"When Did the Jewish People Begin?" Israel Finkelstein

okay so it ended the only partial success The Book of Joshua narrates that large parts of Canaan remained to be taken and chapter 1 in the book of Judges lists Canaanite cities which remained as enclaves in the tribal territories that is inside the land which was conquered this is the stage setting - what happened next a long period between the conquest and the establishment of the monarchy in which Israel was ruled by charismatic leaders called judges who deliver the people from their enemies according to the inner logic of the biblical narrative put against the history of ancient the ancient Near East the period of the judges covered about two centuries from the late 13th - about 1000 BC yet the book of Judges does not depict realities of the eye on one judges is a relatively late deuteronomistic book which represents the ideology of Judah in the 7th century hundreds of years after the alleged events took place this can be seen in several domains first cycles of seen retribution and redemption clearly characterized the deuteronomistic ecology second almost all the stories take place in the territories of the northern tribes judges 1 which also belongs in my opinion to the 7th century compilation clearly says that the northern tribes failed to cleanse the adulterous Canaanites from their midst that the tribe of Judah was the only one and that the tribe of Judah was the only one to successfully do so this explains what will come next conquer to Judah the northern tribe fell prey time in a game to the law of Canaanite deities and third judges is a perlu to the rise of the Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem and it pertains the situation before the monarchy including the relationship between the people of Israel and the God of Israel in dark colors and the end predicts the rise of the monarchy in the following words in those days there was no king in Israel every man did what was right in his own eyes unquote therefore though it is possible that the meats and tails in judges preserve some vague early memories of local events they have no value for the study of the rise of early Israel we need to turn then to extra biblical sources and archaeology both provide us with real-time testimony to the early days of ancient Israel their steely erected by pharaoh Merneptah describes his campaign to Canaan in 1207 BC the Egyptian monarch mentions the conquest of three cities and the subjugation in fact annihilation of a group of people named Israel it does not tell us about the size of the group and its exact location it only testifies that it was present in Canaan in the late 13th century archaeology has revealed an unprecedented wave of settlement in the highlands of cannon that commenced about the same time in the course of the ion Age one that wealth to ten centuries BC about 250 settlements were established in the area between the Beersheba and Jezreel Valley since most of these sites continued to be settled uninterrupted in the Iron Age - that is to say in the time of the monarchy when they form the heartland of the states of Israel and Judah since there is discovered in continuity their inhabitant can safely refer to as Israelites or portal Israelites William diverse term this is the material background for the rise of early Israel two main questions have dominated the study of the emergence of early Israel one what was the origin of the aura of the settlers in the highlands the potahto Israelites since a similar process took place at that time in the highlands of Transjordan one should ask the same question about the portal ammonites portal Moabites and portal - what were the forces that stimulated the foundation of hundreds of small isolated communities in the highlands in my previous lecture I explained why the William Fox well Albright military conquest theory and archaeological these guys for the biblical narrative on the conquest of clan must be dismissed almost alts peaceful infiltration theory which argued that the emergence of early Israel should be seen as a gradual sedentary zation process of pastoral nomads from the stepped from the steppe cannot be accepted either because our understanding of the nature of pastoral nomadism in the ancient Near East has changed significantly we understand today that sheep goat pastoral nomadism is an offshoot of sedentary life and that the sedentary pastoral Avenue was open in both directions sedentary zation and normalization according to changing political economic and social factors in short there was no source of nomadic of nomads in the steppe which could have supplied peaceful infiltrators to Canaan the Mendenhall got valid social revolution theory is somewhat naive product of Marxist undercurrent in American campuses of the happy 1960s sorry about that Brian explain the rise of early Israel in terms of class struggle an uprising of faith they exploited the world elements in the Canaanite society against their Lords which led to their withdrawal from the lowlands to the empty Highlands where they established just egalitarian communities but archeology came short of tracing any clue for such a dramatic shift from the sedentary lowlands to the sanitary Highlands in a short period of time neither in the material culture of the Highland site nor in the settlement patrons of the lowlands it is noteworthy that all three classic models describe the emergence of early Israel as a unique event in the history of Palestine in other words consciously or unconsciously all three follow the basic to logical construct of the biblical narrative recent research has proven this basic premise wrong in what follows I wish to present a model for understanding the emergence of early Israel which is based on two decades of intensive fieldwork in the highlands in excavations and surveys alike for the first time meticulous excavations were carried out not only in the large mounds of the lowlands but also in rural Highland Society site sites they shed light on their material culture and economic strategies of those early people but the great leap forward in the study of the emergence of early Israel was the turn in the 1980s to comprehensive surveys in the highlands which enable an almost fuller construction of the settlement patterns in antiquity most of the central hill country of sees Jordan was fully combed in the course of regional surveys and intensive surveys have also been undertaken in the trance Danian Plateau these surveys provide us with value invaluable information on the number of sites their size the number of their inhabitants and their location including the economic factors which dictated their distribution I wish to start with the main conclusions being aware of the bottom line will make it easier for you to follow the complex archaeological textual and topological and ethnographic details assembled for this presentation as far as I can judge the rise of le Israel was not a unique event in the history of Palestine rather it was a phase in long term cyclic socio-economic and demographic processes that started in the 4th millennium BC before 3,000 BC BC the wave of settlement the took place in the highlands in the late 2nd millennium was a chapter in our turn alternating shifts along the typical Near Eastern and socio-economic continuum between sedentary and pastoral modes of subsistence limitations to sedentary activity in the highlands 10th form harsh topography rock formations which were difficult to exploit and in the past dense cover of natural vegetation these obstacles led scholars to suggest that large-scale settlement activity in the Highlands was made possible only with the introduction of one or more technological innovations the use of iron and plaster systems and the terracing of hilly slopes these notions should be dismissed recent fieldwork has shown that the central hill country of Canaan was densely settled already in the 3rd and 2nd millennia and that the knowledge of viewing water cisterns and erecting terraces was mastered already in the middle bonds probably even earlier the hewing and plastering of water cisterns and the construction of terrorists were the outcome of the penetration into the certain niches of the hill country rather than the factor which opened the way for the expansion into these areas the proximity to step areas on the eastern South the availability of green pasture in the dry summer and the fact that the Highlands were not densely populated and cultivated even in periods of settlement expansion made these regions ideal for sheep goat pastoral activity they were especially convenient for enclosed nomadism this is the term which was coined by Ethel out on the serologist there is a migration route in between the step in the winter and the highlands in the summer the eastern flank of the Highlands was especially convenient for the sanitary activity of groups which originated from a pastoral background since they could continue to practice animal husbandry alongside dry farming when political and socio-economic conditions permitted the Highland communities could benefit from specializing in horticultural oriented economy oil production wine which included the industrialization of the products in recent generations villages in certain parts of the central hill country especially on the western slopes specialized in olive orchards they produce large surpluses of olive oil and exchange it for grain and cereal groyne was wrong because cereal growing was a wrong economic strategy in these parts of the highlands the next chapter Potts bones and people who is an Israelite in the iron one sounds like who's a Jew in Israel in the big discussion you know in the 70s and 80s the material culture of voilá the culture of a given group of people mirrors the environment in which they live their socio-economic conditions the influence of neighboring cultures the influence of previous cultures and equally important their cognitive world in the case of the highlands in the period under discussion a careful analysis of these factors combined with meticulous examination of the geographical and quantitative distribution of defiance leads to a somewhat dubious conclusions regarding the possibility to identify ethnic markers the ethnic markers of the israelites it's difficult to locate them to identify them science of continuity from labels traditions in poetry and other traits of material culture show no more than certain influence form lowland sites which this practice at the time traditions of the previous period marks of discontinuity reflect the fact that the highlands people lived in small isolated who are almost autarkic communities to complicate matters even more there is no way to distinguish the material culture of the portal israelites from their peers in Transjordan the portal ammonites and others how can we distinguish between them still two features have been utilized in the past as indicators of israelite ethnicity pottery especially a color dream b toy and architecture mainly the form house archeology is tend to put ethnic labels on pottery types thus we relate to Philistine Edomite and Midianite pottery by doing this however we ignore style status and trade factors therefore with so many variables playing behind the scene in most cases pottery cannot indicate ethnos this has been demonstrated in numerous examples especially in cases in which reliable historical documents are available to supplement the archaeological data a good example in the highlands is the medieval pottery medieval poetry which does not allow distinction between the world documented Muslim local Easter and Christian and Frankish communities except for fewer vessels there are no special features in the pottery of the i11 highland sites neither in the assemblage as a whole no in specific types the distance for maritime and Overland trade the social isolation of the small communities which were separated by topographical barriers and the constant struggle with the ecological obstacles had decisive influence on the pottery repertoire of the Highland people it was limited in types and quality the color green pea toy once suggested as the indicator of israelite sides well this type was subsequently found in lowland sites and in what later became Amman and more as well the dominance of this type in center in the central hill country should be attributed to economic factors and so on in certain cases architectural forms may indicate origin and dusk at most of past people unfortunately this is not the case in the Iron Age several scholars describe the form house as an Israelite type house but it has also been found in contemporary lowland and trans jordanian sites so it is not good for aim as well now ethnographic studies have shown that in many cases ethnic markers can best be identified in mortuary practices cult and foodways archaeology has not given us data on the first tool not a single eye on one cemetery or sanctuary has ever been found in the highlands we are therefore left with foodways represented by the second most widespread find in archaeological excavations bones it is widely accept the foodways there is Gayatri it's a it's a promo for lunch it is widely accepted that food ways that is dietary patrons tend to be conservative symbols of ethnicity what people eat and how they eat it is an important aspect of their identity anthropologist argued that food is one of the primary symbols manipulated by people seeking to maintain their cultural identity and group solidarity a great body of data on animal husbandry in the bronze and iron age has been accumulated in recent years especially important for our case are the data on the ratio of pig bones in the final assemblages in Philistine sites this ratio is far larger than the average that is to say the normal if you wish for the Bronze Age the popularity of pork consumption in the Iowa one in the southern coastal plain may be related to husband dairy practices brought there is to say imported from the Philistine homeland in the highlands pig husbandry was practiced in the Bronze Age and other periods but pig war bonds disappear from the founder assemblages starting in the iron one the most interesting fact is that contemporaneously pig bones continue to be present in significant numbers at has borne on the border between Amon and morbid Transjordan regardless of the complex factors which may influence pig distribution this seems to mean that the taboo on Peaks was already practiced in the hill country as early as the iron one the reasons for this phenomenon should be sought in two avenues the outstanding popularity of pork consumption in Philistia could have been taken as an ethnic marker by the highlands people who in reaction avoided from raising pigs no less important probably more avoiding from pig husbandry may have stemmed from the past oil background of the early Israelites who settled in the Highlands in the iron one Peaks cannot be held at over significant distances this is the reason many claim that Peaks became a symbol of sedentary life and that pastoral nomadism in the Middle East avoid raising pigs pasture or nomads the next chapters cyclic processes in the highlands and the origin of early Israel so now we come to the origin it has become conventional wisdom to view complex historical processes from a long-term perspective lalangue do way of differential school indeed the investigation of the processes that took place in the ion one requires insights into a much longer history from the first wave of settlement in the highlands in the beginning of the early Bronze Age to the outcome of the Israelite transformation if you wish the rise of the territorial states in the early first millennium allow the large scale surveys which were undertaken in the 80s indicate that in the timeframe specified above the highlands were characterized by three waves of settlement with two intervals of decline between them the same holds true for Transjordan settlement activity densified for one peak period to the next all three led to the rise of complex territorial formations but while the first hood that generated the third high type resulted in the development of full-scale statehood the kingdoms of Israel and Judah the three peak periods as well as the two crisis periods had much in common especially in the demographic patterns but also in the location of the sides and in certain aspects of the material culture the first wave peaked in the early bonds one in the left fourth millennium there was a decrease in in the early ones oh there was that I don't want to go into submit down you don't want to hear about the early Buster this period was followed by a dramatic crisis in the intermediate Bronze Age when almost all the previous sites were abandoned there were only a few settlement sites at that period most of them of limited sizes etc the second wave of settlement took place in the middle Bronze what in there thank you Thank You Sharon in the beginning of the second millennium let's say 18th century 17th century BC about 250 sides have been recorded in the central hill country and the next a collapse the next crisis is that of the Late Bronze Age when all the previous settlements disappeared so you have these oscillations ups and downs ups and downs the third wave of settlement which feature the rise of the Potter Israelites took place in the 12th to 10th centuries BC the comprehensive surveys have recorded again about 250 sides in the central hill country this settlement system expanded dramatically in the next period when the number of sites doubled and the total built-up area almost tripled the time of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah similar to the previous high guides they ion 2 there is to say the period of the kingdoms is characterized by the rise of large urban centers and complex hierarchic settlement systems vast interpretation of such settlement oscillations as the result of migration of new groups from the distant part of the Levant or alternating demographic expansion and withal from the nearby lowlands are not sufficient to explain the phenomenon for many reasons I am cutting short here it is therefore more reasonable to explain these settlement fluctuations in terms of socio-economic changes there is shift toward sedentary or a more pastoral society in according accordance with political economic and social transformations now pay attention similarly Stern generate similar recent generations a similar shifts in recent generations along the tested and sedentary pastoral commute continuum which are more typical of the marginal areas of the Middle East Highland and steppe lands alike were recorded in both the central hill country and in the picture in Transjordan their shifts along this continuum are well represented in the final assemblages from two sites in the central hill country the data correspond to changes between plow agriculture subsistence more cattle in the periods of settlement expansion and pastoral oriented society more sheep goats in the crisis years there are additional indications for the pastoral background of the bulk of the portal israelite groups in the highlands there's the bad news we were Bedouin first The Late Bronze Age features several car sites and cemetery is not related to permanent secretary communities second labels text mainly the among the letters of the 14th century seem to point to a significant pastoral component labeled sha tsui Mossad spoke about it plunderers third many of the early portal Israelites the sides are concentrated in areas of the Highlands which best fit animal husbandry and dry farming economy for the avoidance from pig husbandry may point to a pastoral origins of the People v and this is again important certain features in the architecture of portal Israelite sites in the highlands may point at the same direction I refer to similarities between open core sites that we see here and tent encampments of pastoral people in the Levant in recent generations both are characterized by a large courtyard to protect the health surrounded by a built of broad units strong built in the distant past tense in recent past the reason behind these shifts along the sanitary past all continuing will not be treated here in detail thanks God shut suffice is to mention that with no historical material at hand for the third millennium and with very limited sources for the second millennium we have no other option but to indulge in speculative and topological models sometimes supported by ethnographic data from recent generations which take into consideration political difficulties economic calamities and social disturbances I would just mention that pastoral nomadism is a specialization which depends on the ability of the sanitary communities to produce enough grain surpluses for exchange with the herding communities there are no bedouin without sedentary communities next to them producing enough grain accordingly the collapse of the world economy the economic system of the late bronze age must have played a major role in the widespread sedentary ization of pastoral groups in the Levant in the eye on one with no more surpluses of grain in the hands of the sedentary communities the pastoralist were forced to produce their own grain there is to shift to a more balanced self-sufficient subsistence which leads to certain terrorization I'm about to finish it's it's almost done all three periods of settlement prosperity in the central high-heel country show a gradual demographic expansion from east to west in the beginning of each settlement process when the region was sparsely inhabited and the settlers could fairly choose the location of their villages they opted for the eastern areas which were topographically moderate and ecologically convenient the eastern niches enabled their inhabitants to conduct a well-balanced economic strategy the fact that the settlers were attracted to areas convenient for a combination of dry farming and animal husbandry lend support to the proposal that many of them originated from a pastoral background the slope units typical of ultra target culture which bear fruit only after a relatively long period of cultivation were occupied only in a later phase when the population was fully settled and turned to this kind of specialized economy in all three periods under discussion sedentary population growth territorial expansion and the demand for Highlands horticultural products in the lowlands led to the rise and that's the most important of stratified complex societies in other words states the distinct Civic ecological background of the highlands brought about the formation of large territorial units with some clear similarities between the three periods most notable each is characterized by two territorial qualities which means the idea of Israel and Judah two units in the highlands has its origin origins in the bones age in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC summary they okay the settlement process that took place in the highlands of Canaan in the Iron Age one had much in common with two preceding waves of occupation in these areas these analogies reinforce the hypothesis that much of the settlement did ion age one settlement was part of the cyclic mechanism of attorney alternating processes of settling and becoming nomads again and we are speaking about indigenous groups and all this in response of changing economic situations translating these words into simple language one can say that the early Israelites were in fact Canaanites the early Israelites were Canaanites in the sense that they were part of the locals clock the local population of Canaan of the second millennium the depiction of the rise of early Israel Israel of early Israel as a singular event in the others of the country this depiction turned up centuries after the iron one it was shaped by the history of the Judah I'd stayed in the late iron - that is to say in the 8th and 7th centuries the biblical description of the emergence of early Israel was cast by the deuteronomistic historian's to serve their Judea centered ideology and historical national convictions and to convey their theological message their narrative prevailed until recent years when archaeology came to the center stage of historical research thank

Channel: IISHJvid

Views: 54,682

Rating: 4.7062149 out of 5

Keywords: Israel Finkelstein (Author), Jewish People (Ethnicity), Judaism (Religion), Archaeology (Interest), Archaeological Field Survey (Literature Subject), Jewish History (Literature Subject), The Bible (Religious Text), Torah (Religious Text), Tanakh (Religious Text)

Id: 3TtPkK0PMFE

Length: 31min 59sec (1919 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 20 2015