Egypt and the Levant

This study of Egyptian-Canaanite interaction contributes to the examination of the role of social interaction between core civilizations and their less developed peripheries on social evolution. It tests a wide range of interaction models including the World Systems theory and Peer Polity Interaction, and approaches the subject from a variety of angles. It begins by taking a range of anthropological and historical models to place Egyptian-Canaanite interaction during the 4th through the early 3rd millennium BCE in context. The following section looks at environmental and biological context in which social interaction operated at this time. To examine the earliest widespread evidence of Egypt in Canaan, a number of chapters are devoted to the Chalcolithic period in both countries. The collection makes use of new developments in analytical methods such as archaeometallurgy and ceramic petrography to track ancient interaction. There are chapters examining the origins of the metals trade as well as a reassessment of the famous Kfar Monash metal hoard. Petrographic studies of vessels found in Tomb U-j at Abydos provide new and controversial data and a wealth of new, previously unpublished data concerning interaction during the key Early Bronze 1B period is presented for sites in Israel. New information and reassessments of some of the most important discoveries using epigraphic data - hieroglyphic and pictographic evidence concerning Dynasty 0 - Dynasty 1 presence in Palestine for example - is also presented. Finally the focus turns to the mechanisms of trade related to ancient seafaring and the overland caravan routes.