The Organisation of Early Bronze Age Metalworking in the Southern Levant.

Abstract

Very often metallurgy has been assigned a central role for the emergence of urbanism during the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant. An investigation of the metallurgical remains, as well as the items produced, shows however tenuous causal connection between urban sites and metallurgical activities. Also prestige items in metal are generally lacking, indicating that the metal items which are mainly functional may have held no great social value during the Early Bronze Age.