Life in Ancient Palestine

- David C. Hopkins

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Geographical features of Palestine important for its history

Strategic location
1. Strategically crucial commercial and military crossroad. Located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and at the western end of the fertile crescent, which stretches from the top of the Persian Gulf toward the valley of the Nile, Palestine constituted a land bridge connecting Egypt and Mesopotamia, the two major centers of ancient Near Eastern civilization.
2. Offered a port of entry for contact between the Near East and Greek and Roman civilizations of Europe.
3. Because of its commercial importance, Palestine was rarely exempt from larger struggles. Campaigning armies of the empires often crossed its soil.

Limited Natural Resources
1. The land does not possess any great mineral wealth, only some pockets of iron ore east of the Jordan, and copper in the south.
2. Forests of small trees
3. The region’s predominantly limestone rocks and clay soils provided most of the material for construction.
4. The amount of level land for agriculture was generally restricted, and the Mediterranean climate, while well suited for farming, was highly erratic and caused significant hardships three or four years out of ten.
5. The possibilities for irrigation were minimal, and not all of the region received sufficient rainfall for dry farming. A variable border of aridity ran through the land, marking the oscillating frontier between the desert and the sown.
6. Under these limitations of natural resources, the success of settlement in the area was often marked by the ability to cope with economic failure.
7. The relative poverty of the land stands out in the material record: There are few finds of precious objects comparable with those of Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Syria.
8. This paucity of resources explains why imperial rulers of Palestine rarely saw the need to displace the local leaders and incorporate Palestine more fully into their realm.
9. Outside investment concentrated on developing it transit networks and a few key agricultural industries, such as olive oil and wine production.

Geographical Diversity
1. A complex landscape that can aptly be described as fragmented.
2. Palestine’s diversity extended to land forms, natural vegetation, soils, climate, subsistence potential, and accessibility or seclusion.
3. The patchwork introduced a high degree of regionalism into the life of its inhabitance.
4. While some sections of the country could never escape involvement in their larger political and cultural environment, other regions were inaccessible or inhospitable; they supported insulated communities and afforded refuge for drifters and outlaws or impermanent occupation by pastoral nomads.
5. Unlike Egypt’s Nile or Mesopotamia’s Tigris and Euphrates, Palestine’s major river, the serpentine, saline, and deeply incised Jordan, did not unify its complex map.
6. This variegated landscape rendered political and economic unification of the region fraught with difficulties. When achieved, unification was never long-lived.