Archaeological excavations revealed that trade was an important feature of the whole part of the Early Bronze Age including the four sub-phases (EBI-IV). The people of Southern Levant in Early Bronze Age I developed connections with different destinations; for instance, excavations at Arad in Southern Palestine proved early trade relations with Egypt. The People of Southern Levant exported different kinds of goods to Egypt, like Dead Sea products, copper from Finan, olive oil and pottery vessels. Southern Levant played the role of commercial mediator between Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Anatolia. However, most of the sites that developed trade relations with Egypt are located in Southern Palestine where ceramic materials showed the existence of three different groups: local Canaanite ware, Egyptian imported ware and locally produced Egyptian ware. Among these sites are Tell er-Rumðle and el-Õar where a number of Egyptian pottery vessels used for transporting goods from Egypt to Sou...

In this paper, we present the results of recent research on the potential movement of animals and other goods between Old Kingdom Egypt and the southern Levant during the Early Bronze III (c. 2850-2550 BCE). Several types of goods found at the site within a domestic residential neighbourhood (possibly of merchants) suggest that the inhabitants had extensive trade connections with the surrounding regions. A variety of durable goods derived from a variety of non-local sources, some of which are potentially located in Egypt. Other objects may have had a raw material origin in Egypt, but were modified in the northern Levant, and end up in the southern Levant. Scientific analysis of the normally assumed items, such as domestic livestock, demonstrate that donkey caravans were coming from Egypt during a period when trade supposedly has ceased between Egypt and the southern Levant. Isotopic analysis of donkey and other domestic animals are the first bioarchaeological evidence for the movement of livestock between the two regions-that the animals were born and raised in Egypt, brought to Canaan, and slaughtered soon after their arrival at the site. These results can challenge our traditional assumptions about evidence for direct trade between regions. We should be cautious in our labeling of raw material of artefacts that are non-local before a full scientific analysis is conducted.

Geoanalytical results on imported ceramics from Egypt demonstrate wide-ranging links between 1 st Dynasty Egypt and different Levantine commodity production centres. This diffuse network contrasts with the highly efficient Old Kingdom supply chain, based on the maritime route to Byblos and the surrounding region in northern Lebanon. A dataset of imported pottery from the 1 st Dynasty elite cemetery at Abu Rawash builds on this picture. Early Bronze Age II/Early Levant II ceramic types from the site, mostly variations of one-handled jugs, were identified by thin-section petrography as originating in the Central Levant and the Central Jordan Valley/ northern Canaan. By the early Old Kingdom, a major transition had occurred in Egyptian trade routes, focusing primarily on northern Lebanon. Combed jars replaced the diverse range of jugs and jars as the main imported type in Egypt, yet the Early Dynastic one-handled jug shape continued symbolising the idea of imported liquid commodities in the artistic canon for much of the third millennium.

At the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath in the southern Levant, domestic animals from Egypt were recently identified in Early Bronze Age III levels. This finding is significant as it opens the possibility of a previously unseen and potentially long-standing trade in live domestic animals between Egypt and its neighbours. The discovery also supplies critical new data regarding the nature of Egypt's economic relationship with the southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age. This paper briefly canvasses evidence for the likelihood that live cattle were also part of this trade, and poses several questions for future research.

Early Egyptian colonization in the Early Bronze I period is one of the most widely discussed issue in modern archaeology of the Near East. The text focuses on two sites of major importance: Egyptian Tell el-Farkha and Levantine Tel Erani. Discoveries of imported pottery both in Egypt and in Israel, as well as Egyptian-style brick architecture found at Tel Erani suggest that relations between these two regions were based on long-distance trade. The article briefly discusses the most significant imported finds at both sites and the socio-economic changes which followed interregional contacts.

It is regularly assumed that flint tools were exchanged between Egypt and the Levant during the 4th millennium BC, forming the basis of an interregional trade network. However, the existence of this trade network raises important questions about the reality of these exchanges and the nature of the socioeconomic links that they infer. Chipped-stone industries are problematic as chrono-cultural markers because of their low change over time and their frequently ubiquitous nature. The synchronic emergence of similar lithic products cross-regionally makes it difficult to precise the direction of exchange flows and the organization of larger trade networks. In this context, typological analogies can be misleading and lead us to over-interpret some convergence phenomena. To highlight this problem, we will revisit the evidence, through the analysis of the two lithic artefact categories which are best documented in the archaeological record: «tabular scrapers» and «Canaanean blades».