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REL 433 - Biblical Archaeology

Mazar - Chapter 7 - Egyptian Domination

The Late Bronze Age, ca. 1,550 - 1,200 BC

What was going on elsewhere :

Egypt

• Pharaoh Ahmose, 1,550 - 1,525 BC - founder of XVIII Dynasty, expelled the Hyksos, and chased them into the Sinai.
• Tuthmosis III - battle of Megiddo - list of Canaanite cities on the wall of the temple at Karnak.
  Egypt dominated Canaan.
• Amenophis IV, 1,352 - 1,336 BC, changed his name to Akhenaten.
  Introduced monotheistic worship of the sun god, Aten.
  Moved the capital to Akhetaten - Tell el-Amarna - where a great library of diplomatic records, letters to and from Canaan, Babylon, Hittites has been discovered.
• Akhenaten was succeeded by young weak Pharaohs Smenkhare and Tutankhamun.
  Palace intrigues, murders, letter of Tutankhamun's young widow to the king of Hittites.
• Burocrat Ay seized power, then was probably assassinated by Horemheb, a tough old general of the army.
• Horemheb ruled 1,323 - 1,295 BC.
• Ramses I, succeeded Horemheb and founded the XIX Dynasty.
• Seti I, 1,294 - 1,279 BC, directed military campaigns in Canaan, commemorated in a stele at Beth-Shean.
• Wall-relief at Karnak of the "Horus Road" or the "Road of the land of the Philistines" - p.279 - shows Egyptian forts in Canaan.
• Ramses II 1,279 - 1,213 BC, fought a war against the Hittites which exhausted both countries. They made a peace treaty, and Ramses married a Hittite princess.
• Merneptah, or Merenptah, 1,213 - 1,203 BC, led a military campaign in Canaan, and erected a victory stele - the "Israel Stele" - the first surviving record of the name "Israel", as a tribe, rather than a city.
  Merneptah also fought off invasions of "Sea Peoples".
• Egypt had turquoise mines in the Sinai, and copper mines and working in the Arabah valley, south of the Dead Sea. There was a temple at Timnah dedicated to Hathor.

Mesopotamia :

• Ugarit and other centers collapse.
• General disintegration of cultures.

Greece :

• Period of the "Dorian Invasion" of tribes from the north, displacing or dominating existing peoples, and resulting in the "Dark Age" of Greece.
• Mycenaean civilization collapses.
• Fall of Troy ?
• Migration of displaced peoples across the Aegean and to the south - probably becoming the "Sea Peoples" and the "Philistines"

Hittites :

• Established their kingdom, with the capital at Hattusha, now called Borghaz-koy.
• Competition between Egypt and Hittites for control of Syria and Canaan.
• Battle of Kadesh ca. 1,275 BC, followed by treaties between Egypt and the Hittites - both nations had weakened themselves by the continual fighting. Nobody won - both sides lost.
• Egypt recovered, but Hittites did not - went into a decline.
• Hittites started hiring themselves out as mercenaries - soldiers for hire by other kings.

Egyptian domination

• Military campaigns and outposts.
• Payment of tribute by Canaanite city states to Egypt.
• Egyptian centers at Gaza, Beth-shean, Jaffa.
• Exports of wood, oil, wine, wheat, cattle, copper, slaves, concubines to Egypt.
• Records of city states at Lachish, Gath, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gezer, Jerusalem, Shechem, Taanach, Megiddo, Hazor. Also at Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, Damascus.
• Trade between Egypt and Syria - building of ports along the mediterranean coast.
• Incursions of "Habiru" or "Hapiru" - Hebrews ?, and "Shasu" - nomadic pastoralists.
• Gradual deterioration of society due to 300 years of Egyptian exploitation and domination.
• Devastation by wars between Egyptians and Hittites.
• Droughts throughout Middle East (p. 235) - leading to famine.
• Subdivisions of the Late Bronze Age correspond to various Egyptian Dynasties and their power in Canaan
  However, the Canaanite culture did not change much from one subdivison to another.

Settlement Pattern :

• Decline in population and in number of settlements compared with MB.
• Decrease in agricultural settlements, increase in nomadic pastoralists.
• Settlements along Mediterranean coast, for shipping and maritime trade.
• Many cities were destroyed and rebuilt several times, due to inter-city warfare.
• Towns had various street-patterns, cult centers - indication of various cultures - no longer homogeneous.

Palaces :

• Palace and Temple were separate, indicating that there were different people as king and priest ?.
• Gradual development of palaces from square building - a courtyard surrounded by rooms on all four sides, to larger rectangular complexes, still with central courtyard, but with "reception halls", dwelling rooms, bathrooms.

Houses :

• Rooms around or beside a courtyard.
• Staircases up to a second story.
• Large houses for wealthy or powerful people, indicating the development of different classes of society.

Temples :

• MB Temples were still used, and were renovated or rebuilt.
• Temples were large symmetrical building, entered from a porch in front of the main hall.
• "Holy of Holies" was inside the main hall, opposite the entrance.
• Also cult places or shrines - with standing stones and altars.

Fortification :

• Almost none, though MB gates and walls might be kept and repaired.
• Probably the Egyptians would not allow anything that might form a stronghold against them.

Pottery : Local and Imported.

• Local Pottery
  • No distinct cultural break between MB and LB.
  • Gradual changes - became courser, rougher, mass-produced.
  • Decoration with red, or red and black, on buff-colored background - geometric shapes.
  • Bichrome Pottery :
    • Decorated with red and black.
    • First appeared ca. 1,600 BC - late MB - and continued through 16th and early 15th centuries.
    • Mostly made with clay from Cyprus, though some was made locally at Megiddo.
    • Forms and decorations similar to local Syrian and Canaanite, but also with Cypriot influences.
    • May reflect a group of Hurrians or folk from Cyprus who either settled on the coast of Canaan or imported goods to Canaan.
• Imported Pottery :
  • Cyprus was a center for trade in the Mediterranean.
    Export of pottery from Cyprus to the Levant began in MB, continued into LB.
    Pottery usually hand-made rather than on a wheel.
    Various forms and types of decoration.
    Imported luxury ware ?
  • Mycenaean ware - from Mycenae.
    Made on a wheel, from fine clay.
    Exported throughout the Near East.

Metallurgy :

• Copper exported from Cyprus.
• Later - 13th century - copper ores were mined along the Arabah also.
• Tin from the north - Afghanistan ?
• Sites where metal working was carried out, eg in Sharon Plain - associated with Cypriot pottery.
• Gold and silver become rarer - were they being sent to Egypt ?

Weapons :

• Made of bronze.
• Sickle-shaped scimitars.
• Daggers cast together as one unit with the handle.
• Spearheads, arrowheads.
• Also made chisels, cymbals, figurines.

Trade :

• Cyprus as a center for trade - export copper from Cyprus itself, and act as middleman between the Aegean and the Levant.
• Mycenae - trade in fine pottery. See National Geographic for articles on "Bronze Age Wreck".
• Egypt - goods sent by sea to the Levant, or along the "Horus Road" into Canaan.

Art :

• Stone sculptures : statues and reliefs of lions. Stelae of gods and people.
• Cylinder seals - continuing tradition from MB.
• Egyptian scarab seals - due to Egyptian domination.
• Ivories - carved pieces and inlays - imports and local artists adapting Egyptian and Mycenaean motifs.
• Metal - figurines of gods and godesses.
• Clay - pottery figures, mainly goddess figures.

Writing :

• Akkadian still the language of diplomacy.
• Rulers employed scribes who were bi- or tri-lingual.
• Ugaritic - cuneiform script adapted to an alphabet (without vowels).
• Egyptian hieroglyphs - alphabet without vowels, written either left-right or right-left, words not linear but in square blocks.
• Development of the Canaanite alphabet was not controlled by religious authorities, so was free to develop and change.
  Two separate forms of Canaanite writing
  • at Ugarit - system using 27 cuneiform signs, inscribed on clay.
    The Ugaritic form did not develop or become very prominent outside Ugarit.
  • in Canaan several variations :
    Proto-Sinaitic, found on rocks at turquoise mines in the Sinai.
    Proto-Canaanite, found in Canaan itself.

Burial Practices : Various, reflecting different cultural groups.

• Caves, for multiple burials, with grave goods.
• Cemeteries with dug-out tombs for individuals.
  These are found on the coastal and northern plains.
• Dromos tombs, built of stone slabs, with a stone corridor leading underground to them.
  Similar to Tholos tombs of the Aegean culture.
• Anthropoid coffins - similarities to Egyptian coffins which held mummies, though the Canaanite version apparently held a body rather than a mummified corpse.
• Central shaft with side niches.
• Cemeteries unrelated to a settlement - used by nomads ?

End of the Late Bronze :

Caused by the break-up of civilizations and of trade around 1,200 BC,
by the invasions in Greece, the fall of Troy, and the migration of "Sea Peoples" from the Aegean, the decline of the Hittite empire, and the destruction of Ugarit.
Earthquakes and seismic activity may have been contributing factors.
In Canaan, some of the large cities were destroyed.

Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved

Dr. Rollinson

Department of Religion
ENMU Station 19
Portales, NM 88130

Last Updated: January 31, 2008

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