Pre-history of the Southern Levant

The Pre-history of the Southern Levant explains the various cultural changes that occurred, as revealed by archaeological evidence, prior to recorded traditions in the area of the Southern Levant, also referred to by a number of other largely overlapping historical designations, including Canaan, the Land of Israel ("Eretz Israel"), and Palestine. The article also discusses how the pre-historic period was viewed in early traditions regarding the region.

Cultures

Mousterian Neanderthals appear as the earliest human species to inhabit the region. They have been estimated to date to about 200,000 BCE.The first anatomically-modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, to live in the area are called the Kebarans. They have been conventionally dated to about 18,000 - 10,500 BCE, but recent paleoanthropological evidence suggests that Kebarans may have arrived as early as 75,000 BCE and shared the region with the Neanderthals for millennia before the latter died out. They were followed by the Natufian culture (c. 10,500 BCE - 8500 BCE), the Yarmukians (c. 8500 - 4300 BCE) and the Ghassulians (carbon dated c. 4300 - 3300 BCE). None of these names appears in any pre-modern source; they were all devised as conventions in recent times by archaeologists to refer to the various cultures found in archaeological strata. (See also: "History of pottery in the Southern Levant").

The Ghassulian period created the basis of the Mediterranean economy which has characterised the area ever since. A Chalcolithic culture, the Ghassulian economy was a mixed agricultural system consisting of extensive cultivation of grains (wheat and barley), intensive horticulture of vegetable crops, commercial production of vines and olives, and a combination of transhumance and nomadic pastoralism. The Gassulian culture, according to Juris Yarins, developed out of the earlier Minhata phase of what he calls the "circum Arabian nomadic pastoral complex", probably associated with the first appearance of Semites in this area.

Geographically the area is divided between a coastal plain, hill country to the East and the Jordan Valley joining the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea. Rainfall decreases from the north to the south, with the result that the northern region of Israel has generally been more economically developed than the southern one of Judah.

The Ghassulian period was associated with increasing urbanization, where people may have begun living in small city-states, one of which was Jericho. The area's location at the center of three trade routes linking three continents made it the meeting place for religious and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor:

# A Coastal Route: connecting Gaza and the Philistine coast north to Joppa and Megiddo, travelling north through Byblos to Phoenicia and Anatolia.
# A Hill Route: travelling through the Negev, Kadesh Barnea, to Hebron and Jerusalem, and thence north to Samaria, Shechem, Shiloh, Beth Shean and Hazor, and thence to Kadesh and Damascus.
# The "Kings Highway": travelling north from Eilat, east of the Jordan through Amman to Damascus, and connected to the "frankincense road" north from Yemen and South Arabia.

The area seems to have suffered from acute periods of desiccation, and reduced rainfall which has influenced the relative importance of settled versus nomadic ways of living. The cycle seems to have been repeated a number of times during which a reduced rainfall increases periods of fallow, with farmers spending increasing amounts of time with their flocks and away from cultivation. Eventually they revert to fully nomadic cultures, which, when rainfall increases settle around important sources of water and begin to spend increasing amounts of time on cultivation. The increased prosperity leads to a revival of inter-regional and eventually international trade. The growth of villages rapidly proceeds to increased prosperity of market towns and city states, which attract the attention of neighbouring great powers, who may invade to capture control of regional trade networks and possibilities for tribute and taxation. Warfare leads to opening the region to pandemics, with resultant depopulation, overuse of fragile soils and a reversion to nomadic pastoralism.

Early and Middle Bronze Age

The urban development of Canaan lagged considerably behind that of Egypt and Mesopotamia and even that of Syria, where from 3,500 BCE a sizable city developed at Hamoukar. This city, which was conquered, probably by people coming from the Southern Iraqi city of Uruk, saw the first connections between Syria and Southern Iraq that someBright, John (2000)"A History of Israel" (John Knox Press Westminster)] [Albright, William F. "From Abraham to Ezra"] have suggested lie behind the patriarchal traditions. Urban development again began culminating in the Early Bronze Age development of sites like Ebla, which by 2,300 BCE was incorporated once again into an Empire of Sargon, and then Naram-Sin of Akkad (Biblical Accad). The archives of Ebla show reference to a number of Biblical sites, including Hazor, Jerusalem, and a number of people have claimed, also to Sodom and Gomorrah, mentioned in the patriarchal records. The collapse of the Akkadian Empire, saw the arrival of peoples using Khirbet Kerak Ware pottery, [See [http://www.ancientneareast.net/wares_kerak.html] ] coming originally from the Zagros Mountains, east of the Tigris. It is suspected by some [http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/urseals.htm] that this event marks the arrival in Syria and Israel of the Hurrians, people later known in the Biblical tradition possibly as Horites.

The following Middle Bronze Age period was initiated by the arrival of "Amorites" from Syria in Southern Iraq, an event which people like Albright (above) associated with the arrival of Abraham's family in Ur. This period saw the pinnacle of urban development in the area of Syria and Israel. Archaeologists show that the chief state at this time was the city of Hazor, which may have been the capital of the region of Israel. This is also the period in which Semites began to appear in larger numbers in the Nile delta region of Egypt. For some time it was felt that the portrayal of the tomb of Beni Hasan showed evidence for the story of Joseph's "Coat of Many Colours".

Traditions

This region was also the natural battleground for the great powers of the region and subject to domination by adjacent empires, beginning with Egypt in the late 3rd millennium BCE. Traditions regarding the period found in works such as the Book of Jubilees, the "Kebra Nagast" and commentaries of Rashi, Philo and the "Sepher Hayashar" of Ibn Ezra refer to the early inhabitants as the sons of Shem and speak of an invasion by the people known as Canaanites descended from Ham who is also the father of Mizraim representing Egypt.

The Book of Jubilees, states that the land was originally allotted to Shem and Arphaxad (ancestor of the Hebrews) when it was still vacant, but was wrongfully occupied by Canaan and his son Sidon. This is difficult to account for historically as the area has not been vacant since Lower Paleolithic times. Elsewhere, in the same late Jubilees tradition Arphaxad or Arpachsad is said to be the immediate progenitor of Ura and Kesed, who allegedly founded the city of Ur Kesdim (Ur of the Chaldees) on the south bank of the Euphrates (Jub. 9:4; 1:1-7). Others think that Urfa Kesed is the source of the name Arphaxad.

The "Kebra Nagast" (1225 CE) records oral traditions of the Canaanites invading existing cities of Shem, and Ibn Ezra (1167 CE) similarly noted that they had seized land from earlier inhabitants. Most modern scholars, however, reject these traditions as it hard to see how 14th century Ethiopia can have preserved stories not held elsewhere and confirmed by any contemporary historical sources.

Rashi mentions that the Canaanites were seizing land from the sons of Shem in the days of Abraham, although it is unclear of where these medieval documents obtained this information. Perhaps it comes from the interpretation that a late Canaanite arrival is hinted at in Genesis 12:6 where the expression "At that time the Canaanites were in the land" could be interpreted to carry the connotation of "then but not before" and not "then but not now" as Canaanites were present up and until the second Temple period by which time many argue that Genesis had certainly been written. [Friedman, Richard Eliot, (1997), "Who Wrote the Bible" (Harper Books)] [Sarna, Nahum M.; Feyerick, Ada and Gordon, Cyrus H., (1997), "Genesis: World of Myths and Patriarchs"(New York University Press)]

ee also

*History of pottery in the Southern Levant
*Names of the Levant
*History of the Levant
*History of Palestine
*History of ancient Israel and Judah

References

External links

*Joel Ng, [http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/biblical_archaeology/stone_to_bronze.html Introduction to Biblical Archaeology 2: From Stone to Bronze]
*Paul James Cowie, Archaeowiki: [http://www.archaeowiki.org/Archaeology_of_the_Southern_Levant Archaeology of the Southern Levant] - useful bibliographies