c. 2000–1750 BC Middle Bronze II urban revival, Amorite tribal migrations, and the Execration Texts
The archaeological period of Canaanite urbanization, marked by massive cyclopean stone city walls, earthen rampart fortifications (glacis), and Amorite nomadic-pastoralist migrations throughout Syria-Palestine, providing the precise socio-historical setting for Genesis 12–36.
Rigorous 4-part empirical analysis separating ancient text from bias and consensus
Egyptian Execration Texts (pottery bowls and clay figurines inscribed with curses against rebellious Canaanite rulers and smashed in ritual execration) list 2nd-millennium Canaanite cities including Jerusalem (Rushalimom), Shechem, Ashkelon, and Hazor ruled by Amorite tribal chieftains.
Corroborates the open geopolitical geography of the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob move freely between fortified city-states (Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, Beersheba) without imperial passports, pasturing flocks in uncultivated hill country.
Scholars like Albright and Bright dated the Patriarchs squarely to MB I/IIA; later minimalists argued the stories were Persian-era fictions, but the preservation of authentic MB geographic and legal forms refutes late fiction.
Egyptian royal ritual curse texts designed to maintain psychological and magical dominance over Levantine trading vassals.