The Period of Small Cities. The Middle Bronze Age (ca 2000-1500 BC)
p. 122-123
Texte intégral
1The Middle Bronze Age (MBA) marks the beginning of the second urban phase in Jordan. During the Middle Bronze Age I period, between 2000-1800 BCE, 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.
2In areas where reliable water, good agricultural land and strategic position promoted settlement expansion, villages grew rapidly into 5-10 hectare townships between 1800-1650 BCE. 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 (fig. II.16).
Figure II.16 — Main sites during the Middle Bronze Age in North Jordan.

3Culturally, 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 BCE), most major arts and crafts were directly imported from Egypt or Syria, while in the second MBA phase (1800-1650 BCE) good local copies of foreign goods begin to appear. In the third phase (1650-1500 BCE) mature products of vibrant local Jordanian industries, such as gypsum stone working and the superb Chocolate on White ware ceramic, appear in quantity.
4Politically, 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 (fig. II.17).
Figure II.17 — Plan of MBA City Walls - Pella.

5The sharp rise in militaria (border fortifications and weaponry) in Jordan towards the end of the MBA (1600-1500 BCE), 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 (Plate II.13). 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 BCE).
Plate II.13 — MBA Copper Dagger and Gypsum Pommel - Pella.

Auteur
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
Les quartiers irréguliers de Beyrouth
Une histoire des enjeux fonciers et urbanistiques dans la banlieue sud
Valérie Clerc-Huybrechts
2008
ONG palestiniennes et construction étatique
L’expérience de Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC) dans les Territoires occupés palestiniens, 1983-2005
Caroline Abu-Sada
2007
Penser l'Orient
Traditions et actualité des orientalismes français et allemand
Youssef Courbage et Manfred Kropp (dir.)
2004
The grammars of adjudication
The economics of judicial decision making in fin-de-siècle Ottoman Beirut and Damascus
Zouhair Ghazzal
2007
Itinéraires esthétiques et scènes culturelles au Proche-Orient
Nicolas Puig et Franck Mermier (dir.)
2007
Les pèlerinages au Maghreb et au Moyen-Orient
Espaces publics, espaces du public
Sylvia Chiffoleau et Anna Madœuf (dir.)
2005
Maaloula (XIXe-XXIe siècles). Du vieux avec du neuf
Histoire et identité d’un village chrétien de Syrie
Frédéric Pichon
2010