do have, however, further obviously somewhere in central and
and city-states in Canaan, southern Syria,
evidence in several groups of Twelfthand along the Mediterranean coast. Photo- southern Palestine:
Dynasty execration texts from Egypt.graph courtesy of the Institut Royal du Lo, the wretched Asiatic - it goes
Patrimoine Artistique, Brussels, Belgium.
These are curse formulas, specifi- ill with the place where he is,
cally mentioning dozens of places in afflicted with water, difficult
Syria-Palestine and naming their bowl. However we may understand from many trees, the ways there-
rulers, all of whom bear distinctive the motives of the Egyptians regard- of painful because of the moun-
West Semitic or Amorite-style ing these princes, one thing is tains. He does not dwell in a
names. One group of texts (the Ber- clear- Egyptian intelligence was single place, [but] his legs are
lin texts, so-called because of their superb. They possessed a singularly made to go astray. He has been
place of publication) is inscribed on detailed knowledge of topography, fighting [ever] since the time of
small clay statuettes of bound cap- local conditions, and sociopolitical Horus, [but] he does not conquer,
tives; another (the Brussels texts, organization in Syria-Palestine dur- nor yet can he be conquered. He
which are slightly later) is inscribeding Middle Bronze I. (On the execra- does not announce a day in fight-
on red ceramic bowls. These curious tion texts, see especially van Seters ing, like a thief who ... for a gang.
items were used in magical rites; 1966; Posener 1971; Weinstein 1975). (The Instruction for King Men-
they were deliberately smashed, and Ka-Re; see Pritchard 1955: 416)
thus a hex was placed upon the The Hyksos in Egypt and Palestine Various groups of these West Semitic
enemy named on the statuette or As we noted in the previous section,peoples from Syria and Palestine suc-

172 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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"Tutimaios. In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast
of God smote us; and unexpectedly from the regions of
the East invaders of obscure race marched in confidence
of victory against our land. By main force they s

ceeded in penetrating the Delta Hyksosin as barbarians who tempo- brought to light is fascinating: a large
larger and larger numbers, beginning rarily overran the country. This settlement that was founded about
already in the Twelfth and Thirteenth tradition survived into the Roman 1900-1800 B.C.E., with domestic and
Dynasties. By the Fifteenth Dynasty, period, when the Jewish historian temple architecture, pottery, metal
they rose briefly to power. In the Josephus described the Hyksos implements, and burial customs
Second Intermediate Period, where through Egyptian eyes thusly: almost identical to those of Palestin-
the rival Sixteenth and Seventeenth Tutimaios. In his reign, for what ian Middle Bronze I. The population
Dynasties vied simultaneously for cause I know not, a blast of God and material culture of Avaris were,
power, revealing Egypt's weakness, a smote us; and unexpectedly from then, clearly Canaanite. Further-
series of Asiatic kings actually ruled the regions of the East invadersmore, the settlement is pre-Hyksos-
northern and central Egypt for a of obscure race marched in con- founded in the late Twelfth or early
hundred years under the Fifteenth, fidence of victory against our Thirteenth Dynasty-and it is the
or Hyksos, Dynasty. land. By main force they seized result not of a sudden military inva-
The Egyptian word for Hyksos it without striking a blow; and sion but rather of a long, relatively
(hk3w-h3swt) means simply "foreign having overpowered the rulers of peaceful process of colonization (for
ruler," not "Shepherd King" as for- the land, they then burned our this reinterpretation, see Dever 1985,
merly thought because of the sup- cities ruthlessly, razed to the contra Bietak). Thus Asiatics had
posed connection between these ground the temples of the gods,long been settled in the Delta. Their
Asiatics and the biblical patriarchs and treated all the natives with takeover of Egypt under the Fifteenth,
and their migration to Egypt. But we a cruel hostility, massacring or Hyksos, Dynasty, after some 250
can show that these "foreign kings" some and leading into slavery years, was more the result than the
were in fact Semitic-that is, from the wives and children of others. cause of the collapse of central
Syria-Palestine. Fortunately we pos- Finally, they appointed as king authority in the Second Intermediate
sess lists of the names of the six one of their number whose name Period. Already acculturated, and
kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty; at as Salitis; he had his seat in having a large power base in the
least three of them are demonstrably Memphis, levying tribute from local Canaanite population of the
West Semitic. Indeed, these kings Upper and Lower Egypt, and al- Delta at Avaris and elsewhere, the
bear typical Amorite- or Canaanite- ways leaving garrisons behind in Asiatic pretenders to the throne
style names. One is called Yaqub- the most advantageous places. probably simply took advantage of
har, "May the Mountain Deity (Against Apion, book 1, chapter internal weakness and seized power
overreach"- a name that is almost 14, line 75 and following; see in a lightning coup. The Hyksos
identical in style and meaning to the Thackeray 1961) remained in control of a good por-
original form of the name Jacob in It is not surprising that most tion of Egypt for a hundred years,
the Hebrew Bible. Several scarabs of scholars until recently assumed a until the kings of the late Seven-
these Hyksos kings have been foundHyksos invasion, which was thought teenth and the early Eighteenth
in the Middle Bronze levels of to have been the direct cause of the Dynasties succeeded in reuniting
Palestinian sites. dissolution of the Second Interme- Egypt and expelling them, ulti-
How did these Syro-Palestinian diate Period. But recent Austrian ex- mately driving them back into
interlopers manage to seize power cavations have discovered the loca- Palestine and Syria. This is where
in Egypt-something that never tion of long-lost Avaris, frequently the fortifications described above
occurred before or after in that mentioned in the Egyptian texts as came into play.
supposedly inviolable country? The the Hyksos capital, at Tell ed-Dabca My interpretation of the data,
chauvinistic Egyptian texts of later in the Nile Delta (Bietak 1979), including the new evidence from
periods always portray the hated 1984). What the excavations have Tell ed-Dabca, is somewhat contro-

Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987 173

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 turies thereafter. Kamose's brother
Ahmose, founder of the Eighteenth
Dynasty and the New Kingdom, con-
tinued these campaigns against the
Hyksos, as subsequent pharaohs did
well down into the fifteenth century
B.C.E.. Several Egyptian texts detail
military campaigns against a number
of sites in Palestine and into Syria as
far as the Upper Euphrates, mention-
ing specific sites by name. The most
explicit text is the victory account
of Tuthmosis III, found inscribed on
the walls of the great temple of Amun
at Karnak (near modern Luxor). It
lists dozens of identifiable sites in
Palestine and Syria, which the pha-
raoh claims to have taken on his
famous first Asiatic campaign,
around 1482 B.C.E. Later texts docu-
ment almost annual campaigns of
Victory inscription of T7bthmosis III on the walls of a temple at Karnak, from the first years of
the revival of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs. T7bthmosis III is depicted holding Asiatic the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs,
enemies by their hair, a common convention in Egyptian art to show the subjection of foreign down to the time of Tuthmosis IV at
enemies to the king. The successful reestablishment of Egyptian hegemony in the Delta
the end of the fifteenth century
meant the expulsion of the hated Hyksos, or "foreign rulers."
B.C.E. (Weinstein 1981; Dever 1985).
Some historians still dismiss
versial. If I am correct, however, then asserted himself. A well-known text
these Egyptians texts, which were
we have for the first time a rational describes the pharaoh's war council: popular for centuries, as propaganda
explanation for the enigmatic Pales- His majesty spoke in his palace (see Shea 1979; Redford 1979), as a
tinian defenses, which attained their to the council of nobles who bombastic attempt to focus blame
maximum buildup in Middle Bronze were in his retinue: "Let me un- for the Second Intermediate inter-
III, 1650-1550 B.C.E.-precisely the derstand what this strength of regnum on the Asiatics, and also an
time of the Hyksos period in Egypt. mine is for! [One] prince is in idle boast of Egyptian triumph over
The Palestinian city-states consti- Avaris, another is in Ethiopia, them. But the fact is that every single
tuted the power base for the Asiatic and [here] I sit associated with Middle Bronze III site excavated thus
expansion in the Delta. They were an Asiatic and a Negro! Each far in Palestine shows one or more
the heartland of Canaanite culture, man has his slice of this Egypt, destructions precisely between
which sustained and supplied the dividing up the land with me. I about 1550 and 1480 B.C.E.--so devas-
colonies in Egypt. The Palestinian cannot pass by him as far as tating that most sites were aban-
sites were heavily defended not Memphis, the waters of Egypt, doned for a generation or more
against the rival city-states of the [but], behold, he has Hermo- thereafter, well into Late Bronze I.
local regions but rather against the polis. No man can settle down, Shechem suffered three destructions
possibility of a forced retreat and being despoiled by the imposts in rapid succession in the Northwest
Egyptian retaliation. This eventu- of the Asiatics. I will grapple Gate area, leaving heaps of burned
ality became more and more a con- with him, that I may cut open mudbrick that are still visible on the
cern late in the period, as Asiatic his belly! My wish is to save mound's surface today. Gezer is a
rulers pushed their power to its Egypt and to smite the Asiatics!" parade example, and also one of the
limits in Egypt. In time, what was (The War Against the Hyksos; most closely dated destructions. The
feared happened. The fortifications see Pritchard 1955: 232) "South Gate," "Inner Wall," and mas-
were needed but they failed. Other texts recount that, as they sive "Tower 5017" were violently
The end of the Second Inter- pushed north, the Egyptians be- burned and so badly damaged that
mediate Period and Hyksos rule sieged Avaris and destroyed it, and they were never rebuilt. Inside the
came around 1540 B.C.E., when the excavations at Tell ed-DabCa re- gate, houses were found filled with
Kamose, the last pharaoh of the veal that the site was burned around up to six feet of destruction debris.
Theban Seventeenth Dynasty, re- 1540 B.C.E. and lay destroyed for cen- Among the smashed pottery and

174 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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stone implements on the floors was a last, unsuccessful stand at the Bietak, M.
1979 Avaris and Piramesse.
the crushed body of a young woman fortified sites there (see Weinstein
Archaeological Exploration in the
in her twenties; she had apparently 1981; Dever 1985). It was this even- Eastern Nile Delta. London: The
returned to retrieve the gold deity tuality that had been anticipated all British Academy.
pendants discussed above but was along and that had no doubt moti- 1984 Problems of Middle Bronze Age
killed when the burning roof fell on vated the augmentation, if not the Chronology: New Evidence from
her. It is likely that we can date the construction, of these enormous Egypt. American Journal of
Archaeology 88: 471-85.
destruction during Middle Bronze III Middle Bronze I-III defenses. With
Biran, A.
at Gezer precisely to the spring of that came the end of the second, bril-1984 The Triple-Arched Gate of Laish at
1482 B.C.E., among the latest in liant urban era in ancient Palestine. Tel Dan. Israel Exploration Journal
Palestine. It would thus be con- 34:1-19.

nected with the first Asiatic cam- Conclusion Biran, A., editor
1981 Temples and High Places. Jerusalem:
paign of Tuthmosis III, on his way to It would be a generation or so after
Hebrew Union College.
the famous battle at the Megiddo the Middle Bronze destructions
Broshi, M., and Gophna, R.
pass in that year. This campaign is before Palestine would recover. 1986 Middle Bronze Age II Palestine. Its
recorded in detail on the wall of the Many sites were abandoned for a Settlement and Population. Bulletin
great temple at Karnak, and Gezer is generation or more, until the Late of the American Schools of Oriental
Research 261: 73-90.
specifically mentioned as one of the Bronze IB period (approximately
Buccellati, G.
sites taken (Dever and others 1971: 1450-1400 B.C.E.). Those that were 1966 The Amorites of the Ur III Period.
102, 103; 1974; Seger 1975, 1976). reoccupied were shadows of their Naples: Institute of Near Eastern
Not even the smaller Palestinian former selves, depopulated and Studies.

forts of two to three acres escaped impoverished, until full recovery Cole, D. P.
1984 Shechem I. The Middle Bronze IIB
this long series of Egyptian cam- finally came in the Late Bronze II
Pottery. Winona Lake, IN: American
paigns, as shown by the recent exca- period, under Egyptian hegemony Schools of Oriental Research.
vation of Tel Mevorakh on the coast. (approximately 1400-1200 B.C.E.). Dever, W. G.
It is irresistible to connect these The cycle with which we began our 1973 The Gezer Fortifications and the
violent destructions in Palestine story-the periodic rise, collapse, "High Place": An Illustration of
Stratigraphic Methods and Prob-
with the campaigns that the Egyp- and renascence of civilization-had
lems. Palestine Exploration
tian texts describe following the ex- come full circle again. And this time Quarterly 105: 61-70.
pulsion of the Hyksos from the Palestine would not regain her 1974 The MB II Stratification in the
Delta. The Middle Bronze III sites in former degree of urbanization until Northwest Gate Area of Shechem.
Palestine were at their absolute the Classical era, many centuries Bulletin of the American Schools of
Oriental Research 216: 31-52.
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1984 The Settlement Landscape of bridge University Press. Parr, P. J.

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176 Biblical Archaeologist, September 1987

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 1979 A Gate Inscription from Karnak and
Egyptian Involvement in Western
American Schools of Oriental
Research 241: 1-28. ARCHAEOLOGICAL
Asia During the Early Eighteenth Woolley, L.
Dynasty. Journal of the American 1953 A Forgotten Kingdom. Baltimore:
TOURS NOTED SCHOLARS
1988 TOURS
Oriental Society 99: 270-87. Penguin Books. THAILAND/BURMA
Richard, S. Wright, G. E. Jan. & Nov.; F. K. Lehman, U. of Illinois
1987 The Early Bronze Age: The Rise and 1965 Shechem. The Biography of a Bib- EGYPT Feb. & Nov.
lical City. New York: McGraw-Hill. Dr. Robert Bianchi, The Brooklyn Museum
Collapse of Urbanism. Biblical
Archaeologist 50: 22-43. 1971 The Archaeology of Palestine from GUATEMALA March
CAVES & CASTLES June
Sagona, A. C. the Neolithic through the Middle Prof. Norman Totten, Bentley College
1980 Middle Bronze Faience Vessels from Bronze Age. Journal of the American INDONESIA
March & August
Palestine. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Oriental Society 91: 276-93. Prof. William Collins, U. of C, Berkeley
Paldstina-Vereins 96: 101-20. Wright, G. R. H. Prof. Robert Hefner, Boston U.
Seger, J. D. 1968 Tell el-Yehudiyeh and the Glacis. TREASURES OF BYZANTIUM
April
1974 The Middle IIC Date of the East Zeitschrift des Deutschen Paldstina- Dr. Robert Bianchi, The Brooklyn Museum
Gate at Shechem. Levant 6: 117-30. Vereins 84: 1-17. SICILY May
1975 The MB II Fortifications at Yadin, Y Prof. William Biers, U. of Missouri

Schechem and Gezer-A Hyksos 1955 Hyksos Fortifications and the ANATOLIAN TURKEY May & Sept.
EASTERN TURKEY June
Retrospective. Eretz-Israel 12: 34-45. Battering Ram. Bulletin of the Mattanya Zohar, Hebrew U.
1976 Reflections on the Gold Hoard from American Schools of Oriental ETRUSCAN ITALY May
Gezer. Bulletin of the American Research 137: 23-32. Prof. Nancy de Grummond, Florida St. U.

Schools of Oriental Research 221: 1973 The Tell Beit Mirsim G-F Alleged PERU May
Prof. Andrew Miracle, Texas Christian U.
133-40. Fortifications. Bulletin of the Ameri- CHINA
Seters, J. van can Schools of Oriental Research Ancient Capitals May, June & October
1966 The Hyksos: A New Investigation. 212: 23-25. China & Tibet August
Silk Route September
New Haven: Yale University Press. 1978 The Nature of Settlement in the
CYPRUS/RHODES & CRETE
Shea, W, Middle Bronze Age IIA and the October

1979 The Conquests of Sharuhen and Problem of the Aphek Fortifications. Mattanya Zohar, Hebrew U.

Megiddo Reconsidered. Israel Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palistina-

4ISRAEL October
Prof. E. Oren, Ben-Gurion U.
Exploration Journal 29: 1-5. Vereins 94: 1-23.
Stech, T., Muhly, J. D., and Maddin, R. archaeological tours
1985 Metallurgical Studies on Artifacts 30 East 42 Street Suite 1202J
SNew York, NY 10017 212-986-3054
from the Tomb Near CEnan. CAtiqot
17: 73-82.
Thackeray, H. St. J., translator
1961 Josephus I. The Life. Against Apion. Archaeological Adventures in Israel
Cambridge, MA, and London:
Harvard University Press and A Practical Guide
Heinemann. by Arnold J. Flegenheimer
Tocci, E M. (Roth Publishing, Roslyn Heights)
1960 La Siria nell'eta di Mari. Rome:
University of Rome. Paperback: $9.95
Tubb, J. N. (will) encourage and reassure others who may
1983 The MB IIA Period in Palestine: Its be thinking about the possibility of digging in
Relationship with Syria and Its the land of the Bible... conveys the kinds of
Origin. Levant 15: 49-82. details either ignored or assumed in the stan-
Tufnell, O. dard manuals... (in an) informal style
1984 Studies on Scarab Seals II. Scarab
Seals and Their Contribution to (from the preface by Philip J. King, Professor
of Biblical Studies, Boston College, and for-
History in the Early Second Millen-
mer President of the American Schools of
nium B.C. Warminster: Aris &
Phillips. Oriental Research)

Ward, W. A. Please send me copies of Archaeo-

1961 Egypt and the East Mediterranean in logical Adventures in Israel. Enclosed is a
the Early Second Millennium B. C.
check for $ to cover the cost of
Orientalia 30: 22-45, 129-55.
1971 Egypt and the East Mediterranean the book, handling and shipping charges.*
World 2200-1900 B.C. Beirut: Amer-
*Handling and shipping charges $1.60 for single
ican University of Beirut. copies, $3.00 for 2 to 5 copies. For larger orders,
Weinstein, J. please enquire.
1975 Egyptian Relations with Palestine in
Please make checks payable to UB Foundation, and remit to Chair, Depar
the Middle Kingdom. Bulletin of the
SUNYAB, Buffalo, New York 14260
American Schools of Oriental
Research 217: 1-16.
Name (please print)
1981 The Egyptian Empire in Palestine: A Street
Reassessment. Bulletin of the
0 City State Zip 4

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