Israelite highland settlement

Israelite highland settlement
c. 1250 BCE[1] – c. 900 BCE[2]
Late Bronze Age collapse[3] Ancient Israel and Judah[4] class-skin-invert-image
Israelite sites in Canaan (in French) during the late 2nd millennium BC, based on Israel Finkelstein's book The Bible Unearthed[5]
Durationc. 3 centuries
LocationSouthern Levant[6]
LeadersBiblical judges
(traditional account)[7][8]
Topographic map showing the central hills

Israelite highland settlement, also known as the Israelite settlement[4][9][10] or the Settlement Period (Hebrew: תקופת ההתנחלות), refers to the Early Iron Age (Iron I) growth of agrarian villages in the hills of Canaan, particularly in the region of Samaria, associated with the emergence of the Israelites.[11]

Archaeology

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, the West Bank became the subject of intensive archaeological field surveys.[12] Among these initiatives was the Manasseh Hill Country Survey, launched in 1978 under the direction of Israeli archaeologist Adam Zertal.[13]

Studies show that amid the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE, the number of inhabited communities in the hill country increased from approximately 25 to 250, with the total population reaching roughly 45,000.[14] The surrounding lowlands do not appear to have experienced a similar expansion.[15]

In a 2005 book, Robert D. Miller applied statistical modeling to the sizes and locations of the settlements, grouping them by economic and political features.[16] He identified highland clusters centered on Dothan, Tirzah, Shechem, and Shiloh. The analysis suggested that the territory traditionally attributed to the Tribe of Benjamin lacked a central site.[17]

The scarcity of pig bones found in the highlands compared to neighboring populations may indicate religious restrictions on the consumption of pork among early Israelites.[18]

The biblical account of the Israelites' emergence through military conquest is debated, with archaeological evidence instead supporting models of ethnogenesis centered on Yahwism and involving local Canaanites, sedentarizing pastoralists, and marginal groups such as the ʿApiru and Shasu.[19]

Notable sites

Biblical narrative

The Book of Joshua describes the conquest of Canaan, including the Fall of Jericho and the Battle of the Waters of Merom.[24]

The list of unconquered Canaanite cities in the Book of Judges was likely derived from the tribal allotment descriptions in Joshua and may reflect the reality of the 10th century BCE.[25] If the biblical expression "daughter villages" (as in "Nor did Manasseh drive out Beit She'an and her daughter villages…") denotes settlements dependent on a principal city, then archaeological surveys correspond to Judges 1:27–35, which lists the towns that remained outside Israelite control: Beit She'an, Taanach, Ibleam, Megiddo, Dor, Gezer, Ajalon, Shaalbim, and Jerusalem.[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ilan 2018, p. 288.
  2. ↑ Ilan 2018, pp. 284.
  3. ↑ Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999, p. 63.
  4. 1 2 Faust 2023, p. 14.
  5. ↑ Finkelstein & Silberman 2001, p. 116.
  6. ↑ Ilan 2018, pp. 283–284.
  7. ↑ Killebrew 2020, p. 84.
  8. ↑ Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999, p. 76.
  9. ↑ Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999, p. 66.
  10. ↑ Faust 2016, p. 155.
  11. ↑ "Israel and the Samaria Highlands: A Nomad Settlement Wave or Urban Expansion during the Early Iron Age?". UCLA.edu. University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved 5 April 2025.
  12. ↑ Finkelstein & Silberman 2001, pp. 106–107.
  13. ↑ "The Manasseh hill country survey". WorldCat. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
  14. ↑ Finkelstein & Silberman 2001, pp. 107–115.
  15. ↑ Faust 2016, p. 156.
  16. ↑ Miller 2005, pp. 15–28, Chapter 4: Archaeological Analysis of the Iron I Highlands.
  17. ↑ Miller 2005, pp. 29–90, Chapter 5: The Archaeological Portrait of the Iron I Settlement.
  18. ↑ Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999, p. 77.
  19. ↑ Killebrew 2020, pp. 83–89.
  20. ↑ Ilan 2018, p. 295.
  21. ↑ Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999, p. 74.
  22. ↑ Ilan 2018, p. 289.
  23. ↑ Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999, pp. 76–77.
  24. ↑ Finkelstein & Na'aman 1994, p. 280.
  25. ↑ Finkelstein & Na'aman 1994, p. 268.
  26. ↑ Miller 2005.

Sources

32°3′N 35°17′E / 32.050°N 35.283°E / 32.050; 35.283

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