Iron Age I in the Southern Levant (Cis-Jordan)

This article analyses archaeological evidence concerning key developments in the southern Levant, or Cisjordan, during the Iron Age I. This period witnessed a gradual crystallisation of a new world order culminating in the formation of small territorial kingdoms in Iron Age II. The article suggests that this period can be considered one of ethnogenesis, because it was at this time that new group identities were consolidated. It also describes some major changes, including the disappearance of the two imperial powers that dominated the region in the Late Bronze Age and the collapse of the international commercial and symbolic networks of the Late Bronze Age.