Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times
Donald Redford -- Princeton University (1992)

Winner of the 1993 Best Scholarly Book in Archaeology
Award of the Biblical Archaeological Society

Excerpts and Definitions and Addendums:

..... The great empire of Ur in southern Babylonia (circa 2050 - 1950 BC), which had included most of western Asia as its sphere of influence, collapsed in the middle of the twentieth century BC and on its ruins arose a group of warlike successor states. The ruling classes and most of the population of these states spoke a West Semitic language generally dubbed Amorite, but while they could look back on an early stage in their development when they had lived a rustic, nomadic life on the steppes, they had by now for several generations been exposed to the influences of Akkadian culture. In Mesopotamia the historic focus is on the states of Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, and (later) Babylon in the south; Mari and Khana on the middle Euphrates, and Assyria on the upper Tigris; and the historic process at work is the gradual subversion of all these states through intestine feuding to the rule of Babylon by 1700 BC ......

The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium