Discerning activity areas in domestic space : a model for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Levant
type: CreativeWork
description: The question of cultural continuity or the appearance of a new culture in the Levant in the period from the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age has been strongly debated in Near Eastern studies. Proponents of cultural change argue that a new type of building, the “four-room” house is a strong indicator of a new population moving in, despite compelling evidence that this type of house had precedents in earlier periods. A more productive approach to the issue of cultural change or continuity lies in the examination of not only the physical structures, but also the use of space within them, since the organization of domestic activity is at a basic level culturally determined. This study proposes a method for such examination, through the creation of a typology of rooms and the analysis of the distribution of artefacts and installations within different types of space to determine probable activities within a sample of houses from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. By comparing and contrasting uses of space in Late Bronze and Early Iron Age domestic structures, one should be able to add to the lines of evidence for determining whether or not there was cultural continuity in the transitional period from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. The outcomes of this study pointed to cultural continuity.
abstract: The question of cultural continuity or the appearance of a new culture in the Levant in the period from the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age has been strongly debated in Near Eastern studies. Proponents of cultural change argue that a new type of building, the “four-room” house is a strong indicator of a new population moving in, despite compelling evidence that this type of house had precedents in earlier periods. A more productive approach to the issue of cultural change or continuity lies in the examination of not only the physical structures, but also the use of space within them, since the organization of domestic activity is at a basic level culturally determined. This study proposes a method for such examination, through the creation of a typology of rooms and the analysis of the distribution of artefacts and installations within different types of space to determine probable activities within a sample of houses from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. By comparing and contrasting uses of space in Late Bronze and Early Iron Age domestic structures, one should be able to add to the lines of evidence for determining whether or not there was cultural continuity in the transitional period from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. The outcomes of this study pointed to cultural continuity.
author: Theoret, Lorraine
language: en_US
keywords: continuity, Israelite, four-room, culture
date published: 2010-11
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:27:13Z
provider: University of Saskatchewan
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Saskatchewan

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-12012010-135146