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Dever advocates the theory that the early Israelites arose out of the Canaanite cities and sought refuge or a new life in the hill-country. Unfortunately, the support he has, has been challenged by, among others, Anson Rainey, who shows that the pottery culture is not sufficiently distinctive to be a definitive marker or ethnicity. The pottery that was shown by Dever to be similar and continuous with Canaanite pottery has also been attested to, east of the Jordan (not Canaanite). The same is true of the four-room house.The coastal Canaanites ate pig. If the hill people emerged from them, why would they abandon that tradition , one that they are very familiar with, but not the pottery or building techniques?
Rainey shows that it would make sense for pastoralists NOT to have pigs because pigs are not suited for the desert areas or for herding.
Why not take the Bible for its word that the patriarchs or forerunners of Israel were pastoralists? Even the territories that they had dealings with, were pastoral groups and not city-folk. There is a "close affinity...with the Arameans who lived in the Syrian desert, and not with the city dwelling Canaanites or Amorites." Abraham's servants had to go back east to the Arameans to find a wife for Isaac. Abraham came from far east (Ur). "The Biblical narrative is quite clear as to where the first Israelites came from: outside Canaan, east of the Jordan."
What is interesting is that he shows that linguistically, Hebrew is closer to Transjordanian languages than with Phoenician (coastal Canaanites). Does it make sense that they would learn a new language or have spoken a different dialect than their feudal masters? They did however notice that "the Phoenician alphabet enjoyed a high prestige" and thus adopted it.
Rainey also notes that similar patterns of invasions of sedentary areas by outsiders occurred at the end of Late Bronze Age (~1200 BCE) which yielded a "new ethnic group, fully conscious of its ethnicity." (Libyans invade Egyptian Delta, Mushku invade Anatolia, Sea Peoples destroy Canaanite cities and settle them, Arameans entered northern Syria and Mesopotamia. So too, new immigrants came to the hill country).
In the Amarna letters there is description of the Shasu, who are pastoralists, and like the Bible story of Josef, they get permission to live in the Nile Delta to find sustenance. At the time of the emergence of people in the hill country (Iron I 1200-1000), the Shasu and others like the Midianites, Moabites, and Edomites were moving out of the steppe lands to find better sustenance during drought and famine. See BAR Nov/Dec 2008