Political Change and Material Culture in Middle to Late Bronze Age Canaan

Shlomit Bechar (Fellow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

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English

Eisenbrauns
04 September 2024

Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Archaeology; Egyptian archaeology & Egyptology

Series: History, Archaeology, and Culture of the Levant

Do shifts in material culture instigate administrative change, or is it the shifting political winds that affect material culture? This is the central question that Shlomit Bechar addresses in this book, taking the transition from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (seventeenth–fourteenth centuries BCE) in northern Canaan as a test case.

Combining archaeological and historical analysis, Bechar identifies the most significant changes evident in architectural and ceramic remains from this period and then explores how and why contemporary political shifts may have influenced, or been influenced by, these developments. Bechar persuasively argues that the Egyptian conquest of the southern Levant—enabled by local economic decline following the expulsion of the Hyksos and the fall of northern Syrian cities—was the impetus for these changes in ceramics and architecture. Using a macro-typological approach to examine the ceramic assemblages, she also discusses the impact of the influx of Aegean imports, suggesting that while “attached specialists” were primarily responsible for ceramic production in the Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age ceramics were increasingly made by “independent specialists,” another important result of the new administrative system created following Thutmose III’s campaign.

An important contribution to our understanding of the transition between the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, this original and insightful book will appeal to specialists in the Bronze Age Levant, especially those interested in using ceramic assemblages to examine social and political change.

By: Shlomit Bechar (Fellow Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Imprint: Eisenbrauns
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9781646022984
ISBN 10: 164602298X
Series: History, Archaeology, and Culture of the Levant
Pages: 278
Publication Date: 04 September 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Shlomit Bechar is Senior Lecturer at the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. She is Codirector of the Tel Hazor excavations and is a coauthor of Hazor VII and Hazor VIII.

Reviews for Political Change and Material Culture in Middle to Late Bronze Age Canaan

“Bechar has undertaken an in-depth study of the ceramics at Hazor and put its assemblage in dialogue with those of surrounding settlements, which will be extremely useful for archaeologists working in the region. This study allows her to make important conclusions—such as the fact that pottery shapes at Tel Arqa in the LB II become less similar to those in the Southern Levant and more similar to those of the Northern Levant. In border zones where allegiances fluctuate, this kind of ceramic shift may represent one of the few available ways to understand political shifts at the time.” —Ellen Morris,author of Ancient Egyptian Imperialism “This is a well-researched study that fills several knowledge gaps about the economy and livelihood of the Canaanite peoples during the upheavals of LBI and LBII.” —Mark A. Awabdy Society for Old Testament Study Booklist (JSOT)