The climate in the Near East had soon improved after 1800 B.C.E., although it did not reach the optimal conditions of the third millennium B.C.E. The amelioration brought a gradual revival of the urban centers in the Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (M.B.), i.e. ca. 1800–1500 B.C.E. The archaeological evidence suggests a division of this period into two phases known as M.B.IIA and B with the transition around 1650 B.C.E.
The continuation of very few older elements of the material culture, such as pottery typology and some architectural conceptions are evidence that the composition of the local population underwent a drastic but apparently not a total change. In the entire cultural history of the Levant we can witness two
48M. Anbar,The Amorite Tribes in Mari and the Settlement of the Israelites in Canaan. The Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (1985 Hebrew with English sum- mary).
49The texts from Mari are still being published in over twenty volumes ofArchives Royales de Mari (ARM) Editions Recherches sur les Civilizations, Paris.
near complete changes of culture: The first was the transition from the Pre- Pottery Neolithic B to the Pottery Neolithic A in the 5th millennium B.C.E., and the second took place now around the transition from the Intermediate to the Middle Bronze Age at the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. The racial composition of the population also seems to indicate a considerable but not complete replacement of the population.50
This renewed phase of settled and urban life can be seen above all in the more western humid parts of the region while in the more eastern and south- ern parts, the pastoral villages of the local population in the marginal zones of Transjordan, the Negev and Sinai were increasingly abandoned in favor of fewer and larger but mostly open conglomerations. We know little about their material remains, which appear to continue traditions of the preceding Intermediate period; and know nothing about their social order and ethnic or linguistic affiliation.
Like most archaeologists we support the view that the cultural renewal and the revival of the urban structure was not the result of autochthonous develop- ments but of north Syrian and Mesopotamian origin with superficial charac- teristics of a developed urbanized society. In other words, it is thought that the people who migrated to Canaan were mostly Western Semites related to the Amorites who had first settled in Syria-Mesopotamia and later joined a wave of migration southward settling again in Canaan. The rather rapid revival of the urban centers and the social differentiation may have been, therefore, due to the fact that the Western Semitic newcomers were actually not any longer semi-nomadic barbarians, as were their ancestors who invaded Mesopotamia a few centuries before, but had gone through a phase of civilizatory accultur- ation.
After a period of domination by the newcomers followed a partial assimila- tion of the local population who seem to have been integrated into the material as well as the spiritual culture of their masters. There is some evidence of remaining sharp social differentiation between the upper and lower classes, a gap which grew over time and contributed to the demise of these cities.51
The main reason for the massive fortification surrounding the major cities appears to have been a very high level of hostility and aggressiveness between the “kings” of the various local city-states. Marauding tribesmen or disgruntled peasants from beyond the pale of civilization in a situation not very different
50P. Smith, “The Skeletal Biology and Palaeopathology of Early Bronze Age Populations in the Levant”
inL’Urbanisation en Palestine à l’âge du Bronze Ancien. Bilan et Perspectives des Recherches Actuelles, Actes du Colloque d’Emmaus 20–24 octobre 1986, P. de Miroschedj (ed.), BAR, International Series 527, 297–313 (1989).
51W.F. Albright. “The Historical Framework of Palestinian Archaeology between 2100 and 1600 B.C.E.”
BASOR209 12–18 (1973).
W.G. Dever. “The Beginning of the Middle Bronze Age in Syria-Palestine” in:Magnalia Dei: The mighty Acts of Gods. Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Memory of G. Ernest Wright.F.M. Cross, W.E. Lemke, and P.D. Miller (eds.), (Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., pp. 3–38 (1976).
N. Feig, in an unpublished M.A. thesis, commented on the distribution of modest huts and hovels compared to large and well-built mansions of the ruling class within the same city as expressions of pronounced social differences in the Middle Bronze Age cities.
from the one described in the archive of Mari52might have added to the general turbulence whereas a threat of outside invasions, for instance from Egypt, was less plausible.
The already mentioned ‘Execration Texts’ indicate that the political orga- nization lacked the centralization or the hegemony of one city over a larger territory. The names of more than one ruler in the early group indicate that the tribal-patriarchal political system was still the dominant form of govern- ment during the earlier periods. The political regime based on one ruler and the establishment of a dynastic principle in each urban center crystallized only during the later phases of Middle Bronze Age.53 The entire system was apparently still far from the politically complex cities, which characterized the city-states of Syria-Mesopotamia or even Anatolia, not to speak of the centralized state of Egypt.54
As before, the economy was based on agriculture and husbandry with some local crafts, domestic industry and trade in luxury items. An important advance was the introduction of the fast potter’s wheel. It was a Mesopotamian invention and enabled the local pot-makers to create some of the finest and elegant vessels ever made in this region.
In spite of the fact that many Hurrians and Indo-Europeans had arrived in the Levant during this period, a Western Semitic dialect related with Amorite had become dominant. This language, despite some incertitude due to the lack of actual documentation, can be called Canaanite which over time evolved into Phoenician and Hebrew as well as some other dialects spoken in Transjordan during the followings periods (see Appendix IV).
The discovery of a large volcanic explosion, followed by some minor erup- tions, on the island of Thera/Santorini in the Aegean Sea was taken as an important event in the history of Mediterranean. An ash layer attributed to this explosion was found in a lake near Sardis in western Anatolia and carbon- dated to 1627–1600 B.C.E.55The eruption covered a Minoan city on the island and its associated tsunami undoubtedly wrecked much destruction on the coasts of the Aegean and some parts of the eastern Mediterranean basin. It probably caused a few years of abnormally cool and rainy winters in the region but to attribute to it the decline of the Minoan, or any other civilization, such as the disappearance of mythicalAtlantis, or causing migrations such as the Exodus of the ‘Children of Israel’, or even influencing the transition of the Levantine M.B.IIA to B period is stretching the evidence very thin and enters the realm of speculation.
As we have mentioned, the level of the precipitation during this time was not as optimal as during the Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age. This in itself would suffice to keep the Western Semites in the desert plains on the move and
52W.G. Dever, “The Middle Bronze Age: The zenith of the urban Canaanite Era”Biblical Archaeology 50:149–177 (1987).
53B. Mazar, “The Middle Bronze Age in the Land of Israel”Eretz Israel8:216–230 (Hebrew) (1967).
54W.G. Dever op. cit. (1987).
55W. L. Friedrich, B. Kromer, M. Friedrich, J. Heinemeier, T. Pfeiffer, and S. Talamo, “Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627–1600 B.C.”Science312:548 (2006).
to continue with their attempts to settle down in the more fertile lands. The continuous pressure can be seen in references in Old Babylonian documents found in the archives of Mari, Babylon, Ur, Isin and other sites. The Amorites who now had ruled Sumer and Akkad for two or three generations, found themselves in need of fighting back new waves of invaders of the same stock from the west and north resulting in continuous warfare.
It can be envisaged that tribal groups of warriors of Amorite origin who were expelled from the kingdoms they had ruled for a while, were forced to move again into areas where they found less opposition. Albeit of a slightly later date, one of the most compelling stories illustrating the turbulence of the mid-second millennium B.C.E. was found on a statue of Idrimi, king of Alalakh, now Tell Achana in the ’Amuq Valley. He describes, how he and his family was driven from Aleppo, his ancestral home, to Emar on the Euphrates and then continued south into the land of Canaan, where he lived for seven years among the Habiru. With their and the help of the Sutians (presumably identical to the later Shasu or a northern sub-group) he fought with Barattarna, ‘king of the Hurrian warriors’, with whom he was eventually reconciled. He became king of Alalakh, where he gratefully built temples to the gods and a palace for himself, where this statue was found.56
The type of fortification consisting of a slopedglacisandterre piseeor mud- brick walls of the mature Middle Bronze Age symbolized the new era of walled cities in Canaan, the “cities great and walled up to heaven” (Deuteronomy 1:28). The construction of fortification reached its climax precisely during the Fifteenth or the Hyksos Dynasty in Egypt. Dever explained the need for a heavy defense system in the Canaanite city-states as a result of the growing strength of the Hyksos rulers in Egypt.57The connection with Egypt is clear, even though the local Canaanite rulers seem to have kept their independent status until the end of Middle Bronze Age.58
In order to guarantee a sustainable water supply, it appears that the inhab- itants of the cities dug wells inside the cities’ walls to reach the groundwater table. In cases that this was not achieved a gallery was extended from the bot- tom of the well to the direction of the nearby spring, in order to ensure supply in time of siege. It is also possible that galleries were dug from the outlets of the springs into the layers feeding the spring ensuring a longer period of supply from the spring for irrigation purposes.59
The problem of the chronology of the shaft and gallery system found in a remarkable number of urban centers in Palestine, such as Hazor, Gezer, Megiddo, Taanach, Gibeon, Jerusalem, and others, is still unsolved. In some
56A.L. Oppenheim, “Babylonian and Assyrian Historical Texts” inANET, 557–558.
57W.G. Dever, op. cit. (1987).
58N. Neeman op. cit. (1982).
59Z. Ron, “Development and Management of Irrigation Systems in Mountain Regions of the Holy Land”Transactions Inst. British Geographers10, 149–169 (1985).
Z. Ron “Geo-hydrological Breakthrough in the First Jewish Temple Period and Its Effect on the Development of Groundwater Resources” in:Proceedings of the 12th Archaeological Conference in Israel Jerusalem, Israel Exploration Society (1986).
cases, there is more and more evidence that, in all probability, they could originally be attributed to the Middle Bronze Age (see Appendix I).60
In Syria the flourishing Mature Bronze Age with its center now at Yamhad/
Aleppo continued unabated. The cooler and wetter conditions did not have such a positive effect on Anatolia and the other northern highlands of Caucasia and northern Iran where we hear about troubled times: trails of devastations show the path the Luwians took from the Balkans, with Hurrians and Hittites as well as other Indo-European speaking groups pressing in from the east, apparently trying to evade the grim cold weather further north and east.
Around 1780 B.C.E. Kanes and itskarumwere burned to the ground never to be rebuilt and the trade with Assyria came to a halt. In the destruction layer of Kanes, a bronze dagger with the cuneiform inscription “belonging to Anitta, son of Pithana, king of Kussara” was found and baffled the historians:
Was Anitta the inhabitant of the palace which was burned down, or was he the attacker? This question is of great importance because in the later annals of the Hittites, Anitta is mentioned as one of their first kings and with him we can begin the story of the Old Kingdom of the Hittites, which lasted until 1600 B.C.E.