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Positive I.D.? Archaeologists have often used pottery—like the collared-rim jar, sometimes considered to be a distinctively Israelite design—to distinguish the Canaanite population west of the Jordan in Iron Age I (1200–1000 B.C., the Biblical period of the Judges) from the region’s newer Israelite settlers. But Israelites seem to have adopted some Canaanite traditions, including their style of pottery. According to Volkmar Fritz, the author of the accompanying article, a better way to distinguish the two groups is from their dwellings (see plan and photograph).