ABSTRACT
The growth of large urban centres in the early part of the Middle Bronze Age created a demand for luxury products as visible symbols of wealth. The introduction of imported stone vessels was one expression of this phenomenon, with trade initially limited in quantity but quickly expanding as interregional networks developed to reach most important cities of the period. Stone vessels can be useful tools with which to measure the degree of foreign influence within various Levantine centres, particularly with regard to the presence of foreigners, imitation of foreign lifestyles by local elites and the adoption of foreign styles within local crafts. Stone vessels and the various goods they contained appear to have been able to move across cultural borders with comparative ease, hence their ability to be marketed some distance beyond their original place of manufacture. Stone vessels can move across a region amongst the personal belongings of individuals whose occupation or lifestyle enabled them to travel.
