Reflexiones sobre la presencia egipcia en el Levante meridional a finales del período del Bronce Temprano I(ca.3300-3000): a propósito del Tel Erani

Although the contacts between the populations of the southern Levant and the Nile Valley date back to earlier times, the archaeological record indicates a significant change for the last third of the fourth millennium BC (the period of Early Bronze IB, in the Levantine chronology). This period is characterized by a remarkable expansion of the number of South Levantine sites where ceramics and other Egyptian objects are registered, whether imported directly or made locally imitating patterns previously known in the Nile Valley. These sites also show new types of evidence of Egyptian influence, including building structures, ceramics with serekhs and Egyptian-like sealings. The exact meaning of this Egyptian presence is not easy to establish. Researchers have proposed very different hypotheses, from those that suggest an Egyptian conquest of the region, to those that focus on the problem in terms of Egyptian “colonies” or exchange relations between both regions. These interpretations will be considered here taking into account the diversity that seems to emerge from the types of evidence of the Egyptian presence in different South Levantine sites. In particular, recent information from Tel Erani will be considered, a site that is being re-excavated by archaeologists from the Jaguelonian University of Krakow, the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beersheba), and the Israel Antiquities Authority, with the collaboration of an Argentine team from the University of Buenos Aires. Such information—particularly the traces of a remarkable wall that pre-date the evidence of Egyptian influence—could contribute to the reinterpretation of the ideas currently available on the nature of the Egyptian presence in the southern Levant at the end of the Early Bronze