Bronze and Iron Age in the Middle East | Middle East And North Africa

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BRONZE AGE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Bronze Age Canaanite house

Biblical and Jewish history begins during the Bronze Age (3300 - 1200 B.C.) in the Middle East. The birth of the Jewish people and the start of Judaism is told in the first five books of the Bible. Around 2000 B.C. God chose Abraham to be the father of a people who would be special to God, and who would be an example of good behaviour and holiness to the rest of the world. God guided the Jewish people through many troubles, and at the time of Moses, around 1300 B.C., he gave them a set of rules by which they should live, including the Ten Commandments. [Source: BBC]

The Bronze Age lasted approximately from about 4,000 B.C. to 1,200 B.C. During this period everything from weapons to agricultural tools to hairpins was made with bronze (a copper-tin alloy). Weapons and tools made from bronze replaced crude implements of stone, wood, bone, and copper. Bronze knives are considerable sharper than copper ones. Bronze is much stronger than copper. It is credited with making war as we know it today possible. Bronze sword, bronze shield and bronze armored chariots gave those who had it a military advantage over those who didn't have it.

Copper was fairly plentiful and copper tools had been around for long before bronze ones. Therefore the key ingredient that made the age and innovation possible was tin.In case you forgot, the Stone Age and Copper Age preceded the Bronze Age and the Iron Age came after it. Gold was first fashioned into ornaments about the same time bronze was.

Metal was worked in a shaft furnace and shaped with an anvil and hammer, and ceramics created Bronze Age sites in Western Turkey were far superior to anything made by civilizations that preceded it. Also during the Bronze Age, glass jars were made by wrapping liquid glass around a piece of clay that was dug out when the glass hardened. Ivory objects were painstakingly carved with drills propelled by a bow.

Archaeologists usually shy away from assigning fixed dates to the Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages because these ages are based on stages of developments in regard to stone, copper, bronze and iron tools and the technology used to make and the development of these tools and technologies developed at different times in different places. The terms the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age were coined by the Danish historian Christian Jurgen Thomsen in his Guide to Scandinavian Antiquities (1836) as a way of categorizing prehistoric objects. The Copper Age was added latter. In case you forgot, the Stone Age and Copper Age preceded the Bronze Age and the Iron Age came after it. Gold was first fashioned into ornaments about the same time bronze was.

Good Websites Archaeology News Report archaeologynewsreport.blogspot.com ; Anthropology.net anthropology.net : archaeologica.org archaeologica.org ; Archaeology in Europe archeurope.com ; Archaeology magazine archaeology.org ; HeritageDaily heritagedaily.com; Livescience livescience.com/

Bronze Tools in Ancient Egypt

ancient Egyptian bronze mirrors

André Dollinger wrote in his Pharaonic Egypt site: “Bronze implements found at Gurob, 18th-19th dynasty Bronze was a great improvement on copper. The oldest real bronze found in Egypt dates to the 4th dynasty and consists of 90 percent copper and 10 percent additional metals, which is about the best combination. Brittler than pure copper, it was easier to cast and could be hardened by repeated heating and hammering. [Source: André Dollinger, Pharaonic Egypt site, reshafim.org.]

“The first bronze tools were not the result of a deliberate attempt at improving the metal, but of the natural mix of copper and other metals in the smelted ore, in Egypt mostly arsenic. This poisonous metal was replaced during the second millennium by tin.

“Adding more tin results in a harder alloy which cannot be worked cold, but has to be heated to temperatures of between 600 and 800 °C. Tools and weapons were generally made of this harder bronze, while softer metal was preferred for casting statues and vessels which were subsequently hammered and engraved. Bronze tools found at Gurob: 1) Chisel with tang; 2) Chisels; 3) Adze blade; 4) Hatchet]; 6) Rasp; 7) Hatchet; 8) Nails; 9) Arrow head; 10) Lance head; 11) Knife of unknown use; 12) Switching blade; 13) Barbless fishing hooks,

Bronze Age Mesopotamia

The Bronze Age in Mesopotamia (roughly 3200 B.C. to 1000 B.C.) has been characterized as a time of vibrant economic expansion, when the earliest Sumerian cities and the first great Mesopotamian empires grew and prospered. John Noble Wilford wrote in the New York Times, “After thousands of years in which copper was the only metal in regular use, the rising civilizations of Mesopotamia set off a revolution in metallurgy when they learned to combine tin with copper -- in proportions of about 5 to 10 percent tin and the rest copper -- to produce bronze. Bronze was easier to cast in molds than copper and much harder, with the strength of some steel. Though expensive, bronze was eventually used in a wide variety of things, from axes and awls to hammers, sickles and weapons, like daggers and swords. The wealthy were entombed with figurines, bracelets and pendants of bronze. [Source: John Noble Wilford, New York Times, January 4, 1994]

Among the mysteries of ancient metallurgy include the question of how people first recognized the qualities of bronze made from tin and copper and how they mixed the alloy. For several centuries before the Bronze Age, metalsmiths in Mesopotamia were creating some tools and weapons out of a kind of naturally occurring bronze. The one used most frequently was a natural combination of arsenic and copper. The arsenic fumes during smelting must have poisoned many an ancient smith, and since the arsenic content of copper varied widely, the quality of the bronze also varied and must have caused manufacturing problems.

Scholars have yet to learn how the ancient Mesopotamians got the idea of mixing tin with copper to produce a much stronger bronze. But excavations have produced tin-bronze pins, axes and other artifacts from as early as 3000 B.C. In the Royal Cemetery at the ancient city of Ur, 9 of 12 of the metal vessels recovered were made of tin-bronze, suggesting that this was the dominant alloy by the middle of the third millennium B.C.

The Bronze Age could not continue forever, scholars say, in part because tin was so hard to get, contributing to the expense of the metal alloy. The age came to an end around 1100 B.C., when iron, plentiful and accessible just about everywhere, became the most important metal in manufacturing.

Metal production in Mesopotamia-era Middle East

Early Bronze Age Palestine (3300- 2200 B.C.)

According to Ancient Near East net: “The Early Bronze Age in the Levant [Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey] is most frequently characterised as the first great period of urbanism in the Near East, the material culture of the region reflecting a general trend towards living in urban settlements and social organisation along city lines. Scholars have therefore entitled this period variously as “the Emergence of Cities” [Mazar 1990:91] Social and cultural developments in the Levant at this time cannot be understood without appreciating their wider context in the regions as a whole; developments in both Egypt and Mesopotamia serve to frame those in the Levant. Thus, the second half of the fourth millennium BCE witnessed the rise of truly complex civilisations in both river valleys, characterised by hierarchical government and administration, by the appearance of writing and literate societies, by irrigation and by large-scale public works. [Source: ancientneareast.net ***]

“Positioned centrally between them and serving as a land bridge, the Levant benefitted from the influence of both cradles of civilisation. Thus, the southern Levant (Palestine, Lebanon and southern Syria) developed clear connections with the Nile Delta region, later also with the Nile Valley; some limited Mesopotamian and Anatolian influence also filtered through via northern Syria. Northern Syria itself, of course, was positioned in close juxtaposition with the Upper Euphrates and Tigris river valleys, these serving to channel direct Mesopotamian influence into that region. Although lacking the riverine basis for urban civilisation present in both Egypt and Mesopotamia, being forced to rely on seasonal precipitation for agricultural water supply, the Levant was nonetheless able to follow their general trajectory by developing localised forms of urban culture in entirely different landscapes. ***

The EBA in the Levant corresponds in Egypt to the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods (EBI-II) and the Old Kingdom, extending across Dynasties 3-6 (EBIII). The latest urban phase of the EBA is therefore a contemporary of the so-called “Age of the Pyramids”.

Periodisation and Terminology of Early Bronze Age Palestine (3300- 2200 B.C.)

According to Ancient Near East net: “The use of the term “Early Bronze” to describe the period is favoured by most scholars; several exceptions exist(ed) amongst the Israeli archaeological community, some of whom prefer(red) an designation of “Early Canaanite” [cf. M. Dothan 1985:136-141]. This alternative has provoked much debate, on the grounds that utilising ethnically-oriented terminology must necessarily be doubtful, given that we do not know the ethnic composition of the Levant at the time in the absence of epigraphic remains or other clear indicators. [Source: ancientneareast.net ***]

Bronze Age images in the Israel Museum

Southern Levant, West Syria, Amuq Sequence, North Syria and SE Anatolia [cf. Rothman 2001], Approximate Dates (Cal BCE)
Chalcolithic (Ghassulian), Local Ubaid / Chaff-Faced Horizon, E/F, Terminal
Ubaid / Late Chalcolithic (LC) 1-2, mid 5th – mid 4th millennia
EBI (early), Chaff-Faced Horizon, F, LC3, 3600 – 3400/3350
EBI (late), Chaff-Faced Horizon, F-G, LC4, 3400/3350 – 3100/3000
EBII, EBI/II, G-H, LC5 / post-Uruk, 3100-3000 – 2800/2700
EBIII, EBIII, H-I, Multiple competing terminologies, 2800/2700 – 2400/2300
EBIV, EBIV, I-J, Multiple competing terminologies, 2400/2300 – 2000 ***

“Transition to Early Bronze from the Chalcolithic: Several sites in the southern Levant were abandoned permanently at the end of the Chalcolithic period, and were not subject to resettlement with the advent of the EBI period. Amongst these are such significant Chalcolithic settlements as Teleilat Ghassul and Abu Hamid, both in the Jordan Valley. A large number of sites possess EBIa settlement remains above earlier Late Chalcolithic layers however, revealing a tendency amongst EBIa settlers towards the resettlement of sites previously occupied in the Chalcolithic period or even earlier. Amongst these are such sites as Tel Teo, Meser, Palmahim and Tel Halif, all eminently suitable for ongoing settlement with abundant water resources and land already prepared for crop cultivation. Even so, a number of significant sites in the southern Levant were founded at the start of the EB period with no connection whatsoever to the preceding Chalcolithic settlement process. Examples include Bab edh-Dhra, Yiftahel and Site H. ***

First Cities of in Early Bronze Age (3600-2000 B.C.)

Wael Abu Azizeh wrote: The Early Bronze Age marked a watershed in the history of the southern Levant. This period represents a milestone in the march towards the urban era, expressing profound changes in the organization of societies. A series of technical innovations allowed the development of an agricultural economy. Irrigation, already used during the previous period, became the rule, and the introduction of the ox and plough improved yield and allowed the farming of new lands. The cultivation of olives and vines increased. Finally, the use of the donkey as a beast of burden and the spread of bronze tools facilitated this process of the intensification of production. [Source: Wael Abu Azizeh, “Atlas of Jordan”, p. 117-118, Open Edition Books, 2014]

Furthermore, a series of transformations in the design of towns shows a growing level of social organisation into a hierarchy. Some sites, mostly concentrated in the north and along the Jordan Valley, stand out from other villages and have added fortifications (Bab al-Dhra’, Kh. Zeraqun, Numeira, Tell Handaquq (N) and Pella). Defensive structures such as rectangular towers and bastions were erected along stone ramparts, along with monumental gateways. In some cases, privileged acropolis sectors accommodated new forms of public and administrative buildings, while most domestic premises were located in the lower town (Tell Hammam, Tell Handaquq (S), Leijjun).

Places of worship, previously built both inside villages and outside, henceforth occupied a central place. The site of Kh. Zeraqun illustrates these characteristics of Early Bronze Age towns. Defended by large stone ramparts, the design of the town attests to the planning of urban construction in two distinct areas. The main city gate is in the upper town, protected by a 30 meter long bastion, there was a religious complex comprising an enclosure and four long rooms opening onto a courtyard. The discovery of a great number of storage jars in a building of this raised fortified area highlights, as observed on a number of sites, the development of the centralized management of resources and the emergence of political control. The lower city, in the southern part of the site, is an area of residential and domestic blocks surrounded by an organized transportation network. All these spatial transformations, which accompany the establishment of a real economy of goods and increased specialization in craft and agriculture production, heralded the development of a growing organisation of social and political hierarchy during the Early Bronze Age.

Jason Urbanus wrote in Archaeology magazine: “The Jebel Qurma region of northeast Jordan is today an almost uninhabitable stretch of land marked by desert wasteland and basalt hills. However, current surveys in the area have revealed a wealth of archaeological monuments that tell a story of a different time. Housing foundations, former campsites, rock art, inscriptions, and hundreds of burial cairns — piles of stones heaped over human inhumations — have recently been identified and attest to once-thriving periods of human occupation. While the evidence shows that human settlement was often centered in secluded areas, the dead were buried in visible, prominent locations on hilltops and high plateaus. One cemetery dating back 4,300 years indicates that people were living in the area from at least the Early Bronze Age. Toward the end of the first millennium B.C., a sophisticated culture that constructed large and complex “tower tombs” inhabited the region. These tombs were built from stones weighing more than 600 pounds each, could reach a height of 16 feet, and could be five feet in diameter. “Our research yields wholly new data and insights,” says Jebel Qurma Archaeological Landscape Project director Peter Akkermans. “Piece by piece we are beginning to understand the archaeology of the region and its importance for Levantine and Near Eastern archaeology in general.” [Source: Jason Urbanus, Archaeology magazine, November-December 2017]

Middle Bronze Age Palestine (2200 - 1570 B.C.)

John R. Abercrombie of the University of Pennsylvania wrote: “The Middle Bronze Age is contemporary with the First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period in Egypt. United Egypt of the Old Kingdom disintegrated into individual kingdoms (nomarchs) after the Sixth Dynasty. This period of disunity, possibly described in the Admonitions of Ipuwer, lasted some three hundred years and is generally contemporary with Middle Bronze I. [Sources: Historical Overview of the Middle Bronze Age (Anep, 382-386), John R. Abercrombie, University of Pennsylvania, James B. Pritchard, Princeton, Boston University, bu.edu/anep/MB.html |*|]

Map of Israel with ancient sites on it

“Under kings of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dynasty, Middle Kingdom Egypt reached a cultural pinnacle. Politically Middle Kingdom monarchs extended their influence southward into Nubia as far as the fortress of Semnah. Egypt's hegemony in Asia, however, is more problematic, although there is evidence of early contact with Asiatic peoples. The Tale of Sinuhe describes the adventures of an Egyptian royal tutor who fled to Syria and lived among the Asiatic tribes. Other evidence of contact include Egyptian execration text, lists of Asiatics living in Egyptian households, extensive gifts and statuary from Byblos and other sites (e.g. Megiddo), and Egyptian tomb inscriptions and depictions (e.g. Beni Hasan painting of 37 Asiatics ANEP, No. 3 - Tomb of Khnum-hotep III). |*|

“Asiatics gained control of the delta region of Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period. Known as the Hyksos, Rulers of Foreign Lands, these Asiatic princes may have extended control beyond the delta and as far south as Abydos. Certainly many of the major Hyksos cities are located in the eastern Delta: Tell el-Yahudiyeh, Heliopolis, Tell el-Maskhuta and Tell ed-Dab'a. Manfred Bietak's excavation at Tell ed-Dab'a clearly demonstrates the presence of an Asiatic culture at this site that some consider the ancient capital of Avaris. Large migdol temples, family cemeteries on the tell, unusual donkey burials, weapons, types of grave goods, common Middle Bronze IIA-C pottery and other small finds are comparable and almost identical to the kind of cultural remains from contemporary sites in Palestine and Syria. |*|

“A number of key battles were fought by Egyptian kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty against the Hyksos, but it wasn't until the reign of Amosis, the first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty (circa 1570 B.C.), that the Hyksos were expelled. The important text describing the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt comes from the tomb walls of one Ahmose of El Kab. His autobiographical inscriptions describes the conquest of Avaris, the Hyksos capital, the city of Sharuhen (Tell el Farah S) in Palestine and the conquest of all Retenu during the reign of Thothmosis I.” |*|

Dolmen and Tower Tombs

Tara Steimer-Herbet wrote: In the proto-historic period, the territory of contemporary Jordan was covered with megalithic tombs of two types that correspond to different livelihoods, associated with more or less arid environments. Thus, sedentary settlements developed dolmen necropolises, while the steppe was covered with tower tombs. [Source: Tara Steimer-Herbet, “Atlas of Jordan”, p. 119-121, Open Edition Books, 2014]

In Jordan, the construction of megalithic tombs began in the early 4th millennium B.C. and faded at the turn of the 2nd millennium B.C.. Two types have been identified: dolmens and tower tombs. The dolmen necropolises are located near the Dead Sea, along the Jordan Valley, on the outskirts of Irbid and in the triangle formed by Samra, Mafraq and Zarqa. The tower tombs occupy the desert and semi-desert areas east of Ma`an, the Wadi Rum and the Harra north of Azraq.

The dolmens are grouped into large necropolises of sometimes over a thousand monuments (Jabal Mutawwaq, Mount Nebo), the necropolises are mostly built on high lands and are close to Chalcolithic villages (Jabal Mutawwaq), Early Bronze age villages (Al Mugeighat, Dahmiyah, al-Dehma, Kufr Yuba) and Middle Bronze age villages (Marajem). Whereas the tower tombs are isolated or in small groups not exceeding half a dozen, they overlook small hamlets and / or are close to structures related to hunting or herding (kites). Recent excavations in the region of Ma‘an have yet to provide precise dates but the elements of relative chronology observed on satellite images show that they are contemporary to the dolmens. The megalithic tombs are sometimes surrounded by an enclosure, covered with a tumulus and / or associated with a tail. This tail consists of either a continuous wall or a series of caissons, stacks or standing stones. They are 5m to 300m long and sometimes link two tombs together, in which case we call them funeral chains (Ayn Jadida, Marajem, the Samra region, Jabal Dhalma, Ayn Qnaya). The dolmens and tower tombs were part of daily protohistoric life. These funerary monuments overlooked villages and hamlets, were located on prominent points visible from afar; to a certain extent they structured the landscape.

The rough stone, the monumental aspect, the funeral arrangements and the portrayal of the dead are traits common to both types, however the land they occupy is distinct (see fig. II.15). The areas covered by dolmens have a Mediterranean climate which allowed agriculture and arboriculture whereas the areas occupied by the tower tombs were covered with dry steppe, which only allowed opportunistic agriculture, hunting and gathering as additional resources to shepherding. The dolmens belonged to sedentary shepherds and tower tombs to nomadic or semi-nomadic shepherds. Studies on the distribution of megalithic tombs in Jordan show that proto-historic men sought, using their dead, to mark or define their territories. The interpenetration of dolmens and tower tombs seen in the Zarqa region indicates that societies with very different livelihoods lived together. The human impact on the landscape in the 4th millennium is concomitant with profound social transformations in the societies of the Southern Levant.

Rock Art Discovered in 4000-Year-Old "Dark Ages" Tomb in Israel

In March 2017, researchers announced the discovery of rock art in a 65-foot-wide dolmen tomb made by moving 400 tons’ worth of boulders during the “Dark Ages” of Palestinian-Israeli history more than 4,000 years ago. Megan Gannon wrote in Livescience.com: The size and meticulous construction techniques used to make the megalithic tomb suggest that the people who made lived in some type of organized society, the researchers argue. “The gigantic dolmen at Kibbutz Shamir is without doubt an indication of public construction that required a significant amount of manpower over a considerable period of time,” study leader Gonen Sharon, an archaeologist at Israel’s Tel-Hai College. [Source:Megan Gannon, Livescience.com, March 8, 2017]

Megan Gannon wrote in Livescience.com: “Thousands of megalithic burial structures have been found all over the Levant — in Syria, Jordan and Israel. Archaeologists recently conducted a survey of the hundreds of dolmens near Israel’s Kibbutz Shamir, which is located on the lower western slopes of the Golan Heights. One particular dolmen stood out. It was 65 feet in diameter and was made of a heap of about 400 tons’ worth of boulders. The biggest boulder was a 50-ton capstone that covered the central rectangular chamber of the tomb. In the dirt below, the archaeologists found the bones of an adult male, an adult female and a young child. There were also several secondary chambers built in the outer corners of the tumulus, or burial mound.

“When the archaeologists went into the central chamber and looked up at the underside of the massive capstone, they saw abstract carvings. The engravings on the dolmen’s ceiling depict straight lines attached to the center of an arc. “This is the first art ever documented in a dolmen in the Middle East,” Uri Berger, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, said. Though most of the forms are visible to the naked eye, the researchers used a 3D scanner to get a better look at the rock art. They counted 14 engraved shapes, each consisting of a straight line connected to the center of an arc. (The shapes almost resemble anchors or arrows.) The meaning of the artwork is unknown.

A few years later another site was discovered on the Golan Heights plateau captured in 1967 from Syria by Israel. Jonah Mandel of AFP wrote: “In a small clearing in the Yehudiya nature reserve, between yellow weeds and shaded by eucalyptus trees, huge dark basalt boulders and slabs form a small roofed chamber that opens to the east. The megalithic structure is one of the thousands of so-called dolmens scattered around northern Israel and the wider region, burial tombs erected some 4,000-4,500 years ago in the Intermediate Bronze Era. [Source: Jonah Mandel, AFP, July 20, 2020]

On one image “The lines form the shapes of six horned animals of varying sizes, three facing east and three facing west, with two of them — likely a male and female — directly facing each other. Another horned animal is carved into the interior of one panel, facing the other six. The identity and beliefs of those who built the monuments remain largely unknown. But a recent serendipitous finding of rock art might change that. Small pieces of ceramics, metal spearheads and daggers, bits of jewellery and beads and some bones are found at the sites from time to time, archaeologist Gonen Sharon told AFP: "But it's very rare to find" anything, and such finds are very scattered. “We know very little of the actual culture of the people who built them."

“Researchers have believed that after Early Bronze Age cities collapsed, people in the southern Levant descended into a dark age. Archaeologists have not found any monumental buildings or many settlements from this era (called the Intermediate Bronze Age), so they’ve assumed that most people reverted to seminomadic, pastoral lifestyles. Sharon and colleagues think the dolmen near Shamir challenges this view. They suggest that a more complex socioeconomic system was in place during that period. “A complex governmental system was needed to recruit laborers for building such a monumental structure and for supplying their needs during the operation,” the researchers wrote online in the journal PLOS ONE. “It also needed to possess the architectural knowledge and dexterity for the complex stonemasonry involved.”“

Middle Bronze Age Jordan — Period of Small Cities

Stephen Bourke wrote: The Middle Bronze Age (MBA) marks the beginning of the second urban phase in Jordan. During the Middle Bronze Age I period, between 2000-1800 B.C., initially small (less than one hectare) village settlements spread south down the Jordan Valley to the Zarqa fan, and along the north Jordan uplands as far south as Amman. In areas where reliable water, good agricultural land and strategic position promoted settlement expansion, villages grew rapidly into 5-10 hectare townships between 1800-1650 B.C.. Many centres in the Jordan Valley (Pella, Deir Alla and Tell Nimrin) and on the plateau (Irbid, Salt, Amman and perhaps Madaba) were equipped with thick stone and mud brick fortifications, multi-storey palatial residences, monumental temples and extensive extra-mural cemeteries. [Source: Stephen Bourke, “Atlas of Jordan”, p. 122-123, Open Edition Books, 2014]

Culturally, Middle Bronze Age Jordan may be said to progress through three distinct stages, those of import, imitation and innovation. In the earliest MBA (2000-1800 B.C.), most major arts and crafts were directly imported from Egypt or Syria, while in the second MBA phase (1800-1650 B.C.) good local copies of foreign goods begin to appear. In the third phase (1650-1500 B.C.) mature products of vibrant local Jordanian industries, such as gypsum stone working and the superb Chocolate on White ware ceramic, appear in quantity.

Politically, early MBA Jordan was made up of a loose affiliation of small city-states. As the MBA progressed, the larger townships came to dominate their smaller neighbours. If settlement size is related to political power, then a handful of settlements (Pella, Deir Alla, Irbid, Salt, Amman and Madaba) came to dominate MBA Jordan. The sharp rise in militaria (border fortifications and weaponry) in Jordan towards the end of the MBA (1600-1500 B.C.), suggests the increasingly violent Egyptian civil wars between the Hyksos and Theban dynasties brought to an end the long period of economic growth and settlement expansion that characterised the MBA. However, there is no direct evidence that Jordan formed part of the early New Kingdom Levantine conquests of Ahmose and Amenhotep I (ca. 1550-1500 B.C.).

Late Bronze Age Palestine (1570 - 1200 B.C.)

John R. Abercrombie of the University of Pennsylvania wrote: “Egypt dominated the political life of Palestine during the Late Bronze Age, a period contemporary with the Egyptian New Kingdom. The first king of the Eighteenth Dynasty defeated the Hyksos at Avaris and continued the battle to Sharuhen in southern Palestine. Thothmosis I and Thothmosis III extended Egyptian influence over the entire region from the borders of Egypt to the Euphrates, the great river that flows backwards. Under the descendants of Thothmosis III, Egypt exercised full hegemony over Palestine by establishing systems of control over vital trade routes and local principalities. Towards the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Egyptian control may have declined somewhat due to the general lack of attention to political and military matters during the Amarna period. [Sources: John R. Abercrombie, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania; James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET), Princeton, Boston University, bu.edu/anep/MB.html |*|]

Late Bronze Age coffins

“The Nineteenth Dynasty kings quickly reestablished Egyptian control under Seti I. By the middle of the thirteenth century, Egypt lost control of much of northern Syria to the Hittite kings. The two major kings of this dynasty, Seti I and his son Ramesis II, carried out campaigns near Beth Shan. Later in the thirteenth century, Merneptah may have campaigned in Palestine if there is any historical credulity to his hymn of victory, sometimes called the Israelite stela. |*|

“The great Temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak is an excellent spot to understand Egypt's power and influence over the Asiatics. Asia was Amon-Ra's domain and the spoils of conquest/tribute supported the building of the world's largest religious structure. Tombs of noblemen, high official in the court and in the Temple at Karnak, also provide a wealth of information about Egyptian control and influence. In sites in Palestine, excavations show a slow but steady egyptianization of the culture as more egyptian or egyptianized artifacts appear in the latter half of the Late Bronze Age, and as egyptian practices (e.g. burial practices) become more the fashion. Remains from sites such as Beth Shan,Tell el-Farah (S), Hesi, Jemmeh, Masos, esh-Sharia and Aphek attest to their extensive control of this region. The copper mines at Timna seem to have been operated under Egyptian direction throughout the Nineteenth and part of the Twentieth Dynasties. All this evidence collectively indicates how thoroughly Egypt controlled this region. |*|

On Egyptian temple walls and tombs, the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine are depicted as vassals of their Egyptian overlords. Asiatics, usually dressed in long robes and wearing decorative headbands, bring tribute and produce into Egypt; are bound captive slaves or fierce mercenary soldiers; and work as corvee laborers assisting Egyptians in obtaining raw materials (timber and copper) and exotic produce (wine, oils and perhaps even opium). Of particular interest to archaeologists are the types of goods offered to the officials, for many of these items are known from excavations. The Egyptians did not hold Asiatics in high esteem and often depicted them as a pack of yelping dogs doing the bidding of their Egyptian masters.”|*|

Influence of Egypt During the Late Bronze Age

Stephen Bourke wrote: The early Late Bronze Age (1500-1300 B.C.) culture of Jordan is a direct continuation from the preceding Middle Bronze Age. However, the political world had been completely altered by the reunification of Egypt, and the conquest of much of the Southern Levant under the warrior pharaohs of the Imperial Eighteenth Dynasty. Initially Jordan stood outside the Egyptian orbit, but the Thutmosid conquerors probably brought the main Jordan valley settlements (Nimrin, Deir Alla and Pella) into the New Kingdom empire around 1450 B.C.. Whether early New Kingdom control stretched into the eastern highlands remains controversial, although the disruption to the economy would have reverberated throughout the land. [Source: Stephen Bourke, “Atlas of Jordan”, p. 124-125, Open Edition Books, 2014]

Culturally LBA Jordan is a divided land, with western (Jordan Valley) settlements heavily Egyptianised in all major aspects of culture. The temple and tomb deposits at Pella (pottery, faience, glass, stone wares and statuary), the temple architecture at Deir Alla, and the burial offerings from Tell al-Saidiyeh (jewellery, metalware, ivory, seals) display a wide range of influences, but predominantly that of Egypt. The uplands, on the other hand, seem to have been much freer to choose their cultural orientation, and a rich mix of influences (Syrian, Mesopotamian and Aegean) can all be seen in the extraordinary ceramics, stone vessels, jewellery and weaponry unearthed within the Amman Airport temple.

In the last phase of the Late Bronze Age (1300-1200 B.C.), under increasingly heavy taxation and corvee labour demands to support the military occupation, the south Levantine economy began to deteriorate, and with it the Egyptian ability to control trade routes and secure the borderlands. Disruption was particularly bad in Jordan, where Egyptian inscriptional evidence refers to growing disorder and the incursions of Shashu raiders. Imperial military intervention in the north (Southern Bashan) and in Moab in the later years of Ramses II and Merneptah (1250-1210 B.C.) only seems to have made matters worse, and by the end of the Thirteenth Century B.C. the region east of the Jordan river slipped out of imperial control.

Iron Age Palestine (1200 - 550 B.C.)

Abercrombie wrote: “The Iron Age is divided into two subsections, the early Iron Age and The Late Iron Age. the early Iron Age (1200-1000) illustrates both continuity and discontinuity with the previous Late Bronze Age. There is no definitive cultural break between the thirteenth and twelfth century throughout the entire region, although certain new features in the hill country, Transjordan and coastal region may suggest the appearance of the Aramaean and Sea People groups. There is evidence, however, that shows strong continuity with Bronze Age culture, although as one moves later into the early Iron Age the culture begins to diverge more significantly from that of the late second millennium. [Sources: John R. Abercrombie, University of Pennsylvania, James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET), Princeton, Boston University, bu.edu/anep/MB.html |*|]

Iron Age ceramics with seals

“The Late Iron Age (1000-550) witnessed the rise of the states of Judah and Israel in the tenth-ninth century. These small principalities exercise considerable control over their particular regions due in part to the decline of the great powers, Assyria and Egypt, from about 1200 to 900. Beginning in the eighth century and certainly in the seventh century, Assyria reestablishes its authority over the eastern Mediterranean area and exercises almost complete control. The northern state of Israel is obliterated in 722/721 by King Sargon and its inhabitants taken into exile. Judah, left alone, gradually accommodates to Assyrian control, but towards the end of the seventh century it does revolt as the Assyrian empire disintegrated. Judah's freedom was short-lived, however, and eventually snuffed out by the Chaldean kings who conquered Jerusalem and took some of the ruling class into exile to Babylon. During the period of exile in Babylon, the area, particularly from Jerusalem south, shows a mark decline. Other areas just north of Jerusalem are almost unaffected by the catastrophe that befell Judah. |*|

“The University of Pennsylvania Museum possesses a rich collection in Iron Age material from almost all its excavated sites. The Beth Shan strata are particularly helpful in illustrating the continuity with the Bronze Age in Iron I. The same probably can be said for the Sa'idiyeh cemetery. Beth Shemesh, however, shows the discontinuity with the Late Bronze Age given its somewhat intrusive Aegean evidence usually associated with the Philistines. In The Late Iron Age, the following sites adequately cover the culture: Gibeon, Beth Shemesh, Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, Sarepta and to a lesser extent Beth Shan. Many of the small finds photographed below come from Gibeon, Sa'idiyeh and Beth Shemesh. Models and simulations are taken from publications of Sa'idiyeh and Sarepta. |*|

Image Sources: Wikimedia, Commons, . Hook from Live Science,

Text Sources: John R. Abercrombie, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania; James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET), Princeton, Boston University, bu.edu/anep/MB.html; “Old Testament Life and Literature” by Gerald A. Larue, New International Version (NIV) of The Bible, biblegateway.com; Wikipedia, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, and various books and other publications.

Last updated June 2024