Between 'The Desert and the Sown': The Hauran as a Frontier Zone in the Middle Bronze Age

Abstract

This paper is based on data gathered by the University of Sydnry Hauran Research Project. It attempts to demonstrate that the expansion and nature of the Middle Bronze Age settlement pattern identified in the Hauran resulted from interaction between communities whose lifestyle varied on the continuum between nomadism and sedentarism. By practising a variety of subsistence strategies, some made possible by the implementation of water management systems, these communities developed a small-scale settlement hierarchy, centred on key fortified sites or 'gateway communities', which allowed the local region to interact with the wider Middle Bronze Age world.