This dissertation presents an exploration of agriculture and climate of the Southern Levant (modern day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan) in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (EB and MB), roughly 4500-3600 BP. Analyses from four archaeological sites (Tell Abu en-Ni‘aj, Tell el-Hayyat, Khirbat Iskandar, and Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1) are used to study climate change and agricultural responses surrounding the 4.2 ka BP climate event. Paleoethnobotany, the study of ancient plants and how people used them, is used to assess what early farmers cultivated. Stable isotope analyses of carbonized seeds and archaeological shells offer comparison of climate and culture. Data for the carbonized seed analyses are provided in Supplementary Tables S1-S4. Results help us understand what ancient settlements were producing and how they may have used crops in EB IV and MB I, periods with relatively mobile populations and fewer archaeological remains, and also reveal the timing and extent of climate shifts in the region.In terms of agriculture, results suggest that settlements in the northern Jordan Valley practiced agriculture more intensively, with farms producing a wider variety of goods and farms likely expanding outwards from sites over time. They managed cereals and fruits most intensively, but also cultivated a variety of pulses and potentially utilized several wild plants. In the south, people made do with a more limited array of cereal and fruit cultigens, perhaps turning to livestock agriculture to sustain themselves. For settlements that did focus on agriculture, they intensively managed crops through manuring and selective crop timing or placement in order to maximize soil nutrient and water availability. In terms of climate there are notable distinctions between the Early Bronze IV, Middle Bronze I, and Middle Bronze II. Surrounding the 4.2 ka BP event the driest conditions were present in the valley, with gradually rising drought conditions in EB IV and more rapidly ameliorating conditions around the start of MB II. This dissertation’s findings agree with a roughly 300-year period of heightened aridity from around 4200 to 3900 BP from the end of EB IV through MB I, with the driest environment noted around MB I-II Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 1. Additionally, this study highlights the benefit of using stable isotopes to study crop management rather than climate, with signals revealing changes in water and soil nutrient availability related to farming practices. Early farmers appear to have responded through the intentional sowing of drought-tolerant crops like hulled cereals during drier periods, and drought-intolerant species like wheat received more manure and water application.This work provides new data from three Jordan Rift sites for future paleoethnobotanical analyses, new stable isotope data for four sites, and provides a robust methodology for more localized comparisons of climate and culture.