Southern Levant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Southern Levant encompasses roughly the southern half of the shaded area.[citation needed]

The Levant is the geographical region bordering the Mediterranean, roughly between Egypt and Anatolia (modern Turkey). The Southern Levant is roughly encompassed by Palestine , Jordan, and the southern sections of Syria and Lebanon.[1]



Pre-history and Stone Age[edit]

The Southern Levant was one of the major dispersal routes for hominins from Africa to Eurasia in the Neogene period.[2] Three main routes have been suggested:



Bronze Age[edit]



Iron Age[edit]


Later historical periods[edit]




Modern-day Usage[edit]

Today, the term "Southern Levant" is primarily found in the fields of archeology and history. The term has been used by authors wishing to present a strictly geographical description. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to it being a "wider, yet relevant, cultural corpus" that does not have the "political overtones" of Syria-Palestine,[6][7] though the term has also been criticized as imprecise.[8] Two academic journals were recently launched: Journal of Levantine Studies, published by Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review, published by Boston College.[9][10] The journal Levant has been published since 1969 while Ägypten und Levante has been published since 1990. [6]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Rowan, Yorke; Golden, Jonathan (2009-04-09). "The Chalcolithic Period of the Southern Levant:A Synthetic Review". Journal of World Prehistory. The focus of this discussion, the southern Levant, encompasses the southern sections of Lebanon and Syria, the Palestine Autonomous Authority, Israel, and Jordan. 
  3. ^ Dennell, 2010, cited in "Out of Africa I: The First Hominin Colonization of Eurasia"
  4. ^ Ullinger JM, Sheridan SG, Hawkey DE, Turner CG 2nd, Cooley R., Bioarchaeological analysis of cultural transition in the southern Levant using dental nonmetric traits., Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
  5. ^ 2 Maccabees 3:8.
  7. ^ Name, Palestina Antiqua (2003), Book 10, p. 6, quote "At the beginning of this Introduction I have indicated how difficult it is to choose a general accepted name for the region this book deals with. In Europe we are used to the late Roman name "Palestine," and the designation "Palestinian Archaeology" has a long history. According to Byzantine usage it included CisJordan and TransJordan and even Lebanon and Sinai. In modern times, however, the name "Palestine" has exclusively become the political designation for a restricted area. Furthermore, in the period this book deals with a region called "Palestine" did not yet exist. Also the ancient name "Canaan" cannot be used as it refers to an older period in history. Designations as: "The Land(s) of the Bible" or "the Hold Land" evoke the suspicion of a theological bias. "The Land of Israel" does not apply to the situation because it never included Lebanon or the greater part of modern Jordan. Therefore I have joined those who today advocate the designation "Southern Levant." Although I confess that it is an awkward name, it is at least strictly geographical"
  8. ^ Editorial remarks, Paléorient (1993), Volume 19-1, pp. 6-7, quote "In gathering contributions for the present issue, it soon became apparent - and this is a generally valid point - that imprecise terminology is one of the major difficulties encountered in our research. An example is the term “Southern Levant" used as a substitute for the geographers’ “Palestine". The use of this term hides the particularism of the regions on either side of the Jordan Valley just when the discoveries of the last decade have highlighted their specificity. The lack of precision traditional terminology (agriculture, herding, pastoralism, neolithic, etc.) applied to the complex phenomena that we are studying constantly leads to misunderstandings."
  9. ^ "Journal of Levantine Studies". Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Retrieved 25 May 2015. 
  10. ^ "The Levantine Review". Levantine Center. Retrieved 25 May 2015. 
  11. ^ Fahlbusch, Erwin, Bromiley, Geoffrey William, "The encyclopedia of Christianity", Eerdans Publishing Co., Volume 4, p15.