The Social Archaeology of the Levant
From Prehistory to the Present

Offers a comprehensive introduction to the archaeology of the southern Levant (modern day Israel, Palestine and Jordan).

Assaf Yasur-Landau (Edited by), Eric H. Cline (Edited by), Yorke Rowan (Edited by)

9781107156685, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 December 2018

676 pages, 105 b/w illus. 6 maps
26.1 x 18.5 x 3.5 cm, 1.56 kg

The volume offers a comprehensive introduction to the archaeology of the southern Levant (modern day Israel, Palestine and Jordan) from the Paleolithic period to the Islamic era, presenting the past with chronological changes from hunter-gatherers to empires. Written by an international team of scholars in the fields of archaeology, epigraphy, and bioanthropology, the volume presents central debates around a range of archaeological issues, including gender, ritual, the creation of alphabets and early writing, biblical periods, archaeometallurgy, looting, and maritime trade. Collectively, the essays also engage diverse theoretical approaches to demonstrate the multi-vocal nature of studying the past. Significantly, The Social Archaeology of the Levant updates and contextualizes major shifts in archaeological interpretation.

Part I: 1. The lower and middle paleolithic of the Southern Levant Gary Rollefson
2. An anthropological review of the upper paleolithic in the Southern Levant Anna Belfer-Cohen and Nigel Goring-Morris
3. Getting it together: the creation of community in the Neolithic William Finlayson
4. Fire and society in the Eastern Mediterranean: a diachronic view with a microarchaeological focus Ruth Shahack-Gross
5. It's a small world: work, family life, and community in the late neolithic Edward B. Banning
6. The spiritual and social landscape during the Chalcolithic Period Yorke M. Rowan
7. Using archaeobotanical remains to model social, political, and economic changes during the Chalcolithic period in the Southern Levant Philip Graham
Part II: 8. The Southern Levant during the early Bronze Age I–III Meredith S. Chesson
9. Continuity, innovation, and change: the intermediate Bronze Age in the Southern Levant Susan L. Cohen
10. Mix 'n' match: the bioarchaeology of commingled remains Susan Guise Sheridan
11. The middle Bronze Age Canaanite City as a domesticating apparatus Assaf Yasur-Landau
12. Cuneiform writing in Bronze Age Canaan Yoram Cohen
13. 'Canaan is your land and its kings are your servants': conceptualizing the late Bronze Age Egyptian government in the Southern Levant Shlomo Bunimovitz
Part III: 14. The 'conquest' of the Highlands in the Iron Age I David Ilan
15. Iron Age I Philistines: entangled identities in a transformative period Aren M. Maeir
16. Moving beyond King Mesha: a social archaeology of Iron Age Jordan Benjamin W. Porter
Part IV: 17. A social archaeology of the kingdom of Judah: tenth–sixth centuries BCE Avraham Faust
18. Phases in the history of the kingdom of Israel Daniel M. Master
19. The alphabet comes of age: the social context of alphabetic writing in the first millennium BCE Christopher A. Rollston
20. People, material culture, and ethno-religious regions in Achaemenid Palestine Oren Tal
21. Land/homeland, story/history: the social landscapes of the Southern Levant from Alexander to Augustus Andrea M. Berlin
22. The effects of empire on daily life in the provincial East (37 BCE–313 CE) Alexandra Ratzlaff
23. The social archaeology of the Southern Levant in the Byzantine Period: rethinking the material evidence Itamar Taxel
24. Rural communities and labor in the Middle Islamic-Period Southern Levant Ian W. N. Jones
25. Society in the Frankish Period Rabei G. Khamisy
Part V: 26. Themes and patterns in human–animal interactions: hunting, domestication, and livestock husbandry Nimrod Marom
27. Finding a world of women: an introduction to women's studies and gender theory in biblical archaeology Stephanie Budin
28. Social archaeology in the Levant through the lens of archaeometallurgy Erez Ben-Yosef and Sariel Shalev
29. The archaeology of maritime adaptation Assaf Yasur-Landau
Part VI: 30. The impact of radiocarbon dating and absolute chronology in the Holy Land: a social archaeological perspective Felix Höflmayer and Katharina Streit
31. Itinerant objects: the legal lives of Levantine artifacts Morag M. Kersel
32. Archaeology, museums, and the public in Jordan: 100 years of educating Arwa Badran
Epilogue Assaf Yasur-Landau, Yorke M. Rowan and Eric H. Cline.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Environmental archaeology [HDP], Landscape archaeology [HDL], Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA]