Image Details

During the Early Bronze Age, a Canaanite dwelling unit consisted of as few as two rooms or as many as 20 rooms surrounding a courtyard (see plan). The rooms were built slightly below ground level and were entered by a short flight of steps, as this photo of a house in a settlement near the Feiran Oasis illustrates. Other features visible in the photo that are typical of these houses are a central roof-support pillar and benches against the walls.

The houses and the tools and utensils they contained strongly resemble houses and implements found at the EB II city of Arad—evidence that the EB II Sinai settlers were closely related to the EB II people in the north.