In the study of the history of urbanisation in Palestine there is a recurring cycle in which urban life strives, declines into a new phase of non-urban life and then arises as a new form of urbanisation. The Early Bronze Age represents the first urban era. The proto-urban period or EBI (c.3300-c.3000 BC) is, as the name suggests, a period characterised by forerunners of later urban societies. Most settlements were unfortified villages, reflecting earlier life during the Chalcolithic. Not every settlement was a continuation of a previous settlement; many Chalcolithic sites were deserted and new settlements founded.
At the beginning of EBII (c.3000-c.2750 BC) some settlements imploded into small or medium-sized towns fortified by strong walls. The population of these towns increased considerably and city-states (independent urban centres controlling surrounding strips of land) began to evolve. This development towards a fortified urban society could have been a response to competition for land between neighbours, or perhaps to threats originating from outside Palestine. The transition from the end of EBI to the urban phase of EBII can be followed in a few sites such as Ai (=Et-Tell), Tell el-Farah (north), Arad and Bab edh-Dhra.
In Early Bronze Age III (c.2750-c.2300 BC) the process of implosion continued, emptying the existing towns and villages of their inhabitants. Large refortified regional cities dotted the landscape. Tell Yarmuth, located southwest of Jerusalem, comprised a fortified acropolis and a fortified lower city; its EBII defences were expanded by the addition of buttresses and an outer wall.
During Early Bronze Age VI (c.2300-c.2000 BC) most of the large cities were abandoned; there was a population shift to the rural areas and the more marginal zones in the Jordan Valley, Transjordan and especially the Negev; and a reversion to pastoral nomadism. This shift may have been caused by aridity as well as internal factors.
The Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-c.1550 BC) is the time of the Canaanites. They are identified with the people called by the same name in the Bible. One of the earliest non-biblical references to Canaan is an eighteenth century BC text found in ruins of Mari in which reference is made to ‘thieves and Canaanites’ causing trouble in the town of Rahisum.
Egyptian documents of the twelfth dynasty (c.1985-c.1733 BC) provide useful information about MBA Palestine. Notable are: the Story of Sinuhe, detailing the hero’s exile in the Palestinian region; and the Execration Texts, which were inscriptions of Egypt’s enemies’ names upon statuettes of foreigners, that could be ceremonially broken to invoke a curse.
The archaeological evidence for the period shows new types of pottery, weapons and burial practices. Once more an urban civilization based on agriculture was established. It is not entirely clear whether this new wave of urban development was the work of immigrant people or of the local inhabitants.
It seems that the coastal plain along the Mediterranean was from early on a principal area of MBA settlement. Soon, however, sites came to be established in many areas west of the Jordan River. Only a few small settlements were established east of the river. The land of Canaan thus came increasingly to be identified as the land west of the river.
The beginning of the Late Bronze Age (c.1550-c.1200 BC) is marked by Ahmose-I (r.c.1550-c.1525 BC) driving the Hyksos out of Egypt and besieging the fortress of Sharuhen (probably Tell el-Farah on the edge of the southern desert). The siege lasted three years and it is likely that the Egyptian army undertook numerous raids in the surrounding area. In his first initiative as sole ruler Thutmose III (r.c.1479-c.1425 BC) organised a campaign to Palestine against a coalition of rebelling vassals which culminated in the Battle of Megiddo (c.1457 BC) and the subsequent siege and capture of the city.
Numerous destruction layers in the fortifications throughout Palestine have been dated to this time, but their cause is debated. Only half of the cities were later rebuilt and much of the population seems to have abandoned urban life. In the Esdraelon Plain, Megiddo and Taanach emerged as well-built cities. Both cities incorporated some of the MBA fortifications into their new architecture. At Taanach a deep water shaft was cut into the central area of the city, one of the earliest of such water-storage facilities yet discovered. Late Bronze II (c.1400-c.1200 BC) is contemporary with a period of Egyptian domination of Syria/Palestine that began with Thutmose IV (r.c.1400-c.1390 BC). The pharaohs administered Palestine through vassal rulers of the major cities in the coastal plain and the Jezreel Valley.
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