Bronze Age (3150 to 1200 B.C.)

The dawn of civilization. In the Bronze Age, man developed the alphabet, writing, bronze weapons, cities, government, public works and civil and religious administrations. Ancient Israel’s neighbors, Egypt and Mesopotamia, grew and exerted great influence, which was not always welcome. Many scholars have dated Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the Bronze Age, though whether they were historical figures is a hotly debated issue. The second half of the Bronze Age is also called the Canaanite period, after the people who ruled ancient Palestine during that time.

The Early Bronze Age (3150-2200 B.C.), when writing developed and city-states emerged, is the time period of the Khirbet Iskander excavation led by Suzanne Richard. Its focus is the development and sudden disappearance of cities.

Moving onto the Middle Bronze Age will have you digging in the Aijalon Valley at Gezer under the guidance of Steven Ortiz. The site was once a very strategic city during the Canaanite and Israelite periods. Hazor, named a World Heritage site in 2005 by UNESCO, had settlements or cities that existed in the Early, Middle (2200-1550 B.C.) and Late (1550-1200 B.C.) Bronze Age. Amnon Ben-Tor leads the excavations there, at the largest Biblical-era site in Israel. The dig at Hazor has also produced cuneiform tablets dating to the Bronze Age, and the excavation team hopes to find a cuneiform archive soon (see “Where Is the Hazor Archive Buried?” BAR March/April 2006).