The Mysterious MBI People
Does the Exodus tradition in the Bible preserve the memory of their entry into Canaan?
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Footnotes
See “Beer-Sheba of the Patriarchs,” BAR 06:06, by Ze’ev Herzog.
Horvah (or horvat when used in combination with a name) is the Hebrew word for a “ruin.” It is often abbreviated H. In Arabic, the same word is Khirbet, abbreviated Kh.
The term Canaanean is used to distinguish these people from later Canaanites. The Canaanean blade is a long, thin, narrow blade formed by flaking a flint core. Sometimes it is retouched after flaking. It is quite sharp and can be used as a knife, spearhead, etc.
See “Did I Excavate Kadesh-Barnea?” BAR 07:03, by Rudolph Cohen.
I should like to stress that my suggestions in this article comprise a working hypothesis and will have to be rigorously tested in the course of further historical and archaeological research. It will be particularly important to see whether the settlement picture that has emerged in the Negev is applicable to other areas where MBI sites are found.
Endnotes
Kathleen Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho, London, 1957, pp. 186–209; Kathleen Kenyon, Excavations at Jericho, Volume I (London: 1960), pp. 180–262.
Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert (New York: 1959); Nelson Glueck, “The Age of Abraham in the Negeb,” Biblical Archeologist 18 (1955), pp. 2–9.
W. F. Albright, “Abram the Hebrew, A New Archaeological Interpretation,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR), No. 163, p. 36.
Ruth Amiran, “The Pottery of the Middle Bronze I Age in Palestine,” Israel Exploration Journal 10 (1960), pp. 204–224. See also Atiqot 7 (1974), pp. 1–12 (Hebrew).
William G. Dever, “The Peoples of Palestine in the Middle Bronze I Period,” Harvard Theological Review 64 (1971), pp. 197–226; “New Vistas on the EBIV (“MBI”) Horizon in Syria-Palestine,” BASOR 237 (1979), pp. 31–59.
Moshe Kochavi, “The Excavations at Har Yeruham (Preliminary Report),” Bulletin of the Israel Exploration Society 27 (1963), pp. 284–292 (Hebrew); The Settlement of the Negev in the Middle Bronze (Canaanite) Age (Jerusalem: 1967), Hebrew University (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation [Hebrew]); “The Middle Bronze Age I (The Intermediate Bronze Age) in Eretz-Israel,” Qadmoniot 6 (1969), pp. 38–44 (Hebrew).
See the author’s latest summary of his survey in Rudolph Cohen, Archaeological Survey of Israel, Map of Sde Boqer-East (168), Jerusalem, 1981, pp. ix–x.
It is interesting to note the particular density of settlements in several localities: (a) the vicinity of Be’erotayim-Nahal Nissana-Be’er Resisim, in the district east of Kadesh-Barnea; (b) between Yeruham and Sde Boqer; (c) the area of Dimona.
Beno Rothenberg, Sinai: Pharaohs, Miners, Pilgrims and Soldiers (Joseph J. Binns: Washington-New York, 1979), Figure 22 on p. 118.
Rudolph Cohen and William G. Dever, “Preliminary Report of the Pilot Season of the Central Negev Highland Project,” BASOR 236 (1980), pp. 41–60; Third Season in BASOR 243 (1981), pp. 57–77.
I have excavated a number of these sites, including H. Nahal Zalzal, H. Nahal ’Avnon, H. Nahal Boqer, H. Telma, H. Har Harif, and others.
W. A. Ward, Egypt and the East Mediterranean World 2200–1900 B.C. (Beirut: 1971), pp. xxii–xxiii.
Itzhak Beit-Arieh, “A Pattern of Settlement in Southern Sinai and Southern Canaan in the Third Millennium B.C.,” BASOR 243 (1981), pp. 31–55.
Itzhak Beit-Arieh and Ram Gophna, “Early Bronze Age II Sites in Wadi el-Qudeirat (Kadesh Barnea),” Tel-Aviv 3 (1976), pp. 142–150.
Ruth Amiran et al., “The Interrelationship Between Arad and Sites in Southern Sinai in the Early Bronze Age II,” Israel Exploration Journal 23 (1973), pp. 193–197.
For a brief summary of these finds by the author, see Rudolph Cohen, “The Negev Archaeological Emergency Project,” Israel Exploration Journal 29 (1979), pp. 250–254. In October 1979 rescue excavations were carried out at Ramat Matred on behalf of the Department of Antiquities of Israel, under the direction of the author. Among the excavated sites were several EBII–MBI sites; see Rudolph Cohen, “Ramat Matred Rescue Excavations,” Israel Exploration Journal 30 (1980), pp. 231–234. In February 1980 large-scale rescue excavations were carried out in the Uvdah Valley under the direction of Avraham Eitan, the director of the Israel Department of Antiquities. Most of the excavated sites were EBII–MBI sites. See Hadashot Arkheologist (Hebrew) 74–75 (1980), pp. 35–49.