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Caves of Nahal Ahdir in the Central Negev. Evidence of settlement from the Middle Bronze I period (2200 B.C. to 2000 B.C.) was found in these caves, as well as remains of an Early Bronze II settlement dating roughly from 2850 B.C. to 2650 B.C. Since there is a considerable lapse of time between these two periods, we assume that the MBI settlers moved into long abandoned caves. But the author suggests that the EBII material culture in the south may have persisted into the Middle Bronze Age; in that case, these Middle Bronze I settlers may have been Israelites, who journeyed north from Egypt on their Exodus and displaced the Early Bronze inhabitants.