Intermediate Bronze Age (2300–2000 bc)

The urban culture of the Early Bronze II—III periods collapsed in the late third millennium bc and seemingly was replaced by a pastoralist society that lasted about 300 years. Since the early 20th century, archaeologists and scholars have given this transitional period numerous titles. It has been called “the Chalciform Culture” (Tufnell, Lachish IV, 6, 31), Early Bronze IIIB (Wright, “Archaeology”), Early Bronze IV—Middle Bronze I (Albright, Archaeology, 77–80), and Intermediate Early Bronze—Middle Bronze (Kenyon, Archaeology, 135–36), but is most commonly known as the Intermediate Bronze Age.

While the reasons for the societal collapse in Palestine are unknown, the changes that took place at this time were paralleled by cultural shifts in Egypt that introduced the First Intermediate Period (2160–2055 bc). The reestablishment of urban life in Palestine in the Middle Bronze Age happened around 2000 bc, about the same time as the rise of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 bc).