ABSTRACT
In the late 13th-12th cents. B.C. there occurred a major influx of new settlers into the hillcountry, especially from Jerusalem northward to Shechem. Hundreds of small villages were now established, not on the remains of destroyed or abandoned Late Bronze Age Urban Canaanite sites, but de novo. These villages are characterized chiefly by their hilltop location and lack of defensive walls; densely arranged 'four-room' or courtyard houses of very stereotyped plan; an abundance of cisterns and silos for storage of water and foodstuffs; intensive cultivation of nearby terraced hillsides; a ceramic repertoire that is basically derived from Late Bronze Age Canaanite pottery types, but contains some new elements that are characteristic of isolated and poor rural areas; the increasing use of iron implements; and, above all, an 'egalitarian' material culture that shows little sign of social stratification. (Dever 1994: 215-16)
