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Dedicated to the memory of Pirhiya BeckRecent excavations in a cemetery at Ain Assawir at the western end of the ClIron (Megiddo) Pass, Israel, have uncovered a number of cave tombs dating to the Early Bronze Age. Replete with grave goods of local origin, these sepulchers have also yielded a handful of imported artifacts within deposits that date to chronological ranges within the latter part of Early Bronze L Included are a number of Egyptian ceramic imports as well as vessels of local origin fashioned in imitation of Egyptian morphological types. In addition, one tomb yielded two ceramic vessels derived from neighboring regions in northern Syria and southern Anatolia. For the present, such imports from the north are unique finds within the south Levantine cultural sphere in this time span. This paper examines the likely sources for these northern imports, the chronological information they impart, and some of the sociocultural implications that may be interpreted from them.(1970), who excavated one EB I tomb. The caves discovered (Yannai and Horowitz 1999) are somewhat capacious chambers intended as repositories for bones of multiple, successive burials, a custom well known from the archaeological record of these cultural horizons (e.g., Kenyon 1960: 1-179; 1965: 3-32). Accordingly, the assemblages derived from the Assawir tombs represent chronological ranges of utilization.Replete with grave goods, these tombs yielded hundreds of ceramic vessels, beads, and copper implements, including weapons. Two tombs, numbered 3 and 20, respectively, are of special interest because they included nonlocal type ceramic vessels that show clear association with foreign cultures. The stratigraphic ascription of these imports within the tombs, together with chronological information they convey, offer some new insights into relationships of the EB I cultural horizon of the southern Levant with distant, neighboring regions in Egypt and southern Anatolia. Evidence for these correlations is reviewed below. 1Esur is the Hebrew name for the site.