The Iron Age I (1200—980 BC*), the first sub-period of the Iron Age in the southern Levant, began after the crises of the end of the Late Bronze Age period, and the political, economic, and cultural changes they caused: the period’s empires weakened or collapsed, and its characteristic international trade ceased. In the southern Levant cities were destroyed, international relations broke off, and a period of isolated regional and internal development commenced.
The Iron Age I is a transition period from the Canaanite political, ethnic, and cultural reality of the Bronze Age to a new reality consisting of a new political order, and new peoples and cultures. Therefore, the period is characterized by a new cultural diversity, as in some areas the Canaanite customs and material culture continued, and in others new ones appeared.
The period is divided into two parts:
The Iron Age Ia (1200—1135 BC) is also called “Late Bronze Age III” or “Transition Period Late Bronze-Iron”. During the period the sovereignty of the 20th Egyptian dynasty in the Levant continued, and so did the hegemony of the Canaanite culture, while at the same time the new cultures/ethnic groups which will continue to develop and define the Iron Age appeared, manifesting distinctive material culture: the Proto-Israelites, the Phoenicians, and the Philistines.
The Philistines are identified in the western Shephelah, especially in Ashkelon, Ekron, Tel-Ashdod and Gath. They are associated with the Sea Peoples and with a distinctive material culture which shows Aegean, Cypriot and southern Anatolian influences, and are understood as an immigrating culture.
In the central hill country of Israel, in the Jordan Valley and its eastern bank, and in the northern Negev many new rural settlements have been identified, and are understood by some scholars as the emergence of the Israelites. The origin of this population is disputed: some contend they originate in immigrants from the eastern bank of the Jordan River; in the coalescence of refugees from the Canaanite cities which were destroyed at the end of the Bronze Age; that they developed as a new social-political formation of the local population; or as a combination of all these social phenomena.
In the Iron Age Ib (1135—980 BC) the cultural changes that began in the Iron Age Ia took root: while Canaanite cities like Megiddo and Gezer continued to thrive, the new cultures blossomed beside them: in the southern coast of Israel the Philistines developed monumental building enterprises, and their material culture have been found at sites outside their initial region of emergence, which has been interpreted as evidence of growing trade; settlement expansion; or assimilation within local peoples.
In the central hill country, the eastern Gilead, and the upper Galilee hundreds of new rural settlements with simple and meagre material culture have been identified, and are understood as agricultural familial-tribal societies. It is thought that, with time, their unification formed the Kingdom of Israel, and so they are called the Proto-Israelites. Some scholars contend their social structure corresponds with the biblical descriptions of the tribes of Israel in the Judges and Samuel books.
At the end of the period, along the northern Israeli and Lebanon coasts, the urban culture of the Phoenicians renewed the maritime trade, and settlement amounts increased in the Negev and the eastern bank of the Jordan River – a phenomenon attributed to nomad tribal groups and associated with copper production from the mines of Wadi-Faynan and Timna, and its trade.
The period ended with the desertion of many settlements in the central hill country, and the destruction of many cities across the southern Levant, among them Shiloh, Megiddo, Tel-Masos, and Tel-Qasile, followed by changes in settlement structure and material culture, heralding the Iron Age II period.
*Dates are according to Amihai Mazar’s method, and are debated among scholars: see also high chronology, low chronology.
Sources
Mazar, A. (Accessed on 29 October 2023). The Iron Age 1150—586 BCE. Israeli Institute of Archaeology. https://www.israeliarchaeology.org/%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%AA/the-iron-age/?lang=en
Mazar, A. (2019). The Iron Age I. In Faust, A., & Katz H. (Eds.). Archaeology of the land of Israel: From the Neolithic to Alexander the Great (vol. 2) (pp. 109—196). Lamda – The Open University.
Faust, A. (2019). The Iron Age II. In Faust, A., & Katz H. (Eds.). Archaeology of the land of Israel: From the Neolithic to Alexander the Great (vol. 2) (pp. 197—321). Lamda – The Open University.