Elements in The Archaeology of Ancient Israel – serie

Known as a place, a people, and a kingdom at various points in the second and first millennia BCE, Moab has long sustained the attention of archaeologists, philologists, and historians, in part because of its adjacent location to ancient Israel. The past 150 years of research in what is today west-central Jordan has proffered a significant corpus of evidence from the region's archaeological sites. However, a critical analysis of this evidence reveals significant gaps in knowledge that challenge attempts to narrate Moab's political, economic, and social history. This Element examines the evidence as well as the debates surrounding Moab's development and decline. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

During the late Iron Age (800-539 BCE) in the semi-arid southern Levant, small competing kingdoms navigated a tenuous position between their local populace and the external empires who dominated the region. For kingdoms such as Judah and Edom, this period was also one of opportunity due to their location at the intersection of lucrative trade networks connecting the Mediterranean and Arabian worlds. Such economic opportunity, together with subsistence practices rooted in mobility, resulted in a diverse and contested social landscape in the northeastern Negev borderland region between these two kingdoms. This Element explores the multifaceted interactions in this landscape. Insightful case studies highlight patterns of cross-cultural interaction and identity negotiation through the lenses of culinary practices, religion, language, and text. Ultimately, this analysis explores the lived realities of the region's inhabitants, migrants, and traders over multiple generations, emphasizing social diversity and entanglement as an integral feature of the region.

This Element seeks to characterize key aspects of the cult and culture of the Judean populace at large, in Judea and the diaspora, during the Early Hellenistic period (332-175 BCE). It asks if this period signals cultural continuity with the Yahwism of the past, or cultural rupture with the emergence Judaism as known from later times. It investigates: administrative structures, whether Torah was widely observed, how and where Judeans performed cultic worship of YHWH and if this had become exclusive of other deities, adoption of Greek cultural elements and what literature was well-known and influential, including "Biblical" literature. It concludes that while no rupture is evident, and the Early Hellenistic period marks a strong degree of continuity with the Yahwism of Persian times, in some senses the era paved a way for the subsequent transition into the Judaism of the future.

This Element seeks to characterize key aspects of the cult and culture of the Judean populace at large, in Judea and the diaspora, during the Early Hellenistic period (332-175 BCE). It asks if this period signals cultural continuity with the Yahwism of the past, or cultural rupture with the emergence Judaism as known from later times. It investigates: administrative structures, whether Torah was widely observed, how and where Judeans performed cultic worship of YHWH and if this had become exclusive of other deities, adoption of Greek cultural elements and what literature was well-known and influential, including "Biblical" literature. It concludes that while no rupture is evident, and the Early Hellenistic period marks a strong degree of continuity with the Yahwism of Persian times, in some senses the era paved a way for the subsequent transition into the Judaism of the future.

Most studies of ancient Israelite families have taken children for granted. Scholarship assumed children were present but, thinking that children were invisible in the archaeological record, it did not pay much attention to them. In recent years, a new emerging field of inquiry promises to enrich and expand our understanding of children and the family in ancient Israel. Utilizing text and archaeology, this Element explores how children had an impact on the family and its household. It first considers why children were desired and explores the ways in which children entered the ancient Israelite household. The subsequent sections examine different aspects of a child's life within the family, including issues of gender and culture, household religion, death, and items used by children in their daily lives. What becomes apparent is that children were not overlooked by their families but were treated as a valuable component of the ancient Israelite household.

Most studies of ancient Israelite families have taken children for granted. Scholarship assumed children were present but, thinking that children were invisible in the archaeological record, it did not pay much attention to them. In recent years, a new emerging field of inquiry promises to enrich and expand our understanding of children and the family in ancient Israel. Utilizing text and archaeology, this Element explores how children had an impact on the family and its household. It first considers why children were desired and explores the ways in which children entered the ancient Israelite household. The subsequent sections examine different aspects of a child's life within the family, including issues of gender and culture, household religion, death, and items used by children in their daily lives. What becomes apparent is that children were not overlooked by their families but were treated as a valuable component of the ancient Israelite household.

This Element explores the roles of animals in the Iron Age and Persian periods, times of major environmental, social, and political change. It examines how livestock and wild animals were managed, exchanged, and consumed across diverse communities, and how these practices reflected social organization, negotiated identities, and political authority. By integrating zooarchaeological evidence with historical context, the study shows that herding strategies were shaped by political economies and exchange, that identity and ritual were negotiated through dynamic foodways rather than fixed cultural markers, and that climate provided background conditions without determining human choices. Organized thematically around economy, culture, and environment, each examined diachronically from the Iron Age to the Persian period, and concluding with a long-term synthesis, this study demonstrates that human-animal relations were central to processes of decision-making, adaptation, and social change.

This Element explores the roles of animals in the Iron Age and Persian periods, times of major environmental, social, and political change. It examines how livestock and wild animals were managed, exchanged, and consumed across diverse communities, and how these practices reflected social organization, negotiated identities, and political authority. By integrating zooarchaeological evidence with historical context, the study shows that herding strategies were shaped by political economies and exchange, that identity and ritual were negotiated through dynamic foodways rather than fixed cultural markers, and that climate provided background conditions without determining human choices. Organized thematically around economy, culture, and environment, each examined diachronically from the Iron Age to the Persian period, and concluding with a long-term synthesis, this study demonstrates that human-animal relations were central to processes of decision-making, adaptation, and social change.

During the late Iron Age (800-539 BCE) in the semi-arid southern Levant, small competing kingdoms navigated a tenuous position between their local populace and the external empires who dominated the region. For kingdoms such as Judah and Edom, this period was also one of opportunity due to their location at the intersection of lucrative trade networks connecting the Mediterranean and Arabian worlds. Such economic opportunity, together with subsistence practices rooted in mobility, resulted in a diverse and contested social landscape in the northeastern Negev borderland region between these two kingdoms. This Element explores the multifaceted interactions in this landscape. Insightful case studies highlight patterns of cross-cultural interaction and identity negotiation through the lenses of culinary practices, religion, language, and text. Ultimately, this analysis explores the lived realities of the region's inhabitants, migrants, and traders over multiple generations, emphasizing social diversity and entanglement as an integral feature of the region.

The relationship between the biblical representations of the past and the history of the second and early first millennia BCE is best comprehended by the concept of cultural memory. This volume investigates the dynamics of cultural memory in the Hebrew Bible, with case studies on the ancestors, the Exodus, the conquest, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The texts create a monumental past by a mixture of memory, forgetting, revision, and re-actualization, motivated in various measures by religion, politics, the landscape, ethnic relationships, and cultural self-fashioning. The archaeology of the Levant illuminates the complicated pathways between history and biblical memory.

The relationship between the biblical representations of the past and the history of the second and early first millennia BCE is best comprehended by the concept of cultural memory. This volume investigates the dynamics of cultural memory in the Hebrew Bible, with case studies on the ancestors, the Exodus, the conquest, and Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The texts create a monumental past by a mixture of memory, forgetting, revision, and re-actualization, motivated in various measures by religion, politics, the landscape, ethnic relationships, and cultural self-fashioning. The archaeology of the Levant illuminates the complicated pathways between history and biblical memory.

Known as a place, a people, and a kingdom at various points in the second and first millennia BCE, Moab has long sustained the attention of archaeologists, philologists, and historians, in part because of its adjacent location to ancient Israel. The past 150 years of research in what is today west-central Jordan has proffered a significant corpus of evidence from the region's archaeological sites. However, a critical analysis of this evidence reveals significant gaps in knowledge that challenge attempts to narrate Moab's political, economic, and social history. This Element examines the evidence as well as the debates surrounding Moab's development and decline. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Past climate fluctuations significantly shaped human ways of life. This Element reconstructs the Southern Levant climate (ca. 1300-300 BCE) using high-resolution, well-dated paleoclimate records. Results show a 150-year arid phase ending the Late Bronze Age, likely driving the collapse of eastern Mediterranean complex societies. The Iron Age I saw a return to humid climate conditions, fostering highland settlement expansion and supporting the rise of the biblical kingdoms. This was one of the region's most profound cycles of collapse and revival. During Iron Age II, climate conditions were moderate, similar to today. The Achaemenid period began with brief aridity, followed by renewed humidity. Pollen evidence, along with additional data such as charcoal remains, was employed to trace environmental changes, including variations in the composition of natural vegetation. Human impacts on the environment were also identified, including fruit tree cultivation, deforestation, overgrazing, the introduction of new plant species, and landscape terracing.

Past climate fluctuations significantly shaped human ways of life. This Element reconstructs the Southern Levant climate (ca. 1300-300 BCE) using high-resolution, well-dated paleoclimate records. Results show a 150-year arid phase ending the Late Bronze Age, likely driving the collapse of eastern Mediterranean complex societies. The Iron Age I saw a return to humid climate conditions, fostering highland settlement expansion and supporting the rise of the biblical kingdoms. This was one of the region's most profound cycles of collapse and revival. During Iron Age II, climate conditions were moderate, similar to today. The Achaemenid period began with brief aridity, followed by renewed humidity. Pollen evidence, along with additional data such as charcoal remains, was employed to trace environmental changes, including variations in the composition of natural vegetation. Human impacts on the environment were also identified, including fruit tree cultivation, deforestation, overgrazing, the introduction of new plant species, and landscape terracing.

This element offers a fresh and distinctive viewpoint on the historical-archaeology of monarchic Israel during the Iron Age (ca. 1000-720 BCE). It provides an easy-to-read archaeological overview of main finds from key sites in the northern parts of the southern Levant, which opens the door to beginners as well as to experts into the world of biblical archaeology. It further discusses methodological questions pertaining to the identification of political entities in the archaeological record, and the ways in which material remains and textual sources interact. This book does not presuppose Israel as a well-defined and long-lasting political entity but aims to uncover its underlying social and political hierarchies and interactions, thus portraying a more nuanced image of monarchic Israel: the communities from which it consisted, the socio-political infrastructure that facilitated its emergence and maintenance, and the ways in which political hegemony was exercised within it.