Book contents
- The Bible’s First Kings
- The Bible’s First Kings
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The United Monarchy in the Bible and Contemporary Scholarship
- Part II The Archaeology of the Tenth Century BCE
- Chapter 4 Abandoned Rural Villages and the Beginning of Highlands Fortifications
- Chapter 5 Ceramic Repertoire and Social Change in Philistia and Israel
- Chapter 6 Resettling the Shephelah
- Chapter 7 What Happened to Philistia in the Tenth Century?
- Chapter 8 Building in the Swamps of the Sharon Plain
- Chapter 9 The Beersheba Valley, the Settlement of the Negev Highlands, and the Copper Mines of Edom
- Chapter 10 Edom, Moab, Ammon, and the Gilead
- Chapter 11 The Cities and Villages of the Northern Valleys
- Chapter 12 The Galilee and the Phoenicians
- Part III A New Paradigm
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 6 - Resettling the Shephelah
from Part II - The Archaeology of the Tenth Century BCE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2025
- The Bible’s First Kings
- The Bible’s First Kings
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I The United Monarchy in the Bible and Contemporary Scholarship
- Part II The Archaeology of the Tenth Century BCE
- Chapter 4 Abandoned Rural Villages and the Beginning of Highlands Fortifications
- Chapter 5 Ceramic Repertoire and Social Change in Philistia and Israel
- Chapter 6 Resettling the Shephelah
- Chapter 7 What Happened to Philistia in the Tenth Century?
- Chapter 8 Building in the Swamps of the Sharon Plain
- Chapter 9 The Beersheba Valley, the Settlement of the Negev Highlands, and the Copper Mines of Edom
- Chapter 10 Edom, Moab, Ammon, and the Gilead
- Chapter 11 The Cities and Villages of the Northern Valleys
- Chapter 12 The Galilee and the Phoenicians
- Part III A New Paradigm
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Shephelah (Judean lowlands) was only sparsely inhabited in the Iron I, with just a string of small Canaanite villages surviving the upheavals of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries BCE, forming a tiny enclave between the Philistines in the coastal plain and the Israelites of the highlands. And yet, in the Iron IIA this same area became packed with towns. The chapter investigates this drastic change, taking place in the tenth century BCE, in tandem with many other changes addressed in other chapters. It shows that the resettlement of the Shephelah was a long process, and that about a generation after the failed attempt to settle Khirbet Qeiyafa, the settlers of Canaanite villages suddenly got off the fence and joined forces with the emerging Israelite polity. This phase is evident by the growth in size experienced by the small Canaanite villages in the first half of the tenth century, when some of them were even fortified, and the finds in them show clear connections with the nascent highland kingdom. Shortly afterward, as part of the colonization of the Shephelah by the United Monarchy, new sites were settled and fortified, exhibiting the growing power of the highland polity.
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- The Bible's First KingsUncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon, pp. 148 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025