The Fortification Wall of Tel Erani: A Labour Perspective

Abstract

During the EB 1B1 in the southern Levant, in a cultural horizon locally known as the ‘Erani C Phase’, a massive fortification wall ca. 8 m wide was erected around the site of Tel Erani. By determining the tell's natural resources, the manpower available at the time of construction and the man-days required to build the fortification wall we are able to theorize about the society that built it. Based on previous research that focused on mudbrick construction, three options regarding the amount of labour required for building the wall are presented; all suggest that the erection of the wall required tens of thousands of work days. These options are examined in terms of the potential of the site's workforce, providing a scenario for the construction process, division of labour and bureaucratic management. This demonstrates that a major portion of the site's population contributed labour taxes towards the wall's construction and that perhaps there was also a need for an additional workforce drafted from Tel Erani's satellite settlements. The calculation and analysis of the labour needed for construction of the fortification wall of Tel Erani strongly points to a centralized political power with a sophisticated bureaucratic system, representative of the urbanization process.