Endnote 44 – When Was the Age of the Patriarchs?—Of Amorites, Canaanites, and Archaeology

Kenyon, Archaeology in the Holy Land, pp. 195–97. Some foreign people such as the Hurrians do seem to have entered Palestine-Syria during the MB II–LB Period, but their numbers were probably small and they had little effect on the material culture of the area. For arguments that the bichrome designs on LB I pottery are Hurrian in inspiration and indicate their arrival in Palestine see C. Epstein, Palestinian Bichrome Ware (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966), pp. 153–166. For evidence of the arrival of small groups of Cypriots in southern Palestine in MB II C, see W. Stiebing, “Another Look at the Origins of the Philistine Tombs at Tell el-Far’ah (S),” The American Journal of Archaeology, 74(1970), pp. 141–143. The influx of foreigners during MB II most commonly acknowledged, that of the Hyksos invasion, is probably a myth! See J. Van Seters, The Hyksos and W. Stiebing, “Hyksos Burials in Palestine: A Review of the Evidence,” The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 30 (1971), pp. 110–117.