New Perspectives on Domestic Architecture and the Initial Stages of Urbanization in Canaan

Abstract

Examination of the domestic architectural remains from the Early Bronze Age in the southern Levant shows that rectangular buildings with rounded outer corners were an outstanding characteristic during the transition from the fourth to the third millennium BCE. Numerous such buildings have so far been found at fifteen sites throughout Canaan during the Early Bronze IB and Early Bronze II periods (3300–2650 BCE; chronology follows Stager 1992). The deliberate and uniform construction of rounded corners in the outer corners of rectilinear buildings implies a specific concept of building tradition. The constant recurrence of this type of house within a defined geographical region and during a limited time span of the EB I–II transition indicates that this form of construction is to be seen as a distinct architectural tradition characteristic only of this period.The first appearance of this distinct architectural plan is concurrent with the initial stages of urbanization in Canaan and may be seen as a hybrid mid-phase between the curvilinear sausage-shaped architecture typical of the non-urban EB IA (3500–3300 BCE) period and the rectilinear, angled-corner architecture characteristic of the urban EB II period (3100–2650 BCE). The use of this type of building within a comprehensive urban plan is an expression of the changing needs of Canaanite society during its transformation from a village-oriented to an urban-centered culture. The available evidence appears to indicate that the urbanization process of Canaanite society, characterized by the construction of large scale fortifications and pre-meditated urban planning, pre-dated the EB II and was well under way at the end of the EB IB period.

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