Faunal remains from Tel Abel Beth Maacah: Social change in the late second millennium BCE Hula Valley

The Hula Valley, a gateway from Syria and Lebanon to the southern Levant, was dominated in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages by the city-state of Hazor. Following the desolation of the latter in the 13th century BCE, it seems that Abel Beth Maacah became the leading polity in the region, showing a remarkable sequence of Iron Age I architecture. We examine this regional power shift using a zooarchaeological sequence from Abel Beth Maacah, which suggests the economic impact of pastoral nomads on the region during the Middle Bronze Age, and a reversion to traditional, extensive agro-pastoralism in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages.