Endnote 8 – Were the Early Israelites Pastoral Nomads?

It is highly doubtful that we can characterize any of the later major movements of population in the historic period (e.g. Akkadians, Amorites, Arameans) as mass invasions or incursions of nomads into the settled region. In addition to the already cited searching rebuttal of the Mari nomads as invaders from the desert presented by J. T. Luke, A. Haldar has examined the entire range of evidence on the socio-economic status and origins of the Amorites—including their involvement in metallurgy and merchant caravaneering—and has conclusively demolished the foundations of the hypothesis that the Amorites were pastoral nomads from the desert. A. Haldar, Who Were the Amorites?