ABSTRACT
Theoretically speaking, scholars use two tools to decipher these riddles: text and archaeology. The importance of the biblical source, which dominated past research on the rise of Early Israel, has been dramatically diminished in recent years. The environment and economic potential, which have a decisive affect on the development of settlement systems and political formations, Palestine should be divided into three zones – lowlands, highlands and steppelands. Archaeologists tend to put ethnic labels on pottery types. Thus relates to 'Philistine', 'Edomite' and 'Midianite' pottery. Anthropologists argues foodways often rival ideology and religion in terms of cultural conservatism, and that food is one of the primary symbols manipulated by people seeking to maintain their cultural identity and group solidarity. The transition from the Middle Bronze II to the Middle Bronze III was apparently characterized by a similar, two-fold process; a decrease in the number of sites and the construction of highland strongholds, such as Shechem, Shiloh and Hebron.
