Foreign versus Local Components: Interaction Dynamics in the Northern Coastal Levant at the Beginning of the Early Iron Age

The aim of the current paper is to throw additional light on the presence of different "identities" within the social framework of the northern coastal Levant at the beginning of the Early Iron Age. To this end, I analyze the foreign or "strange" features (i.e., those that are unfamiliar vis-à-vis the local tradition) found in the material culture (especially ceramics), contrasting them with truly local elements. This type of contrast (foreign versus local) in the material culture has been interpreted as possibly indicating a "dichotomy" in the coastal Early Iron Age societies. Foreign objects (and/or artefacts bearing foreign attributes) are sometimes understood as markers of the presence of "outsiders" or newcomers, often identified with the so-called Sea Peoples or other peoples coming from abroad. The broad ongoing debate regarding the presence of the Sea Peoples in the Levant represents a fascinating case-study that can contribute to advancing our understanding of identity. However, in the present work I attempt to go beyond this conventional debate via an analysis of attributes of the material culture (with a particular focus on certain types and styles of ceramics, including Aegean-style pottery, Handmade Burnished Ware, and different types of storage-jar), creating a "scale of values" for these objects that ranges from fully local to fully non-local. All the intermediate points along this scale of values fall within the sphere of "hybridity". Rather than suggesting a dichotomy in the society of the Early Iron Age, this form of analysis encourages the adoption of a new outlook : first, it is virtually impossible to identify "purely" foreign or "purely" local elements ; consequently, we may only read the "identities" of the peoples behind the objects by posing questions about their degree of hybridity and about the workings of the practice of "code-sharing", which arises not only within the linguistic sphere, but also in the material culture.