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ARCH 21908: Archaeology of the Ancient Near East : Early and Middle Bronze Ages Egypt and the Levant (Protodynastic Period, Early Dynastic Period, Old Kingdom)

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Early and Middle Bronze Ages Egypt and the Levant (Protodynastic Period, Early Dynastic Period, Old Kingdom)

In Early and Middle Bronze Ages, ancient Egypt and ancient Palestine (present-day Israel and Palestine) were inseparable. The proto-dynastic period of the EBA in Egypt set the stage for the unification of the Upper and Lower Egypt during the Early Dynastic Period. Cultural, political, and social evolution of the period culminated in the Old Kingdom and the age of pyramids; which lasted well into the Middle Kingdom in the MBA. The Levant during EBA was largely incorporated into the Mesopotamian World. But it is in the Middle Bronze Age and the rise of Canaan, when we see the genesis of biblical stories and biblical archaeology as a discipline.

Key Sites

Avaris (Egypt)

Ebla (Syria)

Giza Pyramids (Egypt)

Herakleopolis (Egypt)

Memphis (Egypt)

Naqada (Egypt)

Tel Megiddo (Israel)

Thebes (Egypt)

Key Citations

Beit-Arieh, Itzhaq

1984  New Evidence on the Relations between Canaan and Egypt during the Proto-Dynastic Period. Israel Exploration Journal 34(1):20–23.

Ben-Tor, Daphna

1997  The Relations between Egypt and Palestine in the Middle Kingdom as Reflected by Contemporary Canaanite Scarabs. Israel Exploration Journal 47(3/4):162–189.

 

Bietak, Manfred

1991  Egypt and Canaan during the Middle Bronze Age. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 281:27–72. DOI:10.2307/1357163.

 

Campagno, Marcelo

2005  Ethnicity and Changing Relations between Egyptians adn South Levantines During the Early Dynastic Period. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt, pp. 16–18. Toulouse, France.

 

Grajetzki, Wolfram

2012  Middle Kingdom, Egypt. In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts.

 

Redford, Donald B.

1986  Egypt and Western Asia in the Old Kingdom. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 23:125–143. DOI:10.2307/40001094.

 

Rosen, Arlene Miller

1995  The Social Response to Environmental Change in Early Bronze Age Canaan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14(1):26–44. DOI:10.1006/jaar.1995.1002.

 

Wilkinson, Toby

2010  The Early Dynastic Period. In A Companion to Ancient Egypt, edited by Alan B. Lloyd, pp. 48–62. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex.