THE SOCIAL RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL-CHANGE IN EARLY BRONZE-AGE CANAAN

The collapse of Early Bronze Age society in the southern Levant (at ca . 2200 B.C.) coincided with a severe shift toward a drier climate. Thi s significantly altered the hydrological regime and undermined the int ensive agricultural system, leading to decreased agricultural yields. However, we cannot assume that the collapse of a social system is an a utomatic and unavoidable response to climatic degradation, especially since later preindustrial states functioned within this same drier env ironmental setting. It is more productive to examine some of the expla nations for the failure to adapt to the new environmental conditions. These might have included the combined factors of overspecialization i n agricultural production, elite control over surplus resources, remov al of labor from the agricultural sector, slow response time in the pe rception of catastrophe, the ability of the elite to profit from short -term environmental stress, and the direction of energy toward increas ed religious activity, rather than technological innovations. (C) Acad emic Press, Inc.