New Horizons in the Study of the Early Bronze III and Early Bronze IV of the Levant

Along with the radical two-hundred-year shift to a higher chronology for the southern Levant, the fast pace of discoveries throughout the Levant and Egypt necessitates constant updating and reevaluation. The principal consequence of these data for scholarship is the realignment of historical correlations between the southern and northern Levant in the EB III–IV periods, and between the southern Levant and the Egyptian Late Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods. But the contributions to this volume also detail new and tantalizing information from excavated sites that may not fit into traditional models of the Early Bronze III–IV periods. As this collection of articles attests, in light of new data, scholarly views on EB III urbanism and the rise of cities and states and on EB IV pastoral nomadism in the southern Levant need to be reevaluated.

Bringing together cutting-edge scholarship from an international group of specialists in the Early Bronze Age in the northern and southern Levant, this volume is an essential handbook for Early Bronze Age studies.

Suzanne Richard is Distinguished Professor of History and Archaeology at Gannon University.

Preface and Introduction to the Volume

Suzanne Richard, Gannon University

Abbreviations

Part 1: Northern Levant

1. Northern Levant in Early Bronze Age III–IV: Economic Wealth and the International Landscape of “Secondary Urbanization”

Stefania Mazzoni, University of Florence

2. Developing Urbanism in the Early Bronze Age II–III of the Upper Orontes River Valley, Syria: Ceramics, Chronology, and Foreign Relations

Melissa A. Kennedy, The University of Western Australia

3. The ʿAmuq in the Early Bronze Age III–IV from a Levantine Perspective

Lynn Welton, University of Toronto

4. Ebla in the Mid- to- Late Third Millennium BCE: Architecture and Chronology

Frances Pinnock, Sapienza University of Rome

5. The Problem of the Ebla Destruction at the End of Early Bronze Age IVB: Stratigraphic Evidence, Radiocarbon Dating, Historical Events

Paolo Matthiae, Sapienza University of Rome

6. The Northern Levantine “Caliciform” Tradition

Lisa Cooper, University of British Columbia

7. The Connections Between the Northern and Southern Levant During Early Bronze Age III: Reevaluations and New Vistas in the Light of New Data and Higher Chronologies

Agnese Vacca, University of Milan; and Marta D’Andrea, Sapienza University of Rome

Part 2: Southern Levant

8. Perspectives on Egypt in the Southern Levant in Light of the High Early Bronze

Age Chronology

Karin Sowada, Macquarie University, Australia

9. Monumental Architecture and the Sociopolitical Developments in the Southern

Levant of the Early Bronze Age

Pierre de Miroschedji, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 7041, Nanterre

10. Tell es- Sultan/Jericho in the Early Bronze Age III: Apogee of an Unusual “Palatial Society” in Palestine

Lorenzo Nigro, Sapienza University of Rome

11. Domestic Life During the Early Bronze Age III: A View from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath

Haskel J. Greenfield, University of Manitoba, Canada; Itzhaq Shai, Ariel University, Israel; and Aren M. Maeir, Bar- Ilan University, Israel

12. Urban Transformations: Continuity, Change, Rehabilitation, and Decay at Tel Bet Yeraḥ in the Early Bronze Age III

Sarit Paz, Tel Aviv University

13. Khirbet ez- Zeraqon and Early Bronze Age Chronology Revisited

Valentina Tumolo, Durham University, UK; and Felix Höflmayer, OREA Institut für Orientalische und Europäische Archäologie

14. Deeper Understandings: A Trench Through the Bronze Age Deposits at Khirbat

Hamra Ifdan

Hannah Friedman, Texas Tech University; Russell B. Adams, University of Waterloo; Keith Haylock, Independent Scholar; and Marta D’Andrea, Sapienza University of Rome

15. The Early Bronze Age III–IV Fortifications and Gateways of Tall al-Ḥammām: Data, Interpretations, and Insights from Twelve Excavation Seasons

Steven Collins, Trinity Southwest University

16. The Early Bronze Age III to Early Bronze Age IV Transition in the Upper Wadi

Zarqa: Continuity Versus Discontinuity

Maura Sala, Independent Scholar

17. Manufacturing Copper in the Periphery: Radiocarbon and the Question of Urbanism During the Early Bronze Age III–IV Transition

Aaron Gidding, University of California, Santa Barbara; and Thomas E. Levy, University of California at San Diego

18. Horizons of Cultural Connectivity: North–South Interactions and Interconnections During the Early Bronze Age IV

Melissa A. Kennnedy, University of Western Australia

19. Khirbet el- Meiyiteh and Elevation Point -167: Evidence of Fortified and Rural Early Bronze Age IV Settlements in Eastern Samaria

Shay Bar, Zinman Institute of Archaeology, Haifa University

20. It’s in the Style: Black Wheelmade Ware and Its Social Meaning

Shlomit Bechar, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

21. Excavations at Kfar Vradim and Intraregional Settlement Patterns of the Western Upper Galilee During the Intermediate Bronze Age

Karen Covello- Paran, Israel Antiquities Authority

22. About Stratigraphy, Pottery, and Relative Chronology: Some Considerations for a Refinement of the Archaeological Periodization of the Southern Levantine Early Bronze Age IV

Marta D’Andrea, Sapienza University of Rome

23. New Vistas on the Early Bronze Age IV of the Southern Levant: A Case for “Rural Complexity” in the Permanent Sedentary Sites

Suzanne Richard, Gannon University

List of Contributors