I luoghi di culto del Levante meridionale all’inizio del Bronzo Medio. Caratteri locali, sviluppi autonomi e rapporti con il Levante settentrionale

The earliest phase of the southern Levantine Middle Bronze Age (Middle Bronze I, ca. 1950-1800 BC) is attested at a limited number of sites, the majority of which is located in the northem and coastal areas of the Southem Levant. Among these, three sites - Tell el-Mutesellim, ancient Megiddo, in the Jezreel Valley, Tabahat Fahal, ancient Pella, and Tell el-Hayyat, in the north-eastem Jordan Valley - provided evidence for cult architecture dating from this period. In fact, an architectural sequence of temples spanning the entire Middle Bronze Age was excavated at each site. At the end of the period, Langraum in antis temples were built at Megiddo and Tell elHayyat, and a Migdol-temple was built at Pella. Yet, in the earliest phases within these sequences, cult buildings different from the codified architectural templates of the later Middle Bronze Age phases are found. These buildings represent a formative stage of the Middle Bronze Age that, with very few exceptions, is virtually unattested elsewhere in other sub-regional areas of the Southern Levant. The analysis of those three cult areas, framed within a diachronic perspective, including the 3rd millennium BC buildings and the 2"d millennium BC developments, allows the historical and cultura! issues related to the connections between the Northem and Southem Levant to be investigated, starting from architectural models and archaeological evidence for cult and ritual. These latter show a growing cultura! homogenization between the two areas during the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, which is, nonetheless, rooted in the early Middle Bronze I, when cultura! influxes and styles from the north and the north-east are re-elaborated by the communities settling the northem valleys of the Southem Levant. Interactions between these areas and the Northem Levant were already noticeable during the mid-Iate 3rd millennium BC, and this argues for continuity into the 2"d millennium BC of some socio-cultural structures already present in the Early Bronze Age, despite the deep socio-political and socio-economie changes between the two periods. On the other hand, although those early cult buildings argue for the adoption of northem Levantine architectural models in the southem Levantine sites, the analysis of the "archaeological correlates of ritual" - according to Colin Renfrew's definition - allows us to outline the true southem Levantine character of the cult areas analysed within the article. These cult buildings merge and integrate extemal infiuxes with features rooted in the local tradition, thrqugh the adaptation of northem models and prototypes to the socio-politica! and socio-economie backgrounds of the Southem Le'f"allt and to means of expression of the ideologica! elaboration connected to the spheres of cult and ritual different from those of the Northem Levant.