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Armstrong, Caroline

University of British Columbia

The Levantine Late Bronze Age (1600-1100 BCE) ended in what scholars have deemed a perfect storm of cataclysmic factors such as warfare, famine, earthquakes, invasion, and climate change. This thesis focuses on the latter, specifically how non-anthropogenic climate change influenced human movement and adaptive strategies. Paleoenvironmental data indicate regional variations of aridity between the 13th and 10th centuries BCE in the Levant. However, despite renewed interest in migration studies in archaeology, little attention has been given to how shifting aridity coincides with the abandonment or continuation of LBA sites into the Early Iron Age (EIA). Moreover, dominant narratives of mass “Sea People” migrations have framed most regional migration as disruptive and destructive. This thesis argues that reframing Levantine migration as a form of resilience rather than a product of crisis allows climate migration to be conceptualized as a process instead of a singular event. This argument is demonstrated through a multi-scalar analysis, including GIS mapping of LBA and EIA settlements, shifting rainfall parameters, and two case studies of regional variations in resilience. This thesis’s exploration of migratory responses to LBA climate change relies on the assumption that despite other push factors compelling migration, access to reliable water determined survival. Archaeological evidence of water storage and management serves as a proxy for understanding the complexity of how climate influenced human movement. I compare migration patterns between two coastal settlements (Tell Tweini and Tell Sukas) and two inland sites (Tell Tayinat and Tell Atchana) in the Northern Levant, with abrupt migration to the Negev Highlands in the Southern Levant. In doing so, I explore how other “collapse” factors intersected with climatic change to cause unique migration situations. Ultimately, these case studies suggest that movement, technological innovation, or a combination of both enabled Levantine migrants to achieve water security, shaped by the duration and magnitude of climate change.

Text

2025-04-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90747

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/