The Southern Levant was a thriving centre of religious and cultural exchange during the Bronze Age. 'Early Bronze Age Goods Exchange in the Southern Levant' provides an overview of the sources and distribution of commodities. The book presents a study of key production centres and the process of purchase and exchange. The book establishes a theoretical framework - based in political economy, ethnoarchaeology and economic anthropology - for understanding the exchange of commodities in a precapitalist society. 'Early Bronze Age Goods Exchange in the Southern Levant' is unique in presenting archaeological sources and prehistoric economics through modern, notably Marxist, theories of human development.

An up-to-date, systematic depiction of Bronze Age societies of the Levant, their evolution, and their interactions and entanglements with neighboring regions.

Flint Trade in the Protohistoric Levant offers an in-depth case study of the production and exchange of tabular scrapers. Crossing cultural and ecological boundaries and traded from the desert to the settled zone, these tools encompassed both ritual and quotidian functions over the course of well over the two millennia of the existence of the exchange system. Analyses focus on the changing nature of the production systems, dynamics of value in changing contexts of production and use, ritual contexts and meaning. Extending throughout the Levant, the tabular scraper complex is compared and contrasted to other contemporary production and exchange systems (ceramics, chipped stone, ground stone, copper, beads), offering a rich picture of the complexities of late prehistoric trade, transcending linear evolutionary frameworks, and simple models. Adopting a chaîne opératoire approach to the use-life of the artifacts, the artifacts can be seen to transform over time and place, made, used, recycled, and ultimately discarded, each stage in its own cultural contexts. The rise and decline of this exchange complex reflects both the geo-political history of the region and the general role of lithic industries in these societies. Focusing on late prehistoric times in the Near East, the discussions will of relevance to all researchers interested in the role of exchange in the evolution of complex economies. It offers an analysis of exchange systems based on a matrix of factors which should be of interest to all researchers interested in the evolution of trade.

Three millennia of cross-Mediterranean bonds are revealed by 18 expert summaries in this book, shedding light on environmental factors; the formation of harbors; gateways; commodities; cultural impact; and the way to interpret the agents such as Canaanites, "Sea Peoples," Phoenicians and pirates.

This book focusses on ground stone tools, stone vessels, and devices carved into rock across the Near East and Egypt from prehistory to the later periods. The aim is to explore all aspects of these tools and stimulate a debate about new methodologies to approach this material.

This volume is a collection of paper by colleagues, friends and students, in honor of Jeffrey Chadwick. The papers cover the various topic that he has dealt with in his career, including biblical historical geography, and the archaeology and history of the Levant and its environs during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the Second Temple Period. Following a preface and introduction about the honoree, the volume is divided into 4 sections: Biblical Historical Geography; Bronze Age Canaan and its Neighbors; Iron Age Israel and its Neighbors; Second Temple Israel.

The first international meeting of the Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas (ASWA) working group of the International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ) took place at the University of Groningen in 1992. Ever since, ASWA meetings have served as an inspiring gathering for those conducting archaeozoological research in Southwest Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus. This book contains sixteen papers presented at the 12th ASWA meeting hosted at its inaugural institution, the University of Groningen, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, as a continuation of the usual series and to celebrate the career of Dr. Hijlke Buitenhuis, associated member and alumnus of the institute, co-organizer of the first ASWA meeting.Like other ASWA proceedings before it, this volume is full of novel theoretical and methodological approaches and new research results, tackling a large variety of topics, from the geometric morphometrics of sheep in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Period to Predynastic fishing in the Upper Nile, to the biogeography of hartebeest and hemione, and covering the vast region stretching between Hungary in the west and Azerbaijan in the east. The volume also features an opening article by ASWA founding member M.A. Zeder on the future of archaeozoology in the region. In honor of Dr. Hijlke Buitenhuis, his full bibliography is featured herein.