A Note on First Dynasty Egypt, Tel Bet Yerah, and the Origins of Commodity Exchange on the Levantine Seaboard

New ceramic and radiocarbon synchronisms between Egypt and the northern Jordan Valley, including the first-ever site-specific provenience identification of imported vessels from the royal tombs at Abydos, permit the positing of a tightly timed pivot by Early Dynastic Egypt from the southern Levant valleys and highlands to the coastal northern Levant as principal source of commodities vital to the ritual-symbolic institutions of kingship. The pivot can be linked to the shift from combined overland/seaborne to primarily seaborne trade, and to the technological and typological evolution of northern and southern Levantine ceramic repertoires that made their way to Egypt, and especially of Levantine metallic ware and its two regional industries: south and north Levantine metallic wares. Tel Bet Yerah in the Jordan Valley appears to have functioned as a hub of interregional contact in this brief pivotal stage, revealing evidence for direct contact with agents of the First Dynasty.