ABSTRACT
One of the major practical, though not methodological, obstacles in the identification of the Israelites with some traits of the central highland's material culture is that there is a great similarity between these finds and those in the highlands of Transjordan. The archaeological evidence establishes the similarity between the small villages erected in the highlands on both sides of the Jordan River during the Iron I. During the Iron Age II the number of genuine examples of four-room houses found outside Israelite territories in Transjordan is very limited indeed and can be explained in light of their relative rarity by a cultural connection and ephemeral influence on the peoples that lived there by their Israelite neighbors. In other words, from the archaeological record there is absolutely no way to distinguish the ethnic identity in the highland of Cisjordan from the people of Transjordan. The nature of the relationships within Transjordan, however, varied greatly from those within Cisjordan.
