1. Introduction

1.1. The Late Bronze Age Southern Levant

1The Southern Levant, the region including modern day Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan, is located at the junction between the continents of Asia and Africa, and has always served as a bridge between cultures and empires. With the Mediterranean coast as its western border, the region has been heavily involved, in most periods, in the flourishing Mediterranean trade (Fig. 9.1). The southern Levant is split in two by the Syro-African rift, through which the Jordan River flows. The area to the west of the Jordan River is designated the Cisjordan and the area to east the Transjordan. The current study will focus only on the Late Bronze Age Cisjordan area, with the Jordan River thus serving as its eastern border.

Fig. 9.1. : Map of the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age (by author)

2The Late Bronze Age (LBA) in the Southern Levant spans roughly from 1550 BCE to 1140 BCE (see Tab. 9.1 for sub-periods).