c. 330 pp.
£25 / $49.50 / €37.50
Paperback
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The Highlands of Canaan
Agricultural Life in the Early Iron Age
David C. Hopkins
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In this masterly survey of the agricultural way of life and material world of late second millennium Canaan and emergent Israel, Hopkins asks, What obstacles did the Early Iron Age settlers of the Highlands face in their struggle for survival? How did they buffer the immense variability of their environment and take advantage of its natural diversity? How crucial were their particular social structures to their continued survival?
The author’s researches into the dynamics of agricultural systems attested in ethnographic and anthropological sources constantly undergird the development of his picture. His work has proved to be a mandatory resource for all students of early Israel. Contents: the parameters of agricultural systems (e.g. environment, technology and population); geomorphology; climate and climatic change; natural vegetation and soils; population and settlement patterns; water conservation and control; soil conservation and fertility maintenance; risk spreading and the optimization of labor.
This volume is a reprint of the 1985 edition, with a new preface by Keith W. Whitelam setting the work in the context of recent research on agriculture, daily life and the history of ancient Israel.
David Hopkins is Professor of Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC. |
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