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Today's
Israel and
Palestine are irrevocably linked in terms of their history. The
former was carved out of a large proportion of the already-expanded
latter from 1948. Before that though lies four thousand years of
history, sometimes recorded, sometimes alluded to, and sometimes a
complete mystery. Unpicking it to establish a relatively stable
story has been the work of decades, and even today there are
differences of opinion regarding many of the details.
The region in which both names came to be created was
Canaan, the long
Mediterranean coast between ancient
Syria and
Egypt
which today is known as the
Levant. Various
independent or united
Semitic-speaking city
states formed in this region from around 3000 BC onwards, reaching
a peak of independent development in the second millennium BC.
It was during the climate-induced social collapse of the late
thirteenth century BC that both a state known as
Israel
and a region known as
Palestine emerged,
giving both terms similar founding dates (very approximately), with
the Phoenicians
emerging to the immediate north during the same period.
Then came the age of great empires in the form of the
Persians,
Greeks,
Romans,
Eastern
Romans, Islam, and the
Ottomans, until the
twentieth century saw the most recent phase of empire-building come to
an end and individual sovereign states emerge.
The term 'Israelite' is often used interchangeably with the terms 'Hebrew'
and 'Jew', but these terms are not strictly interchangeable. The specific
term 'Israelites', or 'people of Israel', is best used only for periods
after the followers of Yahweh undertook their exodus from Egypt. It can
also be used conveniently for the earlier period in which these people
were subject to patriarchs (approximately between the eighteenth and
sixteenth centuries BC).
The term loses its accuracy after the united kingdom of Israel under
David and Solomon divided into the kingdoms of
Samaria
and Judah
around 927 BC. The Old Testament tends usually to use the term 'Hebrew'
for the entire period before 1000 BC, but it is best to avoid it here
due to controversy surrounding its origins (regarding whether it
descends from 'Eber', the ancestor of Abraham, or
habiru, a general
term for brigands and the dispossessed).
(Information by Peter Kessler and from the
John
De Cleene Archive, with additional information by Sean Bambrough &
Wayne McCleese, from The Amarna Letters, William L Moran (1992),
from the Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible,
Geoffrey Wigoder (Gen Ed, 1986), from Jewish War & Jewish
Antiquities, Flavius Josephus, from Unger's Bible Dictionary,
Merrill F Unger (1957), from Easton's Bible Dictionary, Matthew
George Easton (1897), from Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times,
Donald Redford (Princeton University Press, 1992), and from External
Links:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, and
Bible
Atlas.)
The Levant between
about 10,000-3000 BC was the centre of the
Neolithic
Farmer revolution in the
Near East. The
process of domesticating wild crops was a gradual one, taking place
during the
Pre-Pottery
Neolithic A and
Pre-Pottery
Neolithic B. The subsequent
Pottery
Neolithic established the settlement structures which would
later turn into city states, along with the crop farming and
pastoralism which would support them.
In the mid-third millennium BC, city states began to appear in
Syria as people
benefited from interaction with
Sumer and from
improvements in irrigation. Within five hundred years, around 2000
BC, the same process was happening farther south and west, in the
Levant, along the Mediterranean coast.
Semitic-speaking
Canaanite tribes
occupied much of the area, creating a patchwork of city states of
their own. The
Phoenicians (more
Canaanites) also occupied parts of this region, eventually founding
their own mighty seaborne trading empire.
According to tradition, the Israelites were Semitic
émigrés from southern
Mesopotamia
who left the city of Ur
during the reign of Hammurabi of
Babylonia, when his
post-Sumerian empire was at its height. Forming a small confederation
of tribes, they initially settled on the coast of the Dead Sea, before
being forced to emigrated to
Egypt.
A dramatic return centuries later was recorded only in the Old Testament,
during which they forged or took over several small kingdoms in Canaan
during the period of deep social unrest in the thirteenth and twelfth
centuries BC.
Oral history almost always has a core truth at its heart (something
which can sometimes be forgotten by scholars who wander off at tangents
with imaginative theories about tribal origins). The assertion that the
Israelites came from Mesopotamia has to be taken at face value. However,
it doesn't necessarily have to refer to a wave of thirteen tribes and
several hundred or more tribespeople wandering into Canaan in the
eighteenth century BC. Archaeology alone has disproved such an
event.
Instead, as with tribal associations everywhere in history, the
arrivals probably formed a small but powerful - and possibly more
technologically advanced - group which quickly became important in
regional events. As with other such cases, such as various tribes of
the
Celts
and
Germanics, or the
Mitanni when
they arrived to dominate the
Hurrians, the new
arrivals were in command, but their own customs were quickly replaced
by those of their majority subjects (if they differed at all), making
them also look Canaanite in origin. Given that they were most likely
Semitic-speakers anyway, the transition would not have been a great
one.
In at least part of their existence in Canaan the Israelites may have
been part of the
habiru phenomenon
(which may or may not be a source for the name 'Hebrew'), possibly when
they migrated into Canaan from Mesopotamia, but even more likely in the
twelfth century BC. This was when they supposedly invaded Canaan
through Edom and
Moab, penetrating as far
north as Amurru in
Syria. This term seems
first to have been used for a range of outsiders, from unemployed farm
labourers and vagrants to mounted mercenary archers.
The context differed depending upon where the references were found.
Although it may originally have referred to just about any marginal
people who lived outside state controls, there is nothing to preclude
one such group becoming the later Hebrews.
While the Bible's Old Testament is the primary source for much of
the information on the second and first millennium BC Israelites,
the Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, also provides a highly
interesting interpretation in Greek for his predominantly
Roman audience in his massive work, Jewish Antiquities.
The early parts of this list are largely made up of a combination
of incidents from both sources.
The dating here agrees with sources such as Oxford, but others date
Abraham to about 2000 BC, Joseph at about 1800 BC, Moses at about 1400
BC, and David and Solomon at 1000/900 BC, a timeline stretched to about
two centuries longer than Oxford's. There are various other chronologies
which differ to some degree (including the orthodox dating, or Thiele,
Usher, or Rohl (an exceptionally unorthodox dating which has been greeted
with near-universal disdain), or Velikovsky, or even Courville).
The book of Genesis provides Terah's ancestry back to Noah, but many
of these names are fanciful attempts to link to ancient kingdoms and
states. Additionally, the ages of the earliest figures mentioned here
must be taken with a pinch of salt.
The names of direct descendants, though, may well be correct, part
of an oral tradition which, in any culture, has always placed a
strong emphasis on ensuring an unbroken list of ancestors. The first
set of names are shown below with a lilac background to highlight
their near-mythical status. Spellings vary, taken from Hebrew and
Greek sources mainly.
(Information by Peter Kessler and from the
John
De Cleene Archive, with additional information by Sean Bambrough (on
Israelite dating, the figure of Joseph, and the Amarna letters), and Wayne
McCleese (the list of Abraham's ancestors), from The Amarna Letters,
William L Moran (1992), from the Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance
of the Bible, Geoffrey Wigoder (Gen Ed, 1986), from A Test of Time,
David Rohl (Arrow, 2001), from A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud
Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, Marcus Jastrow
(G P Putnam's Sons, 1903), from the Book of Jubilees (otherwise
known as the Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), by unknown ancient Jewish
religious authors), from Jewish War & Jewish Antiquities,
Flavius Josephus, from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition,
Cambridge (England), 1910), and from the NOVA/PBS documentary series, The
Bible's Buried Secrets, first broadcast 18 November 2008.)
fl c.2090s? BC
Noah
Son. Aged 100 when Arphaxad born.
c.2090? BC
The Old Testament provides a list of descendants from Noah to Abraham,
along with the ages of each descendant at the time his own son is born.
While many of those ages seem plausible, the earliest do not. A rough
calculation of about twenty to thirty years for each generation supplies
an approximate date of 2090 BC for Noah.
The Sumerian flood story includes a depiction of a large
vessel which is packed with various objects and, presumably,
animals, clearly showing a basis for the later Old Testament
flood story of Noah and the ark
His Israelite descendants supposedly emigrate from
Ur around 1750 BC,
but while there is no confirmation either way that they have previously
been long term residents of Ur or its immediate environs, much of their
story probably comes from this region (including the Biblical flood,
which can be equated with the
Sumerian
Flood story).
fl c.2060s? BC
Shem
Son. Aged 100 when Arphaxad born.
The sons of Shem are said to be Arphaxad, Elam, Asshur, Lud, and Aram.
While the first name is of uncertain origin (and therefore possibly
genuine), the others are clearly attempts to create founder figures
for several important ancient kingdoms.
Elam relates to the land
of that name, and an important and powerful kingdom at this time.
Asshur (Ashur) is
the name of a northern
Mesopotamian
city state - one of three - which together are better known as
Assyria.
Ninevite 5 pottery belonged to a distinctive
culture which dates from 2800-2400 BC and
immediately predates the era of the Assyruan
kings who lived in tents
Lud is connected with
Lydia
(the Luddu of Assyrian records) and their
Luwian predecessors
(although the Assyrian Lubdu in areas of western
Media may be a better
connection). Aram is the father of Uz ben Shem, a founder figure for
Damascus.
fl c.2030s? BC
Arphaxad / Arpachshad
Son. Aged 35 when Salah born.
fl c.2010s? BC
Salah / Shelah / Sala
Son (or son of Cainan, son of Arphaxad). Aged 30 for Eber.
fl c.1880s? BC
Eber / Heber
Son. Aged 34 when Peleg born. Inhabitant of
Babylon?
The name Eber appears to relate to 'crossing over and the beyond'. This
has been deciphered as an origin for the name 'Hebrew' and a meaning
which suggests the crossing of the Euphrates and the land beyond it,
clearly a reference to the later westwards Israelite migration.
Eber is an ancestor figure of the Israelites and the Ishmaelites
(Ishmael being a son of Abraham), as well as of the original
Arabs in
Islamic tradition. Since
all are Semitic-speakers,
a shared origin is not unlikely.
At the start of the second millennium BC, a series
of small city states in Anatolia which had existed
for perhaps a millennium now began to emerge from
obscurity (click or tap on map to view full
sized)
The Book of Jubilees mentions the Biblical Nimrod, king of
Babylon, with the
name in its Greek form - Nebrod. He is the father of Azurad who herself
becomes the wife of Eber and mother of Peleg. This account would
therefore make him an ancestor of the Israelites themselves.
As the Israelite leaders can be dated approximately, so too can Nimrod,
although it places him at the very start of Babylon's rise as a major
city state. Eber is claimed to be present during the building of Nimrod's
'Tower of Babel', while Peleg witnesses the division of humanity into
speakers of different languages (suggestive of enforced migrations out
of a homeland which is probably the climate-changed
Sumer
of around 2000 BC).
fl c.1860s? BC
Peleg / Phaleg
Son. Aged 30 (or 130) when Reu born.
fl c.1830s? BC
Reu / Ragau
Son. Aged 32 when Serug born.
fl c.1800? BC
Serug / Saruch
Son. Aged 30 (or 130) when Nahor born. An inhabitant of
Ur.
fl c.1770s? BC
Nahor / Nachor / Naghor
Son. Aged 29 when Terah born. An inhabitant of
Ur.
c.1752 - 1750 BC
Terah / Terach
Son. Aged 70 when Abraham born. Began exodus from
Ur.
c.1750 BC
Terah leads his people to settle in
Harran, a city far up
and to the east of the Euphrates. This lies on the approximate border
between Syria and the
lands of the Hatti
in Anatolia. Progress any farther north is unlikely as the Hatti are
currently being overwhelmed by the recently-arrived
Hittites. Terah dies
in Harran.
This slightly fanciful view of the migrating Israelites
does show a surprisingly small number of participants
(more are cropped off from the left, but even so their
numbers are very finite), something which chimes with
the 'ruling elite' theory of migration detailed in the
introduction, above
His son, Abraham, inherits leadership of his community. The
Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition of 1910, suggests
that he and his people are
Semitic-speaking
Amorites rather
than Semitic-speaking migrants from
Ur. In fact
the two options need not be opposing, as Amorites have had about
three centuries to integrate into
Mesopotamia
before this point.
Abraham begins to formulate his theories of a single God to replace the
typical polytheism of the vast majority of Near Easterners. He determines
to persuade all others of the virtues of worshipping a single deity, unless
they can come up with a better theory which will persuade him otherwise.
Abraham also adopts his late brother's son, Lot, as his own (presumably as
his potential successor in light of his own failure to produce a son).
The group heads south into
Canaan where
Abraham and his immediate followers occupy the region around the later
Jebusite city of
Hebron, while Lot settles
his followers on the plain near the River Jordan and the city of
Sodom.
Mount Sodom near the Dead Sea may have overlooked
the 'Vale of Siddim' and the five cities which are
mentioned in this instance of attempted eastern
domination of Canaan
The Old Testament also reports on the 'five cities of the plain' in
Canaan, which include Salem,
as well as their overlords who come into conflict not only with Abraham's
people but also with the rebelling cities.
Lot comes to the assistance of his neighbours, the people of Sodom (the
cities are defeated anyway, but apparently continue to thrive). Later in
his life, Abraham is credited with introducing circumcision to his
followers, at a time at which they are clearly still tent dwellers.
fl c.1750 - 1700 BC
Abraham / Avram / Abram
Son. Led the tribe to
Canaan, and
introduced 'Yahweh'.
fl c.1750 BC
Aram ben Nahor / Haran / Aran
Brother. Ancestor figure of all
Aramaeans. Died in
Ur.
fl c.1750 BC
Lot
Son of Aram ben Nahor. Adopted by Abraham.
c.1740 BC
Moab, first son of Lot (after the destruction of
Sodom and
Gomorrah) and grandnephew of
Abraham, gains the stretch of land between the River Arnon and the Brook
of Zered on the coast of the Dead Sea. This area forms the kingdom of
Moab. Ben Ammi, an illegitimate
son of Lot, gains Ammon, east
of the River Jordan and on Moab's northern border.
The Plains of Moab lay on the eastern side of the
River Jordan, opposite Jericho, and it was here
that the Israelites mourned the death of Moses
A late son of Abraham, Isaac is his successor as leader of the early
Israelites. He lives much of his life in
Hebron and eventually
dies there, but with at least one interruption in the meantime - during
a period of famine he (and by inference his tribe) is forced to seek
refuge with the
Canaanite
ruler of later
Philistine
territory, Abimelech of Gerar
(son of the Abimelech who had previously had dealings with Abraham).
Abimelech later visits Isaac when he is encamped at Beer-sheba, and
expresses a desire to renew the covenant which had been entered into
between their fathers.
Isaac's eldest son is Esau, and he eventually gains his birthright
(despite his brother's attempts to steal it from him). This is
territory which is centred around Mount Seir, from the Brook of
Zered to the Sinai peninsula, which becomes the kingdom of
Edom.
While some scholars continued to insist that the
lack of historical evidence for an Edomite state
meant that there was no such state at all, some
of the required archaeological proof may have
been unearthed in 2019 (see sources, above)
Jacob spends some years in
Harran, where he
meets his wives. As he returns them and his large family to
Hebron, Jacob stops
off at the
Canaanite
city of Shechem where his
daughter is attacked, so Jacob's sons slay all the males within the city
walls. Upon his return home, Jacob succeeds Isaac as the leader of his
people, with his twelve sons forming the basis of the later tribes of
Israel.
The Israelites are presumed to descend into
Egypt to escape famine just as Lower Egypt is being invaded and
governed by the
Hyksos. This fact probably makes Israelite entrance and acceptance
easier. They settle in the region of modern Cairo, at first as welcomed
guests but later enduring worsening conditions and eventually slavery.
More recent theories have diverted away from the idea that it is Hyksos
Egypt which the Israelites enter. Some scholars place the early Israelites
even earlier, by as much as four centuries, with them interacting with
Twelfth Dynasty Egypt.
Another school of thought prefers a much earlier period,
Third Dynasty Egypt under Zoser, based on the idea that early Egyptian
dating is still incorrect, with Menes being placed up to seven hundred
years too early.
The Hyksos were foreign invaders who brought chaos
when they invaded Egypt, although chemical analysis
of tooth enamel reveals that they had actually
settled in Egypt for some years before taking power
According to the available sources, Joseph (as the vizier,
Zaphnath-Paaneah) is the focus of Hebrew leadership when the Israelites
first arrive in
Egypt, but their deteriorating conditions mean that the situation
four hundred years later is very different, with no apparent ruling
house, although a Hebrew nobility survives.
fl c.1625 BC
Ephraim & Manasses
Sons. Israelite tribal ancestors.
fl c.1625 BC
Reuben / Reven
Elder brother of Joseph. Founded tribe of Reuben.
fl c.1625 BC
Simeon
Brother. Founded tribe of Simeon. Possibly a later
addition.
fl c.1625 BC
Levi
Brother. Founded the tribe of Levi.
fl c.1550? BC
Caath / Kehath / Kohath
Son. Founded the Kehathites (a Levite division).
c.1500 BC
Archaeological dating for the destruction of
Jericho places it around this
point in time, right in the middle of the period in which the Israelites are
supposedly in
Egypt. Any attribution of the act to Joshua must be a later act, one
which compresses several centuries of events.
During the third millennium BC Jericho was gradually
expanded and enriched with improved building work and
stone walls
fl c.1500? BC
Amram
Son. Father of Moses.
1500s - 1200s
The direct line of descent between Joseph and Moses is hopelessly short
for the timescale involved. Abraham is generally dated to the eighteenth
century BC (although various contesting theories can tend to place him
even earlier). As his great-grandsons, Joseph and Levi are therefore
likely to live in the 1600s BC, and even then the dates given here are
generous.
Likewise, giving the longest reasonable life spans for Levi and his
succeeding generations - Caath and Amran - still leaves a hole of about
a century and-a-half - at least. Should the timescale be compressed to
remove this difference or are there names missing?
Given that much of this Old Testament 'history' is only written down
in any permanent sense in sixth century BC Babylon during the
'Princes in
Exile' period, the latter option is certainly a possibility.
Babylon was one of the biggest, most heavily-populated
centres of population in the ancient world of the early
first millennium (click or tap on image to view full
sized)
c.1371 - 1358 BC
The Amarna letters between
Egypt and
Assyria,
and the city states of
Syria
and Canaan,
describe the disruptive activities of the
habiru, painting them
as a threat to the stability of the region.
Rohl's discredited theory is that the habiru of the Amarna letters
are the later
Israelites
of David. Findings may indicate that the three years of drought, famine,
and plague of the Amarna letters and those of David's time may be the same,
but of course there is nothing to say that similar drought-related events
could not be repeated over the course of the three or four hundred years
between the usual dating for these two periods.
Another theory is that Moses (an individual who is undoubtedly much
closer to the period in which the Amarna letters are written than is
David) is 'the rebel Mesh' of amelut-sagaz-Mesh (habiru) of
the Amarna letters.
The cuneiform tablet inscribed with a letter from
Tushratta, king of Mitanni, to Pharaoh Amenhotep
III, covers various subjects such as the killing
of the murderers of the Mitanni king's brother
and a fight against the Hittites
c.1230 BC
Roughly four hundred years have passed since the Israelite descent into
Egypt (a few scholars say only two hundred years). The Hebrews have
multiplied from a band of seventy into a people who number thousands,
but they have been reduced to slavery.
A nobility still exists, however, and is represented in the sources by
the descendants of Levi. The most recent of his descendants is Moses,
who possibly fulfils the role of an advisor or even minister to an
unnamed pharaoh who may be Ramses II.
Moses now leads the loose confederation of Israelite tribes out of
Egypt, shortly after his marriage to a
Midianite woman,
Zipporah, daughter of Jethro the priest-king of the Midianite sub-tribe,
the Kenites.
Mount Nebo in the north of Moab is reputedly the
spot at which Moses died, within sight of the
promised land on the other side of the Dead Sea
Moses is also claimed as an ancestor figure of the early
Ethiopian
kings. Strangely, and perhaps not coincidentally, the Old Testament has
Moses first encountering his god, Yahweh, in the form of a burning bush
when he reaches the land of the Midianites.
Egyptian records mention that the Midianites (whom they know as
Shasu) are found at a place
called YHW (probably pronounced 'yahoo') in the deserts of southern Jordan.
The name seems to be picked up by the Israelites and passed on to others
they meet in
Canaan.
c.1200s - 1020 BC
This is the period of Israelite settlement after the traditional exodus
from
Egypt. At this time, there is general instability in the region: the
Hittite
empire is destroyed in Anatolia, the
Canaanites
begin to be reduced to owning the shores of
Lebanon (eventually
to become the sea traders known as the
Phoenicians).
Attacks by the Sea Peoples gathered momentum during
the last decade of the thirteenth century BC, quickly
reaching a peak which lasted about forty years
The
Philistines
and other Sea Peoples
are also first settling on the lower coast of the Levant, and various
neo-Hittite city states are arising in northern
Syria,
many of which come into contact with the Israelites.
It has been strongly suggested that the Israelites themselves are Canaanites
(they have certainly interbred with Canaanites prior to their time in Egypt),
and that the exodus never occurs. This theory seems to be backed up by
archaeological finds, and in recent years the idea has gained strength.
The climate-induced social collapse of the end of the thirteenth century
BC - and the long lead-up towards it of perhaps a century - results in
groups of dispossessed people congregating in Canaan in new groups, new
communities.
Known by the established powers by various names, including
habiru, these groups
would appear in essence to be drop-outs from established society, people
who want to find a new way of living outside what they see as an unjust
and restrictive society.
Shown here is a relief from Medinet Habu which details
Philistines with their distinctive feathered headdresses,
making them an unusual sight on the battlefield
Following the social collapse these new communities seemingly emerge as
a new people, with new, unfussy pottery, little art, simplistic houses
with no grand structures, and the beginnings of a monotheistic culture
(the followers of Yahweh). They have formed the people who come to be
known as the Israelites (probably alongside several other new
groups).
If, on the other hand, the exodus is at its core accurate, if somewhat
exaggerated, then the Old Testament affords an almost unique look at
the settlement of a people in the ancient Near East. There is no
evidence to support a mass migration, but the movement of a smaller
group is viable.
As they arrive and settle in the region, these Israelites may join up
with the habiru who have settled in the hill country, and they
may be joined by late additions to their confederation of tribes: the
tribes of Asher and Dan appear to originate from the
Weshesh and
Danya.
Bronze mask dated between 1400-1150 BC probably
depicting a Sherden warrior, although the horns
are missing from the holes at the top of the head
In local politics the Israelites have various dealings with the city
states in the Dead Sea region of Canaan and southern Syria. These are
mostly attempts at conquest, successful or otherwise.
1208 BC
In a brief addendum to his victory stele. Pharaoh Merneptah of
Egypt mentions that Ashkelon, Gaza, and Yanoam (in the north Jordan
Valley) have been captured and that Israel 'has been shorn. Its seed no
longer exists'.
The first two cities have probably already been captured by the invading
Philistines
and are therefore targets for 'rescue' by a civilised king. Israel, too,
is the name given to a recently-arrived or formed group which would need
to be brought to heel (although the claim that its seed no longer exists
is mere boastfulness). This is the earliest definitive mention in history
of a people named 'Israel'.
Wooden figure of a jackal-headed deity from the Valley
of the Kings, Nineteenth or Twentieth Dynasty,
representing either Anubis or Duamutef, one of the
four sons of Horus
c.1200 - 1198 BC
The Israelites conquer the
Canaanite city
of Arad and defeat the
Amalekites before going
on, within the next couple of years, to defeat
Moab and subjugate it. It has
to be wondered whether the Israelites (and even Moabites) are aware of
their shared origins (at least according to the Old Testament).
Have the Moabites been so dominated by
Amorites that they
are no longer regarded as brothers, or is their connection a fabrication
by later Old Testament writers? A number of minor city states are also
conquered by the Israelites, including those of the
Midianites (more
related peoples) and various other Canaanite cities.
c.1186 - 1168 BC
In a reversal of their early good fortune, the Israelites suffer a
setback when the
Philistines
move inland from the coast and briefly conquer and occupy areas of
Canaan,
including the settlements of the Israelites.
Archaeological evidence for a mass settling of people at this time has
yet to be found, suggesting that the Philistines are formed of small,
mobile groups who take a while to establish themselves and assume
control of the region.
Amorites, Semitic-speaking farmers from the
south who integrated into Mesopotamia, and
then Syria and Canaan
c.1170 - 1140s BC
Joshua / Yehoshua
Son of Nun. Leader at start of the
Settlement
period.
c.1170 BC
Adonizedec, 'Master of Zedec', leads the fragmented
Jebusites tribes from
his stronghold of Shalem
against Joshua, but they are defeated at Gibeon. They apparently
suffer again at Beth-horon, not only from attacks by their pursuers,
but also from a great hail storm.
A town known as Beroth is included as a supporter of this
Canaanite
coalition. Thought to be the modern site of El-Bireh, located about
fourteen kilometres to the north of Shalem, this should not be
confused with the larger
Phoenician city
of Beroth
(modern Beirut).
The five allied kings take refuge in a cave at Makkedah (an allied
city which is conquered within the next decade during the
Israelite
Settlement period), and are imprisoned there until after the
battle, when Joshua commands that they be brought before him. They
are brought out, humiliated, and put to death, and Jebusite Shalem
is conquered by the Israelites.
The archaeological site of Tel Megiddo in Israel
is the location of the city of Megiddo in the Old
Testament and other surviving records, as well as
being the basis of the New Testament's 'Armageddon'
(the Greek form of its name)
They take control of the city, with the region being occupied by the
tribes of Benjamin and Judah.However,they apparently lose the city
again, twenty years later during an invasion by the
Philistines.
c.1160s BC
According to the Old Testament, the Israelites conquer a large number
of cities in this decade, mostly
Canaanite,
and including Dor,
Gezer,
Megiddo,
Shimron-meron, and
Tirzah (the original
capital of the later kingdom of
Samaria).
Not all of these conquests can be backed up by archaeological evidence,
however.
In fact, archaeology has shown very little evidence of warfare in relation
to most Canaanite cities around this time. The archaeological dating for
the destruction of
Jericho actually places
that event at about 1500 BC, right in the middle of the period in which
the Israelites had supposedly been in
Egypt.
It is also claimed that it is Joshua who finally expels the
Anakim from the lands he
has claimed, with some going to
Philistine
cities such as Ashdod, Gath,
and Gezer.
The modern archaeological site of Tel Gezer was
once the Canaanite city of Gezer, a member of
the pentapolis which regulated trade into Egypt
c.1150 BC
After apparently being militarily dominant since their arrival half a century
before (Philistines
aside), the Israelites suffer a reversal in fortunes when at least some of them
are subdued by
Moab. More of their territory, in
the south, is conquered by the Philistines who maintain vassal kings in Israel,
while
Aram-Nahara'im
dominates them in the north.
Jerusalem is possibly freed
entirely from Israelite control at this stage, as King David is forced to
re-conquer it in 975 BC. In between this reversal and that reconquest though
is a period of history in which the
Israelite Judges
govern in place of the tribal patriarchs.