Urban History of South-Western Palestine during the Bronze Age A Historical and Archaeological Study in the View of Gaza Region
Dr. Moain Sadeq

Abstract
The important geo-strategic location of south-western Palestine has attracted tribes since the 4th millennium BC to settle and create the earliest human sediments, particularly on the sea coast along the ancient coastal route (Horus way)2 connecting Egypt (Africa) in the south with Canaan/Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia in the north and east (Asia) (Oren: 1997) and on the fertile banks of Gaza valley. This is attested by successive archaeological excavations scraping away layers of sites constituting ruins of major settlements dated to the Bronze Age (3200-1200 BC) providing rich archaeological record of architecture and material culture in a historic sequence. Focusing on Gaza as a case study for history of urbanism in South-western Palestine during the Bronze Age, this paper endeavors to a) illuminate the major elements of human sediment and urbanism exposed so far at excavated Bronze Age sites, b) reconstruct Gaza urbanism during the various phases of the Bronze Age (3200-1200 BC) alongside with the associated economy based on architecture and material culture revealed at old excavations as well as further rich archaeological record resulted from major sites excavated recently by the author at the Early Bronze Age (EB) site of Tell es-Sakan and the renewed excavations at the Middle and Late Bronze Age (MB and LB) sites of Tell al-‘Ajjul and al-Mughraqa.

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