Discerning activity areas in domestic space : a model for the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Levant

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology and Archaeology

Grantor

University of Saskatchewan

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Theoret, Lorraine

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Maingon, Alison

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Foley, Chris
• Meyers, Mark
• Kennedy, Margaret

• continuity
• Israelite
• four-room
• culture

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-12012010-135146

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:harvest.usask.ca:10388/etd-12012010-135146