History of Gaza - Bronze Age

Bronze Age

Settlement in the region of Gaza dates back to 3300–3000 BCE at Tell as-Sakan, a site located south of the present-day city, which began as an Ancient Egyptian fortress built in Canaanite territory. Tell as-Sakan prospered as Canaanite cities began to trade agricultural goods with the Egyptians. However, when Egypt's economic interests shifted to the cedar trade with Lebanon, Gaza's role was reduced to that of a port for ships carrying goods and it declined economically. The site was virtually abandoned and remained so throughout the Early Bronze Age II.

Gaza enjoyed demographic and economic growth again when the local Canaanite population began to resettle Tell as-Sakan around 2500, but in 2250, the area experienced a total collapse of civilization and all of the cities in the Gaza region were abandoned by the 23rd-century BCE. In its place emerged semi-nomadic cultures with pastoral camps made up of rustic family dwellings which continued to exist throughout the Early Bronze Age IV. An urban center known as Tell al-Ajjul began to arise inland along the Wadi Ghazza riverbed. During the Middle Bronze Age, Tell as-Sakan was the southernmost locality in Palestine, serving as a fort, and by 1650 BCE, while Egypt was occupied by the Canaanite Hyksos, a second city developed on the ruins of the first Tell as-Sakan. This city was destroyed about a century later, when the Hyksos were routed from Egypt. Egypt settled Gaza once again and Tell al-Ajjul rose for the third time in the 15th-century BCE. The city finally ceased to exist in the 14th-century, at the end of the Bronze Age.