Palace-Clan Relations in the Bronze and Iron Ages Levant: Textual and Material Approaches.

Hannes Bezzel, Karen Covello-Paran, Joachim J. Krause and Omer Sergi, 2025.

Published in Archaeology of the Biblical Worlds, Vol. 6. De Gruyter.

ISBN: 978-3-11-140551-3

This volume, edited by the co-directors of the Tel Shaddud Regional Project, offers a groundbreaking re-evaluation of the social and political fabric of the ancient Levant. Challenging the traditional “tribe-to-state” evolutionary model, the collected studies demonstrate how kinship-based identities (clans) and centralized political organizations (palaces) coexisted and interacted throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. By integrating archaeological data with textual analysis, the book reveals the fragmented and kin-based nature of Levantine polities, providing a crucial framework for understanding the complex societal structures that shaped sites like Tel Shaddud and Ḥorvat Tevet.

‘En Shadud: Salvage Excavations at a Farming Community in the Jezreel Valley, Israel.

Eliot Braun, 1985.

Published in BAR International Series 249.

ISBN: 0-86054-320-X

This monograph presents the comprehensive results of salvage excavations at ‘En Shadud, focusing on a significant, short-lived village dating to the Early Bronze Age I. The report details the site’s unique architectural features, including both rectilinear and curvilinear dwellings, alongside a diverse assemblage of material culture such as Gray-Burnished and Grain-Wash pottery, Canaanean flint blades, and faunal remains. By analyzing these finds, the study offers a detailed reconstruction of the daily life, agricultural economy, and socio-economic organization of a rural community at the margins of the Jezreel Valley during the formative stages of the Bronze Age in the southern Levant.