The Biblical Archaeologist - Vol.38, N.2

36 Pages·1975·3.85 MB·English

by  American Schools of Oriental Research

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Volume3 8 No. 2 May, 1975
26 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. 38,
The Biblical Archaeologist is published quarterly (March, May, September, December) by the American
Schools of Oriental Research. Its purpose is to provide readable, non-technical, yet thoroughly reliable ac-
counts of archaeological discoveries as they relate to the Bible. Authors wishing to submit unsolicited articles
should write the editors for style and format instructions before submitting manuscripts.
Editors: Edward F. Campbell, Jr. and H. Darrell Lance, with the assistance of Floyd V. Filson in New
Testament matters. Editorial correspondence should be sent to the editors at 800 West Belden Avenue,
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Art Editor: Robert H. Johnston, Rochester Institute of Technology.
Editorial Board: Frank M. Cross, Jr., Harvard University; William G. Dever, Jerusalem; John S.
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Subscriptions: $5.00 per year, payable to the American Schools of Oriental Research, 126 Inman Street,
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Copyright by American Schools of Oriental Research, 1975
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,B Y TRANSCRIPTP RINTING COMPANY
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Contents
Israel at the Close of the Period of the Monarchy: An Archaeological Survey,
by Ephraim Stern...................................... 26
AnA rchaeologicalC ontextf or UnderstandingJ ohn4 :20,b y RobertJ . Bull ..... 54
EditorialA nnouncements. .......... ................. ... ............. 60
Cover: A marble cosmetic bowl from Shechem, one of the ornamented objects characteristic of the carv-
er's art in the 8th and 7th cents. It is the right size to fit comfortably in one's cupped hand. Photo by
L. C. Ellenberger.
Israel at the Close of the Period of the Monarchy:
An Archaeological Survey
EPHRAIM STERN
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
The period, the material remains of whose culture is described below,
opens with the Assyrian conquests beginning in 734 B.C. and closes with the
destruction of the first Temple in 586 B.C. These were the days of Isaiah and
Jeremiah, and of the last kings of Judah, from Hezekiah to Zedekiah. During
this period the kingdom of Judah was at war with three great empires-
Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon, and saw two great religious reforms, which
were to influence greatly the subsequent history of the Jewish people.
At that time the country was divided into three major political divisions:
a) In the north, governmental districts were established under direct
Assyrian rule, centered at Gilead, Megiddo, Dor, and Samaria. Some of the
peoples of these regions, mainly the political and economic leaders of the
conquered Israelite kingdom, had been sent into exile. In return, peoples
1975,2 ) THEB IBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 27
from other parts of the Assyrian empire were brought in. With time the dif-
ferent elements would merge to form a new nationality-the Samaritans.
b) In the south and southeast were semi-independent kingdoms, the
largest and strongest of which was Judah. Ammon, Moab, and Edom also
flourished during this period.
c) In the southwest was Philistia, which consisted of numerous small city
states such as Gath, Ekron, Ashdod, Raphiah, and Gaza. Most of the time
these were subject to Assyria, Egypt, or Babylon but at times they gained
short periods of independence. In addition there were Phoenician settlements
along the country's northern shore which were alternately subject to Tyre or
Sidon.
Historically too, the period divides into three main phases:
a) The period of the Assyrian conquest or hegemony. In Palestine the
dates marking the beginning of this phase vary according to the region. In
the north the Assyrian conquest begins in the years 733-732. In Philistia the
Assyrian period begins in 712, while in Judah it begins in 701. Nominally the
Assyrian hegemony ended in 627 with the death of Ashurbanipal but it seems
that Assyria had already lost actual control some years earlier.
b) The rule of Josiah (639-609). During this short period, Judah, for
whom this was a time of expansion, struggled with Egypt over the Assyrian
"inheritance" and extended a certain kind of hegemony over districts in
Samaria, the Negeb, and around Yabneh in the Shephelah. During this
period, following the clash between Assyria and Egypt on the one hand,
Babylon and Medea on the other, the Assyrian empire collapsed completely,
to be succeeded by Babylon.
c) The period between 604 and 586, a time marked by constant Baby-
lonian campaigns. These reached their peak with the capture of Jerusalem,
the destruction of the Temple, and the annexation of the whole of Palestine
to the Babylonian Empire.
This historical framework is true only of Palestine when taken as a whole,
for the fate of each political entity was different from that of its neighbor.
The fate of the different states was dependent on two factors: their allegiance
to the conqueror, and (even more important) their ability to choose the
stronger side. It is therefore not surprising that the history of Judah and its
neighbors during this period is marked by alliances and revolts, surrender
and destruction (see charts 1 and 6).
In the history of Palestine, this is a relatively well documented period. In
addition to the detailed descriptions in the Bible (mainly in Kings,
Chronicles, Isaiah, and Jeremiah) and the later literary sources (such as
Herodotus and Josephus), there is an abundance of Assyrian sources of all
kinds. Foremost are the reliefs which picture sieges of different towns in
28 THE BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. 38,
Chart 1
The Kings of Judah, Assyria, and Babylonia
(The dates here used are still at many points matters of scholarly dispute, but
they cannot be far wrong and they do permit the broad cultural synthesis
undertaken in this article to attach itself to political history. My thanks to
H. Tadmor for help in the preparation of this chart and of Chart 6.
Judah Assyria
Tiglath-pileser III 745-727 B.C.
Hezekiah 727-698 B.C. Shalmaneser V 727-722 B.C.
Sargon II 722-705 B.C.
Sennacherib 705-681 B.C.
Esarhaddon 681-669 B.C.
Amon 641-640 B.C. Ashurbanipal 669-627 B.C.
Josiah 639-609 B.C. Ashur-etil-ilani 627-623 B.C.
Sin-shar-ishkun 623-612 B.C.
Ashur-uballit 612-610 B.C.
Destruction of Nineveh and Harran, 612 and 610
Josiah's death at the Megiddo Pass, 609
Babylonia
Jehoahaz 609 B.C. Nabopolassar 627-605 B.C.
Jehoiakim 608-598 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar II 605-562 B.C.
Jehoiachin 597 B.C.
Zedekiah 596-586 B.C.
Destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple, 586
Palestine, such as the siege of Gezer by Tiglath-pileser III, of Gibbethon and
Ekron by Sargon II, and especially the unique series of reliefs showing the
siege of Lachish and its conquest by Sennacherib. There are also many mon-
uments and documents which describe the campaigns of the kings of Assyria
in the area and their accomplishments in Palestine. The lists of exiles from
Palestine discovered in Assyria are also of great importance. Several Assyrian
monuments and documents have been discovered in Palestine itself - in
Samaria, QAqun, Ben-shemen;, Gezer, and Ashdod. Details of the events
towards the end of this period are supplied by the "Babylonian Chronicle"
and the Aramaic papyrus from Sakkara in Egypt (which describes the ad-
vance of the Babylonian army towards Philistia).
1.T hei nscriptionsfr omQ aquna nd Ben-shemenh ave notb eenp ublished;I am obligedt o H. Tadmora nd I.
Eph'alf or informationa boutt hem.
1975,2 ) THEB IBLICALA RC HAEOLOG IST 29
t
(cid:127)..(cid:127)oo(cid:127)0000
a r
tr
"(cid:127)
L 0
I I C
Fig. 1. Designo f a relieff romt he palaceo f Tiglath-pileseIrI I at Nimrudd, epictingt he siege of Gezer.S ee
BA, 30 (1967),p . 43.
Fig. 2. TheS iloami nscriptionfr omt he tunnelH ezekiahh add ugt o bringw ateri ntoJ erusalem.
There also have been a large number of local epigraphic finds which give
a reliable account of the events of this period. First comes the Siloam in-
scription from Jerusalem which was inscribed in the time of Hezekiah at the
outbreak of the great revolt against Assyria; then there are the Lachish let-
ters which describe events prior to the destruction of the Temple. Further,
30 THEB IBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST (Vol. 38,
there is a newly discovered ostracon from Arad, of the same period, which
warns the commanders of the Jewish forts in Arad, Kinah, and Ramath-
negeb of Edomite attack (see Fig. 3). In addition many ostraca, burial in-
scriptions, seals, and seal impressions have come from various of the sites
excavated. From all this a most instructive picture emerges of the admini-
strative organizations of Judah and its neighbors as well as of daily life.2
M U .. ..... .
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IN
Fig. 3. The early 7th cent. "Ramath-negeb ostracon" found at Arad in 1967,w hich directs the deployment
of men in the face of impending Edomite attack. From BASOR, No. 197 (Feb. 1970), p. 17, Fig.
kindness of Y. Aharoni. 1"
There are indeed few periods in the history of the country when the
archaeological finds - written and silent - so accurately reflect the political
events and the internal affairs as known to us from the literary sources. And
the particular character of these finds fill in our knowledge for those regions
which the literary sources deal with but little, such as the districts of the
north and the states in Transjordan.
2. See, for example, J. Naveh, Israel Exploration Journal (hereafter, IEJ), 10 (1960), 129-39;Y . Aharoni,
BASOR, No. 197 (Feb., 1970), pp. 16-42.
1975,2 ) THEB IBLICALA RCHAEOLOGIST 31
With the increasing archaeological evidence it is becoming clear that
during this period the material culture of Palestine tends to show specific
characteristics for each region. This difference reflects the varying
characteristics of the different peoples in the country: Judeans, Samaritans,
Phoenicians, "Ashdodians," Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites. The
variety shows itself in other spheres too; indeed the latest research points to a
difference in languages spoken by these nations.
We cannot within the framework of this survey deal with all the data sup-
plied by archaeology. We shall therefore confine ourselves to that evidence
which serves to illustrate the typical aspects.
The Archaeological Evidence - The Excavations and Their Results
Galilee and the northern seashore
This region was the first to fall to the Assyrians, in 733-32. The Assyrian
conquest caused general destruction, the results of which are evident at all
the sites excavated: Tel Dan, Hazor, En-gev, Beth-shean, Tell Abu Kudeis,
Megiddo, and Shikmona. Certain towns never recovered (Beth-shean, Tell
Abu Kudeis, En-gev), but most were resettled (see chart 2).
Chart 2
Hazor Megiddo Tel Dan Beth-shean En-gev
VA IV A II IV I
Last Last Last Last Last
Israelite Israelite Israelite Israelite Israelite
town town town town town
733-32 B.C.
,
IV III B I
Unfortified
small
Israelite
ca. 700 settlement III A
Capital of
ca. 650 Assyrian
ca. 630 III district
Assyrian II
fort and Fort
palace built by
Josiah
604-598
32 THEB IBLICALA RC HAEOLOG IST (Vol. 38,
As to the date for the final destruction of all the settlements of this region,
we believe that they were destroyed simultaneously during the Babylonian
campaigns which took place from 604 on? It is especially likely to have taken
place in the year 598, when the Babylonians marched to put down the revolt
of Jehoiakim, and began the lengthy siege of Tyre which later must have had
repercussions throughout the region.
The southern part of the kingdom of Israel
The year 720 saw the final conquest of Samaria, which then became an
Assyrian province. It is evident that the Assyrian conquest brought general
destruction to this district as well. Certainly this is the conclusion to be drawn
from the excavations of the sites in the region: Dothan, Samaria, Tell el-
Far'ah (north), Shechem, and Bethel (Gezer perhaps is an exception, in that
it had already been captured in 734/3 or 732). At all these sites settlement
was indeed renewed but few remains have been brought to light by the exca-
vations (see chart 3).
The general picture formed by excavations in the region called Samaria is
of small unwalled settlements which cover only a fraction of the former
settled areas of the different mounds. Only in the city of Samaria were the
previous defenses preserved. It is noteworthy that at three sites (Samaria,
Shechem, and Tell el-Far'ah) the excavators found two phases of occupation
during this period, whereas two other sites (Dothan and Bethel) were each
occupied for only a part of the period. As to Gezer, the excavators contend
that Judah assumed control of the city in about the middle of the 7th century
following initial control by the Assyrians. It is logical to assume that the event
took place during the reign of Josiah, about 630, when Judah was extending
some kind of hegemony over this district. The final destruction of the settle-
ments in Samaria should be attributed to the campaigns of the Babylonian
army.
Judah
The starting point of our discussion here is the year 701, the year of
Sennacherib's campaign. According to one of his inscriptions, he destroyed
forty-six towns in Judah (see chart 4).
3. The latest study of the history of the region in the last decades of the 7th cent. B.C. is A. Malamat,
Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society of Colombia University, 5 (1973)= Gaster Festschrift, 267-78;s ee
also F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 12 (1953), 56-8.
-1
(J3
Chart 3
tt
Dothan Samaria Tell el- Shechem Bethel Gezer
Far'ah (N)
II VIII II VII VI-- Last
Last Last Last Last Last Israelite
Israelite Israelite Israelite Israelite Israelite town
734-33 B.C.
town town town town town
ca. 720 .... ._.. . VB
I VII B IB VIB Assyrian 0
Assyrian Assyrian Assyrian Assyrian occupied
occupied occupied occupied occupied L(cid:127)?;
town town town town town
ca. 630
VII A IA VI A VA
Judean Judean Judean Judean Judean
hegemony hegemony hegemony hegemony occupied
? _ ? ? town
586
Chart 4
Beth- Tell Beit Lachish Arad Beer- Ramath Beth- En-
shemesh Mirsim sheba Rahel zur Gedi
701 B.C. A2 IV VII II
0 ~
630
609 IIC A2 III VI I
598/7
III V
VA
A2 II
586
05
0
Ao*.