Settlement, Territory, and the Political Landscape of Late Bronze Age Polities in the Northern Levant

Bibliographic Data

ID5947543
AuthorsJ Casana (0000-0002-4445-1802, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume22
Issue1
Pages107-125
Publication date2012-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArcheological Papers of the American Anthropological Association (BOOK_SERIES)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1551-823X • E-ISSN: 1551-8248
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/apaa.12006
OpenAlexW1587962092
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited38

By bringing together analysis of cuneiform texts and archaeological settlement data, I offer new perspectives on the spatial and territorial dimensions of polities in the northern Levant during the mid to late second millennium B.C.E. Settlement data suggest that a highly nucleated pattern of occupation at tell sites remained dominant and remarkably stable throughout the period, perhaps driven by hierarchically organized systems of land rights. In contrast, historical data show a complex and dynamic tapestry of changing territorial institutions, moving from a system of fragmented, spatially discontinuous polities in the earlier second millennium to one characterized by increasingly territorial states in later centuries. Results show how rapidly notions of territoriality might have changed in the past and highlight the fundamental importance of studies that integrate archaeological and historical data in efforts to understand the spatiality of ancient states. [Near East, Amuq, settlement, Hittites, Amorites

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bronze Age · Geography · Iron Age · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Southern Levant · Territoriality · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Historical Studies · History · Law

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