Settlement Systems, Cultural Relationships, and Regional Economy during the Early Bronze Age III–IV in the Northern Shawbak and the Southern Dead Sea Valley: New Insights into the Copper Production System of Faynan

Abstract

Industrial copper production during the Early Bronze (EB) Age III–IV made the southern Dead Sea Valley around Faynan attractive to southern Levantine society. Despite continuous investigations, no previous research has revealed the settlement system or the ceramic regionalism, including the hinterlands. Forty-one recently confirmed sites from the Early Bronze Age in the northern Shawbak, located to the immediate east of Faynan, contained remarkable settlements in the late EB III and EB IV. A typo-chronological analysis of the ceramic assemblages provided evidence of occupation peaks in the late EB III and a continuation of the settlements in the early EB IV and the earlier phase of the late EB IV. The ceramic types indicate influence from the central southern Levant and the Negev Highlands in both periods. The settlements in the northern Shawbak are expected to have played key roles in the copper production system centered on Faynan. Exploitation of wood for smelting fuel, food provisioning, and circulation of copper were major economic activities. In the EB IV, these settlements coexisted with remnants of pastoral nomadism. Therefore, the economic interdependency between the northern Shawbak and Faynan likely intensified temporarily.