The forgotten kingdom : the archaeology and history of Northern Israel / by Israel Finkelstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finkelstein, Israel.

Series:

Ancient Near East monographs ; v. 5.

Ancient Near East monographs ; Number 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Excavations (Archaeology).

Galilee (Israel)--Antiquities.

Galilee (Israel).

Galilee (Israel)--History.

Excavations (Archaeology)--Israel--Galilee.

Israel--Galilee.

Physical Description:

xii, 197 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Atlanta : Society of Biblical Literature, [2013]

Summary:

Although Israel was dominant for most of the time the kingdoms of Israel and Judah coexisted, it has remained in Judah's shadow in both the Hebrew Bible and consequently in the attention of modern scholarship. This book presents the first comprehensive history of the northern kingdom and description of the archaeology of northern Israel from the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1350 B.C.E.) until the kingdom's fall in 720 B.C.E. and beyond. It tells the story of the northern kingdom primarily in its formative phases. The narrative is based in archaeology and makes use of the most updated field research, with the addition of what is known from ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts. Finkelstein's thirty years of fieldwork in sites related to the northern kingdom have paved the way for a new understanding of the history and archaeology of ancient Israel. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Setting the Stage: The Shechem Polity of the Late Bronze Age and the Final Days of the Canaanite City-States in the Late Iron I 13

1.1 The Late Bronze Age 13

1.1.1 The Shechem Polity in the Amarna Period 16

1.1.2 The End of the Late Bronze Age 21

1.2 The Iron Age I 22

1.2.1 The Highlands 22

1.2.2 The Lowlands 27

2 The First North Israelite Territorial Entity: The Gibeon/Gibeah Polity and the House of Saul 37

2.1 The Gibeon-Bethel Plateau 38

2.2 Sheshonq I and the Highlands North of Jerusalem 41

2.3 Excursus: The Land of Benjamin: North or South? 44

2.4 Sheshonq I, the Saulide Territory, and Archaeology 47

2.5 Preservation of Early Memories in Samuel: The Case of Shiloh 49

2.6 The Date and Territorial Extent of the Saulide Polity 51

2.6.1 Dating Saul and the Saulides 51

2.6.2 The Territory of the Saulides 52

2.7 Philistines or Egyptians? 59

3 The Early Days of the Northern Kingdom: The Tirzah Polity 63

3.1 Relative Dates, Absolute Dates, and Historicity 63

3.2 Note on Material Culture 65

3.3 Tirzah 66

3.3.1 The Site, Its Excavation, and Its Stratigraphy 67

3.3.2 Excavation Results 69

3.3.3 Discussion 72

3.4 The Territory Ruled by the Tirzah Polity 74

3.4.1 Dan 74

3.4.2 Ben-Hadad 75

3.4.3 What Does Archaeology Say? 76

3.4.4 Sheshonq I and the Jezreel Valley 76

3.4.5 West and East 77

3.5 Highlands-Based Expanding Early Territorial Polity 78

3.6 The Rise of Jeroboam I 80

3.7 Tirzah and Jerusalem 82

4 The Northern Kingdom under the Omride Dynasty 83

4.1 Omride Architecture 85

4.1.1 Samaria 87

4.1.2 Jezreel 94

4.1.3 Hazor 96

4.1.4 Jahaz and Ataroth in Moab 97

4.1.5 Tell er-Rumeith in the Gilead 100

4.1.6 Other Sites 102

4.1.7 Summary: Characteristics of Omride Architecture 103

4.2 The Territory Ruled by the Omrides 105

4.3 Demographic Composition of the Omride Kingdom 109

4.4 Economic Resources of the Omrides 112

4.5 Writing 113

4.6 Cult 115

5 The Final Century of the Northern Kingdom 119

5.1 Hazael's Assaults on the Northern Kingdom 119

5.1.1 Four Late Iron IIA Destruction Horizons in the North 119

5.1.2 The Textual Evidence 122

5.2 Hazael's New Order 124

5.3 Dan and Bethsaida 127

5.4 Israel's Swan Song 129

5.4.1 Territorial Expansion 129

5.4.2 Economic Prosperity 131

5.4.3 Reorganization of Cult 138

5.4.4 Advance of Writing and Compilation of Northern Texts 140

6 Comments on the Two "Charter Myths" of the Northern Kingdom 141

6.1 The Reality behind the Core of the Jacob Cycle 141

6.2 The Origin and Development of the Exodus and Wandering Tradition 145

6.3 Summary 151

7 The End and Beyond: A New Meaning for "Israel" 153

7.1 Israelites in Judah after the Fall of the Northern Kingdom 154

7.2 The Rise of the Concept of Biblical Israel 155.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9781589839106

1589839102

9781589839120

1589839129

OCLC:

847763709