CHAPTER 10
Hybridity, Hapiru,andthe
Archaeology of Ethnicity in Second
Millennium BCE Western Asia
Ann E. Killebrew
Introduction
Questions regarding the identity and ethnicity of thehapiruand other peoples known
from second millenniumBCENear Eastern literature have been at the forefront of
scholarly debate for well over a century. Western Asia, often considered to be the
cradle of civilization, comprises the large landmasses of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and
the geographically fragmented Levant. The latter, forming the easternmost littoral
of the eastern Mediterranean, served as a cross-cultural land bridge connecting the
great empires of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia, and was incorporated into these
imperial spheres of influence throughout much of its history. The abundance of textual
and archaeological evidence for western Asia provides a particularly rich assemblage of
primary sources for the study of peoples, ethnicity, and their material culture expressions
of identity in the ancient world. Among the most challenging to define are groups
such as the Amorites,hapiru, and Aramaeans, who are often described in Near Eastern
texts as semi-nomadic entities or peoples residing outside the framework of settled
second millenniumBCEsocieties. They have proven to be especially difficult to identify
in the archaeological record. Other peoples, including the Canaanites, Israelites, and
Philistines, who also appear in contemporary Near Eastern texts but are best known
from the biblical account, have left a more distinctive, though at times ambiguous,
archaeological footprint.
Early studies of ethnicity in the ancient Near East attempted to equate material
culture assemblages with specific peoples or races, often ascribing visible changes or
disruptions in material culture to the arrival of outside population groups or large-scale
ethnic migrations (Bahrani 2006: 50–1; see also Kamp and Yoffee 1980, especially
85–87, for a discussion and bibliography). These cultural-history-based versions of
A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean, First Edition. Edited by Jeremy McInerney.
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.