The Early Bronze Age in Palestine (3500-2000 B.C.) appears to have been an important transition period during which populations from former Chalcolithic chiefdoms evolved into urban society. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse aspects of continuity and transformation in ceramic production from the EB I period to the EB III, on typological and technological bases. The study of local assemblages from Tell el-Fâr'ah, Megiddo and Tel Yarmouth, and that of the archaeological literature, permits to identify regional diversity in the Southern Levant and to better understand the global process of urban uniformity. The first chapter deals with the Early Bronze I, which is characterized by a great variety of the pottery and the emergence of urbanism. Social entities are recognized, and a new framework on the evolution of the first urban society is proposed. The urban Early Bronze II-III ceramic production is treated in the second chapter. It shows the overall homogeneity of the period as well as signs of regionalisms continuation. These signs inform us on the social heterogeneous nature of the EB population. The major contribution of this work lies in the explication of the character of the EB society, and explains the collapse of the EB III urbanization, by a disintegration of the social cohesion and the return to ancestral ways of life.
Craft Industry and Urbanization in the Southern Levant During the Early Bronze Age Reflections on the Social Structure in the Light of Ceramic Production