Civilizations of Canaan

The Intermediate Canaanite (Bronze) Age 2,300–2,000 BCE

The period between the Early Canaanite (Bronze) Age and the Middle Canaanite (Bronze) Age is known as the  Intermediate Canaanite (Bronze) Age (2,300–2,000 BCE), differentiating it from the periods that  immediately preceded and followed. Society had fragmented into smaller, more mobile (often nomadic) groups when the large urban centers of the Early Canaanite (Bronze) Age collapsed. Pastoralism (sheep and goat herding) took precedence over field agriculture, allowing people to exist in difficult ecological niches such as the desert and the densely afforested hill country. It was safer and freer beyond the old frontiers. Beyond the borders of Canaan other lands were also in turmoil, brought on by sociopolitical collapse.

Other peoples were also on the move. One such group, known both from the Bible and ancient documents, was the Amorites. Some remains of material culture, particularly from the north of the country, indicate  that groups of people did penetrate Canaan from Syria. The innovation of alloying copper with tin to make bronze may have come from this direction. Most of the artifacts exhibited - predominantly pottery, copper weapons, and jewelry - were recovered from tombs located in large, perhaps tribal, burial grounds throughout the land.