ABSTRACT
In the thirteenth century various settlements were established in the highlands, most concentrated in a region stretching over a rather limited area from Jerusalem in the south to northern Samaria in the north. During the thirteenth century the Egyptians had strengthened their control over Canaan, perhaps even minimizing contact and interaction between the Canaanite city-states and other groups, of whatever origin. Bun-imovitz, who has adopted the concept of the shifting frontier to describe the reality in Canaan during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, suggests that during the fifteenth fourteenth centuries, the 'frontier spilled over from the central hill country to the lowland', meaning that the para-social and semi-nomadic groups that inhabited the 'frontier' were now interacting with the cities of the lowland. The new settlers in the highland therefore faced a reality in which they were 'marked' by the Egyptio-Canaanite system. A way of life that contrasted the Canaanite-Egyptian world is expected, and to some extent perhaps even inevitable.
