Bronze Age Rural Ecology and Village Life at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan (BAR International)

^TBronze Age Rural Ecology and Village Life at Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan
^Aby Steven Falconer ^DTell el-Hayyat, the focus of this volume, is situated in the Jordan Rift Valley approximately two kilometres east of the Jordan River on the first terrace above the present floodplain. This work details the authorsÆ investigations of agrarian economy and ecology as they illuminate the roles of rural communities in the larger context of the first urbanized civilizations. The study explores the ways in which small farming villages like Tell el-Hayyat contributed and responded to the rise and fall of Bronze Age town life in the southern Levant. A rural perspective is particularly appropriate for this region amid its long legacy of sedentary agriculture, dynamic urban-rural relations, and their ecological consequences. Contents: Village Communities in the Bronze Age Levant: Ecology and History; Interpretative Framework for Exploring Bronze Age Ruralism; Domestic and Public Architecture at Tell el-Hayyat; Ceramic and Radiocarbon Chronology for Tell el-Hayyat; Economy and Subsistence at Tell el-Hayyat; Temple Economy and Ritual at Tell el-Hayyat; Household Economy at Tell el-Hayyat; Bronze Age Agrarian Ecology along the Jordan Rift.