{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.027932960893854747, 'fraction_numerical': 0.026815642458100558, 'mean_word_length': 4.894736842105263, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The Intermediate Bronze Period: A Reply to G. Palumbo

M y analysis of mortuary practices at Jericho in the Intermediate Bronze period (Shay 1983) was challenged in this journal by G. Palumbo (1987). Palumbo bases his criticism on a different analysis of the same data that I had used (Kenyon 1960; 1964), and he suggests a modified explanatory model for the social structure at Jericho. That proposal derives from his observation of three distinct types of burial at Jericho-extended primary burials, crouched primary burials, and disarticulated secondary interments-each of which corresponds with the presence of different grave goods in the tombs. He further observes that those three body treatments were offered to the dead regardless of age or sex. From this Palumbo (1987: 45-47) concludes that the society of Jericho around that time was stratified, with social status ascribed at birth.