Throughout history, climate change has been an important driving force behind human behaviour. This archaeological study seeks to understand the complex interrelations between that behaviour and climatic fluctuations, focussing on how climate affected the social relations between neighbouring communities of occasionally differing nature. It is argued that developments in these relations will fall within a continuum between competition on one end and cooperation on the other. The adoption of a particular strategy depends on whether that strategy is advantageous to a community in terms of the maintenance of its well-being when faced with adverse climate change. This model will be applied to northern Mesopotamia between 3000 and 1600 BC. Local palaeoclimate proxy records demonstrate that aridity increased significantly during this period. Within this geographical, chronological, and climatic framework, this study looks at changes in settlement patterns as an indication of competition among sedentary agriculturalist communities, and the development of the Amorite ethnic identity as reflecting cooperation among sedentary and more mobile pastoralist communities.

Challenging Climate Change: Competition and Cooperation Among Pastoralists and Agriculturalists in Northern Mesopotamia (c. 3000-1600 BC)

In the year 1300 BC, the great clash took place at Qadesh in Syria between the young Ramesses II and Muwatallish, the Great King of the Hittites. It is now accepted that Mukshush, the companion of Madduwattash, is identical in name with Mopsus, a strange figure of Greek legend, a seer and prince of Colophon. The razzia of Mopsus may be reasonably regarded as part of the downward thrust of the horde of assailants whom the Egyptians called collectively the Peoples of the Sea. There are some archaeological reasons to think that some settlement by Philistines or other closely related Sea Peoples in Palestine may start in this period before 1200 BC. In 1194 BC, Ramesses III clashed with the Libyans. The clash took the form of two battles: the first in Syria against the Land Raiders; the second real fight, against the Sea Raiders, taking place in the Delta at the entrance to Egypt itself.

The sea peoples

Almost a decade has now lapsed since the last major overall survey of the MB I period was attempted (Dever 1970). In this relatively brief period discoveries and developments in the field have been such that it is once again appropriate to appraise the present state of late third-millennium B.C. studies. Throughout the past 50 years, this period has been controversial, as attested by a divergence of views and a lack of unanimity of opinion even on basic issues, e.g., terminology, for one. It is thought, however, that on the basis of discernible trends in the literature and in light of the writer's work,' one can now speak of a growing consensus of opinion on several of the fundamental issues concerning the late third millennium B.C. in Palestine-Transjordan. Therefore this article will strive to elucidate the issues that until recently have defied resolution and to offer a timely reappraisal of this heretofore \"Dark Age\" in Palestinian history. The period with which we are concerned-variously referred to as EB IV, MB I, Intermediate EB-MB, Intermediate Bronze, and \"caliciform\"-lies between two urban eras, the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Since until recently the post-EB III period was known virtually from cemeteries alone, it is understandable that the stark contrast between the apparent semi-nomads of MB I and the urbanists preceding and following them should have been singled out as the prime criterion for evaluating the culture. Kathleen Kenyon's discovery of 346 tombs and an ephemeral settlement at Jericho undeniably enhanced a perspective which emphasized unduly the discontinuity of the period. Three other factors have intensified this perhaps unavoidable distortion in perspective: the hitherto scantily explored Transjordanian area, the purported total destruction of EB III sites, and the overwhelming influence of William F. Albright with regard to movements of \"Amorites\" in the third millennium B.C. As background for the present discussion, it is necessary to sketch the basic issues of controversy. The fundamental problem area has no doubt been the conflict between scholars who view the postEB III period as an \"intermediate\" age, i.e., the Early Bronze Age ended with EB III, and those who perceive it as a continuation of Early Bronze Age civilization. This dichotomy in viewpoint, unfortunately, was given added significance by the use of differing terminologies, a circumstance which has been a source of confusion in the scholarly literature. Other problems include the differences of opinion regarding the socio-economic organization of the post-EB III peoples, the ancestry of their material culture, their ethnic makeup, and their native homeland. But the fundamental question for some time has been: Do the archaeological remains represent an indigenous or an intrusive culture? And, if intrusive, is this cultural group responsible for the demise of Palestinian cities at

Toward a Consensus of Opinion on the End of the Early Bronze Age in Palestine-Transjordan

Since the inscriptions of Ramesses III repeatedly speak of using captives as troops in his own army and since some of the Sea Peoples (especially the Sherden) had been used as mercenaries or as slave troops during the reign of Ramesses II, many scholars now agree that the Philistines were first settled in Palestine as garrison troops. Between the late thirteenth and the end of the twelfth century BC, the territory occupied by the Canaanites was vastly reduced due to occupation by Israelites, the sea peoples, and the Aramaeans. However, there were compensations for these losses. The coast of Phoenicia proper was ideally prepared by nature to become the home of a maritime people. The Hittites had established several vassal states in northern Syria during the initial period of their occupation in the fourteenth century BC. At least two of them, Carchemish and Aleppo, were ruled by princes of the imperial Hittite dynasty.

Syria, the philistines, and phoenicia

The Phrygians crossed the straits into Anatolia from Macedonia and Thrace. In Greek times, the Phrygians' most north-westerly settlement, was Keramon Agora, where a branch of the Royal Road left Lydia to strike northwards. Phrygian architecture was well developed. Vitruvius describes their houses as built of wooden logs laid in a trench excavated in a mound and then covered with reeds, brushwood and earth. Phrygians had reached considerable mastery in several crafts, whether as bronze-workers accomplished in both casting and raising, or as expert cabinetmakers and weavers, as workers in ivory, as makers of woollen felt or as weavers of linen, hemp, mohair, and perhaps also tapestry. Survivals of the Phrygian language linger into Roman times, occurring in bilingual form with Greek translations on tombstone inscriptions. The Phrygians' religion clearly consisted of at least two strata: primitive Anatolian and Indo-European. In the Early Iron Age, the mineral deposits of Anatolia had already been famous for one thousand years.

Phrygia and the peoples of Anatolia in the Iron Age

Les Nomades de Mésopotamie au temps des rois de Mari

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Jean Robert Kupper

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Les Nomades de Mésopotamie au temps des rois de Mari