Settlement and society in the early Bronze Age I and II, southern Levant : complementarity and contradiction in a small-scale complex society / Alexander H. Joffe.

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph.D.) -- Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Arizona.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [97]-126) and index.

Introduction -- 1. Considerations of Method and Theory -- Surveys and Problems of Space-Time Systematics -- The Decapolis Data Base -- Sampling : Issues of Survey Methodology, Design and Publication -- Surveys and Formation Processes -- Settlement Patterns and Social Complexity -- Understanding Contexts for Discovery -- Prospects for Settlement Arhcaeology -- Conclusions -- 2. The Background to Social Complexity in the Southhern Levant -- Themes and Issues -- Cycles and Scales -- 'Preadaptation' -- Inter-Societal Contacts -- The Chalcolithic : Rise and Collapse -- The Rise of the Chalcolithic : Problems, Chronology, and Terminology -- The Developed Chalcolithic : Overview of Regional Complexes -- The Organization of Chalcolithic Culture -- The Decline of the Chalcolithic -- 3. Early Bronze I and the Evolution of Social Complexity in the Southern Levant -- The Chronology of EB I -- Ceramic Chronology and Terminology -- Early Phase -- Late Phase -- Radiocarbon Dating and Egyptian Correlations -- Collapse and Reorganization in Early EB I -- Change in the 'Peripheries' -- Consolidation and Growth in Late EB I -- Organisation and Change in EB I -- Institutions and Commodities -- Egypt and Change -- Syro-Mesopotamia and Change -- The End of EB I -- Complexity and Change in Western Asia and the Southern Levant -- Conclusions -- 4. Early Bronze II and the Nature of Urbanism in the Southern Levant -- Themes and Issues -- Urbanism -- Scales -- The Chronology of EB II -- Suggestions for Terminology -- Early Bronze II Ceramics -- Radiocarbon Dating and Egyptian Synchronisms -- The Settlement Landscape in EB II -- The Creation of Built Space -- The Organisation of Internal Space -- Settlement Patterns and the Urban Landscape -- The Arid Zones -- Economy and Society : Institutions and Elites in EB II -- The Mediterranean Crop Economy : Commodities and Containers -- The Role of Religion -- EB II Political Organisation -- The Nature of Elites in EB II -- Summary and Prologue to EB III -- 5. Conclusions : Generalization and the Archaeology of Social Complexity -- Complementarity and Contradiction in Canaanite Socity.

This book discusses the development of indigenous patterns of small-scale complexity during the Early Bronze I and II periods (ca. 3500-2700 BCE) in the Southern Levant. Aspects of methodology are outlined, including an assessment of archaeological surveys and their limitations. The book discusses the background to the emergence of complex societies during the fourth and third millennia BCE, suggesting that the Southern Levant was 'preadapted' to cycles of rising and collapsing complexity by mechanisms of social decomposition and reformulation. Using settlement pattern data as a focal point, the book synthesizes the available data for the emergence of Early Bronze II 'urbanism' and trade-oriented economies in the Southern Levant from Early Bronze I village-level organization, stressing the importance of intersocietal contacts, Mediterranean crop production, and highland-lowland exchange. The book is designed to synthesize the evidence for early urban development in the Southern Levant, and to situate the discussion in terms generally associated with the large 'core' civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. It therefore addresses issues of interest to scholars working in the Southern Levant as well as those seeking cross-cultural perspectives on early complex societies.