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1550-1200 BCE

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The Bronze Age marked the first time humans started to work with metal. Bronze tools and weapons soon replaced earlier stone versions. Ancient Sumerians in the Middle East may have been the first people to enter the Bronze Age.

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1200-1025 BCE

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1025-586 BCE

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The Iron Age was a period in human history that started between 1200 B.C. and 600 B.C., depending on the region, and followed the Stone Age and Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, people across much of Europe, Asia and parts of Africa began making tools and weapons from iron and steel. For some societies, including Ancient Greece, the start of the Iron Age was accompanied by a period of cultural decline.

Humans may have smelted iron sporadically throughout the Bronze Age, though they likely saw iron as an inferior metal. Iron tools and weapons weren't as hard or durable as their bronze counterparts.

The use of iron became more widespread after people learned how to make steel, a much harder metal, by heating iron with carbon. The Hittites-who lived during the Bronze Age in what is now Turkey-may have been the first to make steel.

When Was the Iron Age?

The Iron Age began around 1200 B.C. in the Mediterranean region and Near East with the collapse of several prominent Bronze Age civilizations, including the Mycenaean civilization in Greece and the Hittite Empire in Turkey. Ancient cities including Troy and Gaza were destroyed, trade routes were lost and literacy declined throughout the region.

The cause for the collapse of these Bronze Age kingdoms remains unclear. Archaeological evidence suggests a succession of severe droughts in the eastern Mediterranean region over a 150-year period from 1250 to 1100 B.C. likely figured prominently in the collapse. Earthquakes, famine, sociopolitical unrest and invasion by nomadic tribes may also have played a role.

Some experts believe that a disruption in trade routes may have caused shortages of the copper or tin used to make bronze around this time. Metal smiths, as a result, may have turned to iron as an alternative.

Many scholars place the end of the Iron Age in at around 550 B.C., when Herodotus, "The Father of History," began writing "The Histories," though the end date varies by region. In Scandinavia, it ended closer to A.D. 800 with the rise of the Vikings. In Western and Central Europe, the end of the Iron Age is typically identified as coinciding with the Roman conquest during the first century BC.

Greek Dark Ages

Greece had become a major hub of activity and culture on the Mediterranean during the late Bronze Age. The Mycenaean civilization was rich in material wealth from trade. Mycenaeans built large palaces and a society with strict class hierarchy.

But around 1200 B.C. Mycenaean Greece collapsed. Greece entered a period of turmoil sometimes called the Greek Dark Ages.

Archaeologists believe there may have been a period of famine in which Greece's population dropped dramatically during this time. Major cities (with the exception of Athens) were abandoned. As urban societies splintered, people moved toward smaller, more pastoral groups focused on raising livestock.

Mycenaean Greece had been a literate society, but the Greeks of the early Iron Age left no written record, leading some scholars to believe they were illiterate. Few artifacts or ruins remain from the period, which lasted roughly 300 years.

By the late Iron Age, the Greek economy had recovered and Greece had entered its "classical" period. Classical Greece was an era of cultural achievements including the Parthenon, Greek drama and philosophers including Socrates.

The classical period also brought political reform and introduced the world to a new system of government known as demokratia, or "rule by the people."

Persian Empire

During the Iron Age in the Near East, nomadic pastoralists who raised sheep, goats and cattle on the Iranian plateau began to develop a state that would become known as Persia.

The Persians established their empire at a time after humans had learned to make steel. Steel weapons were sharper and stronger than earlier bronze or stone weapons.

The ancient Persians also fought on horseback. They may have been the first civilization to develop an armored cavalry in which horses and riders were completely covered in steel armor.

The First Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great around 550 B.C., became one of the largest empires in history, stretching from the Balkans of Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley in India.

Iron Age In Europe

Life in Iron Age Europe was primarily rural and agricultural. Iron tools made farming easier.

Celts lived across most of Europe during the Iron Age. The Celts were a collection of tribes with origins in central Europe. They lived in small communities or clans and shared a similar language, religious beliefs, traditions and culture. It's believed that Celtic culture started to evolve as early as 1200 B.C.

The Celts migrated throughout Western Europe-including Britain, Ireland, France and Spain. Their legacy remains prominent in Ireland and Great Britain, where traces of their language and culture are still prominent today.

Iron Age Hill Forts

People throughout much of Celtic Europe lived in hill forts during the Iron Age. Walls and ditches surrounded the forts, and warriors defended hill forts against attacks by rival clans.

Inside the hill forts, families lived in simple, round houses made of mud and wood with thatched roofs. They grew crops and kept livestock, including goats, sheep, pigs, cows and geese.

Bog Bodies

Hundreds of bog bodies dating back to the Iron Age have been discovered across Northern Europe. Bog bodies are corpses that have been naturally mummified or preserved in peat bogs.

Examples of Iron Age bog bodies include the Tollund Man, found in Denmark, and the Gallagh Man from Ireland.

The mysterious bog bodies appear to have at least one thing in common: They died brutal deaths. For instance, Lindow Man, found near Manchester, England, appears to have been hit over the head, had his throat slit and was whipped with a rope made of animal sinew before being thrown into the watery bog.

The Celtic tribes had no written language at the time, so they left no record of why these people were killed and thrown in bogs. Some experts believe the bog bodies may have been ritually killed for religious reasons.

Other Iron Age artifacts including swords, cups, and shields have also been found buried in peat bogs. These too may have served as offerings to pagan gods in religious ceremonies led by Druid priests.

Sources:

Greek Dark Age; Ancient History Encyclopedia.
Overview; Iron Age, 800 BC - AD 43; BBC.
Bog Bodies of the Iron Age; PBS.

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The Iron Age was a period in human history that started between 1200 B.C. and 600 B.C. During the Iron Age, people across much of Europe, Asia and parts of Africa began making tools and weapons from iron and steel.

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1025-928 BCE

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1000 BCE

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960 BCE

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United Kingdom is Divided (North = Samaria/Israel, South = Judah)

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United Kingdom is Divided (North = Samaria/Israel, South = Judah)

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930 BCE

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928-722 BCE

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The Hebrew Bible describes David and Solomon successfully founding the nation of Israel, establishing rule by a single king in Jerusalem, making the Jerusalem temple the central place of Yahwistic worship, and expanding national borders beyond the traditional tribal territories. ( 1Kgs 3, which shows Solomon worshipping at Gibeon, precedes the construction of the temple.) Although there is debate about the historicity of the biblical account of this period, this era of the united monarchy is understood by most scholars to have encompassed much of the 10th century B.C.E.

Archaeological excavations have uncovered elaborate building projects, indicating strong centralized governance, at sites from this period including Jerusalem, Gezer, Megiddo, and Hazor. However, hopes for enduring rule from Jerusalem were soon dashed, as one kingdom fractured into two-Judah in the south and Israel in the north-after Solomon's death. An attack by the Egyptian pharaoh Sheshonq (biblical Shishak; 1Kgs 14:25-26) around 921 B.C.E. was designed to further stifle Israelite growth, although the biblical description of Israel's borders stretching from the Euphrates River to Egypt ( 1Kgs 4:21 [Hebrew, 1Kgs 5:1]) was an ideal, not a reality.

The Deuteronomistic authors of 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings ( Judeans writing several centuries after these events) attribute the failure of unity to Solomon's construction of temples for his foreign wives ( 1Kgs 11:1-13) and the grandiose posturing of his son Rehoboam ( 1Kgs 12:1-24). However, hints of disunity, especially between the people of Judah and the other tribes, were present in rebellions during the reigns of David ( 2Sam 19:41-20:22) and Solomon ( 1Kgs 11:14-40). David's predecessor and rival, Saul, the first king of Israel, had controlled lands north of Jerusalem, whereas David's support came from the south. Thus, the united monarchy split along borders that recollect divisions prior to David's rule, and the borders during the period of the divided monarchy continued to follow these lines.

To consider the divided monarchy, then, we must recognize that during the united monarchy, Israel and Judah were less united than the Hebrew Bible suggests. In fact, some scholars claim that Israel and Judah were never politically unified in one kingdom; the Hebrew Bible's depiction of the united kingdom must be read accordingly, as an elegy to a long-lost national unity. It is clear in both the biblical text and material culture that a variety of factors undermined the solidarity between Israel and Judah.

According to the Bible, A half-century of warfare followed the split into two kingdoms along the traditional Saulide-Davidic borders. The century after that was punctuated by fractious interactions, culminating in war between the north and south late in Israel's history ( 2Kgs 16:5). In addition, each kingdom, with its separate capital city (Samaria in Israel; Jerusalem in Judah), developed its own distinctive material culture.

Still, profound ties bound the two nations together. Their story-united and divided-is told in the language and ideology of Judah, meaning that as the Deuteronomistic authors conceptualized and transmitted the history of the northern nation of Israel, they excoriated most of Israel's kings and virtually all expressions of Israel's religious practice and belief. Yet in doing so, these authors affirmed ties that bound the two nations together. The Deuteronomists could have dismissed Israel as they dismissed Judah's many non-Yahwistic neighbors. Their decision not to do so can be attributed to their acknowledgment of Israel's fundamental Yahwism, powerful prophets, revered ancestral traditions, valued clan affiliations, and more. What remains singularly important is that, despite the reality of separateness, the bond between these two "divided" nations became a critically important component of the Hebrew Bible. The depictions of this bond are so convincing that even today their imagery colors our reconstructions of the biblical past.

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The Hebrew Bible describes David and Solomon successfully founding the nation of Israel, establishing rule by a single king in Jerusalem, making the Jerusalem temple the central place of Yahwistic worship, and expanding national borders beyond the traditional tribal territories. ( 1Kgs 3, which shows Solomon worshipping at Gibeon, precedes the construction of the temple.)

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9th c. BCE

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The Tel Dan Stele is a fragmentary stele containing a Canaanite inscription, discovered in 1993 in Tel-Dan by Gila Cook, a member of an archaeological team lead by Avraham Biran, the pieces having been used to construct an ancient stone wall that survived into modern times. The stele is in several pieces and contains several lines of Aramaic, closely related to Hebrew and historically a common language among Jews. The surviving inscription, which dates to 9th century BCE, details that an individual killed Jehoram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel and the king of the house of David. These writings corroborate passages from the Bible, as the Second Book of Kings mentions that Jehoram, also Joram, is the son of an Israelite king, Ahab, by his Phoenician wife, Jezebel. Applying a Biblical viewpoint to the inscription, the likely candidate for having erected the stele is Hazael, an Aramean king, whose language would have been Aramaic, who is mentioned in Second Book of Kings as having conquered the Land of Israel, though he was unable to take Jerusalem. The stele is currently on display at the Israel Museum, and is known as KAI 310.

Fragment A of the stele was discovered in July 1993 by Gila Cook of Biran's team who was studying Tel Dan in northern Israel. Fragments B1 and B2 were found in June 1994. The stele was not excavated in its " primary context", but in its "secondary use".

The fragments were published by Biran and his colleague Joseph Naveh in 1993 and 1995.

It consists of several fragments making up part of a triumphal inscription in Aramaic, left most probably by Hazael[citation needed ] of Aram-Damascus, an important regional figure in the late 9th century BCE. The unnamed king boasts of his victories over the king of Israel and his apparent ally the king of the "House of David" (). It is considered the earliest widely accepted reference to the name David as the founder of a Judahite polity outside of the Hebrew Bible, though the earlier Mesha Stele contains several possible references with varying acceptance. A minority of scholars have disputed the reference to David, due to the lack of a word divider between byt and dwd, and other translations have been proposed. The Tel Dan stele is one of four known inscriptions made during a roughly 400-year period (1200-800 BCE) containing the name "Israel", the others being the Merneptah Stele, the Mesha Stele, and the Kurkh Monolith.

The Tel Dan inscription generated considerable debate and a flurry of articles, debating its age, authorship, and authenticity; however, the stele is generally accepted by scholars as genuine and a reference to the House of David.

The following is the transcription using Hebrew letters provided by Biran and Naveh. Dots separate words (as in the original), empty square brackets indicate damaged/missing text, and text inside square brackets is reconstructed by Biran and Naveh:

1. [ א]מר.ע[ ]וגזר[ ]‎
2. [ ---].אבי.יסק[.עלוה.בה]תלחמה.בא[ ]‎
3. וישכב.אבי.יהך.אל[.אבהו]ה.ויעל.מלכי[ יש]‎
4. ראל.קדם.בארק.אבי[.ו]המלך.הדד[.]א[יתי]‎
5. אנה.ויהך.הדד.קדמי[.ו]אפק.מן.שבע[ת---]‎
6. י.מלכי.ואקתל.מל[כן.שב]ען.אסרי.א[לפי.ר]‎
7. כב.ואלפי.פרש.[קתלת.אית.יהו]רם.בר.[אחאב.]‎
8. מלך.ישראל.וקתל[ת.אית.אחז]יהו.בר[.יהורם.מל]‎
9. ך.ביתדוד.ואשם.[אית.קרית.הם.חרבת.ואהפך.א]‎
10. ית.ארק.הם.ל[ישמן ]‎
11. אחרן.ולה[... ויהוא.מ]‎
12. לך.על.יש[ראל... ואשם.]‎
13. מצר.ע[ל. ]‎

Romanized:

The 1995 translation by Biran reads;

1. [ ]...[...] and cut [...]

2. [...] my father went up [against him when h]e fought at [...]

3. and my father lay down, he went to his [ancestors (viz. became sick and died)]. And the king of I[s-]

4. rael entered previously in my father's land, [and] Hadad made me king,

5. And Hadad went in front of me, [and] I departed from the seven [...-]

6. s of my kingdom, and I slew [seve]nty kin[gs], who harnessed th[ousands of cha-]

7. riots and thousands of horsemen (or: horses). [I killed Jeho]ram son [of Ahab]

8. king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]

9. g of the House of David, and I set [their towns into ruins and turned ]

10. their land into [desolation ]

11. other [... and Jehu ru-]

12. led over Is[rael and I laid]

13. siege upon [ ]

Other scholars have presented alternate translations. For example, Andre Lemaire's 1998 translation reads;

1. [.....]..[.............] and cut [..............]

2. [.....] my father went up [......f]ighting at/against Ab[...]

3. And my father lay down, he went to his [fathers]. And the kings of I[s-]

4. srael penetrated into my father's land[. And] Hadad made me - myself - king

5. And Hadad went in front of me[, and] I departed from .... [....]

6. of my kings. And I killed two power[ful] kin[gs], who harnessed two thou[sand cha-]

7. riots and two thousand horsemen. [I killed Jo]ram son of [Ahab]

8. king of Israel, and I killed [Achaz]yahu son of [Joram king]

9. of the House of David. And I set [......]

10. their land [.......]

11. other ...[............ and Jehu ru-]

12. led over Is[rael ............]

13. siege upon [.......]

The main differences are on line 6 and 7; Lemaire suggests that two kings, rather than seventy, were killed and that they possessed two thousand chariots and horsemen.

In the second half of the 9th century BCE (the most widely accepted date for the stele), the kingdom of Aram, under its ruler Hazael, was a major power in the Levant. Dan, just 70 miles from Hazael's capital of Damascus, would almost certainly have come under its sway. This is borne out by the archaeological evidence: Israelite remains do not appear until the 8th century BCE, and it appears that Dan was already in the orbit of Damascus even before Hazael became king in c. 843 BCE.

The author of the inscription mentions conflict with the kings of Israel and the 'House of David'. The names of the two enemy kings are only partially legible. Biran and Naveh reconstructed them as Joram, son of Ahab, King of Israel, and Ahaziah, son of Joram of the House of David. Scholars seem to be evenly divided on these identifications. It is dependent on a particular arrangement of the fragments, and not all scholars agree on this.

In the reconstructed text, the author tells how Israel had invaded his country in his father's day, and how the god Hadad then made him king and marched with him against Israel. The author then reports that he defeated seventy kings with thousands of chariots and horses (more on this below). In the very last line there is a suggestion of a siege, possibly of Samaria, the capital of the kings of Israel. This reading is, however, disputed.

The stele was found in three fragments, called A, B1 and B2. There is widespread agreement that all three belong to the same inscription, and that B1 and B2 belong together. There is less agreement over the fit between A and the combined B1/B2: Biran and Naveh placed B1/B2 to the left of A (the photograph at the top of this article). A few scholars have disputed this, William Schniedewind proposing some minor adjustments to the same fit, Gershon Galil placing B above A rather than beside it, and George Athas fitting it well below.

Archeologists and epigraphers[which? ] put the earliest possible date at about 870 BCE, whilst the latest possible date is "less clear", although according to Lawrence J. Mykytiuk it could "hardly have been much later than 750". However, some scholars (mainly associated with the Copenhagen school) - Niels Peter Lemche, Thomas L. Thompson, and F. H. Cryer - have proposed still later datings.

Two biblical scholars, Cryer and Lemche, analyzed the cracks and chisel marks around the fragment and also the lettering towards the edges of the fragments. From this they concluded that the text was in fact a modern forgery. Most scholars have ignored or rejected these judgments because the artifacts were recovered during controlled excavations.

The language of the inscription is a dialect of Aramaic. Most scholars identify Hazael of Damascus (c. 842 - 806 BCE) as the author, although his name is not mentioned. Other proposals regarding the author have been made: George Athas has argued for Hazael's son Ben-Hadad III, which would date the inscription to around 796 BCE, and Jan-Wim Wesselius has argued for Jehu of Israel ( r. c. 845 - 818 BCE).

"Seventy kings"

While the original translators proposed that line 6 of the inscription refers to the slaying of "seventy kings", later epigraphers have offered alternative readings. Nadav Na'aman proposed that the line should be read as Hazael slew "mighty kings". According to Lemaire, "the reading 'seventy' is based only on a very small fragment of a letter which is interpreted as part of an 'ayin but could also be part of another letter". He proposed that the inscription should instead grammatically be read as "two kings" were slain, in line with the subsequent description of the inscription of only having defeated two kings. Other scholars have followed and further developed Lemaire's reading.

Matthew Suriano has defended the "seventy" reading, arguing that it is a symbolic trope in ancient near eastern military language, representing the defeat of all other claimants to power. Noting that Hazael was himself a usurper to the throne of Aram-Damascus, he argues that ancient Syria would have posited a number of other rivals for the throne and that Hazael's claim to have slain "seventy kings" is a reference to him defeating his rivals in succession to the throne of Aram-Damascus.

"House of David"

Since 1993-1994, when the first fragment was discovered and published, the Tel Dan stele has been the object of great interest and debate among epigraphers and biblical scholars. Its significance for the biblical version of Israel's past lies particularly in lines 8 and 9, which mention a "king of Israel" and possibly a "house of David". The latter reading is accepted by a majority of scholars but not all.

Dissenting scholars note that word dividers are employed elsewhere throughout the inscription and one would expect to find one between byt and dwd in bytdwd too if the intended reading was "House of David". They contend that reading dwd as "David" is not uncomplicated since the word can also mean "uncle" (dōd) (a word with a rather wider meaning in ancient times than it has today), "beloved", or "kettle" (dūd). Lemche and Athas suggests that bytdwd could be a place-name and Athas that it refers to Jerusalem (so that the author might be claiming to have killed the son of the king of Jerusalem, rather than the son of the king from the "house of David"). R.G. Lehmann and M. Reichel proposes interpreting the phrase as a reference to the name or epithet of a deity.

According to Anson Rainey the presence or absence of word dividers is normally inconsequential for interpretation. The majority of scholars argue that the author simply thought of "House of David" as a single word.[citation needed ] Mykytiuk argues that readings other than "House of David" are unlikely.

Francesca Stavrakopoulou states that even if the inscription refers to a "House of David" it testifies neither to the historicity of David nor to the existence of a 9th century BCE Judahite kingdom.

1. ^ "Stone Tablet Offers 1st Physical Evidence of Biblical King David : Archeology: Researchers say 13 lines of Aramaic script confirm the battle for Tel Dan recounted in the Bible, marking a victory by Asa of the House of David". Los Angeles Times. 14 August 1993.

2. ^ "Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology Wing". The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 12 August 2011.

3. Aaron Demsky (2007), ^ Reading Northwest Semitic Inscriptions, Near Eastern Archaeology 70/2. Quote: "The first thing to consider when examining an ancient inscription is whether it was discovered in context or not. It is obvious that a document purchased on the antiquities market is suspect. If it was found in an archeological site, one should note whether it was found in its primary context, as with the inscription of King Achish from Ekron, or in secondary use, as with the Tel Dan inscription. Of course texts that were found in an archaeological site, but not in a secure archaeological context present certain problems of exact dating, as with the Gezer Calendar."

4. ^ Maeir, Aren M. (2013). "Israel and Judah". The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. New York: Blackwell. pp. 3523-27. The earliest certain mention of the ethnonym Israel occurs in a victory inscription of the Egyptian king MERENPTAH, his well-known "Israel Stela" (ca. 1210 BCE); recently, a possible earlier reference has been identified in a text from the reign of Rameses II (see RAMESES I-XI). Thereafter, no reference to either Judah or Israel appears until the ninth century. The pharaoh Sheshonq I (biblical Shishak; see SHESHONQ I-VI) mentions neither entity by name in the inscription recording his campaign in the southern Levant during the late tenth century. In the ninth century, Israelite kings, and possibly a Judaean king, are mentioned in several sources: the Aramaean stele from Tel Dan, inscriptions of Shalmaneser III of Assyria, and the stela of Mesha of Moab. From the early eighth century onward, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are both mentioned somewhat regularly in Assyrian and subsequently Babylonian sources, and from this point on there is relatively good agreement between the biblical accounts on the one hand and the archaeological evidence and extra-biblical texts on the other.

5. ^ Fleming, Daniel E. (1 January 1998). "Mari and the Possibilities of Biblical Memory". Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale. 92 (1): 41-78. JSTOR 23282083. The Assyrian royal annals, along with the Mesha and Dan inscriptions, show a thriving northern state called Israël in the mid-9th century, and the continuity of settlement back to the early Iron Age suggests that the establishment of a sedentary identity should be associated with this population, whatever their origin. In the mid-14th century, the Amarna letters mention no Israël, nor any of the biblical tribes, while the Merneptah stele places someone called Israël in hill-country Palestine toward the end of the Late Bronze Age. The language and material culture of emergent Israël show strong local continuity, in contrast to the distinctly foreign character of early Philistine material culture.

6. Grabbe, Lester L. (28 April 2007). Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9780567251718. The Tel Dan inscription generated a good deal of debate and a flurry of articles when it first appeared, but it is now widely regarded (a) as genuine and (b) as referring to the Davidic dynasty and the Aramaic kingdom of Damascus.

7. Cline, Eric H. (28 September 2009). Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199711628. Today, after much further discussion in academic journals, it is accepted by most archaeologists that the inscription is not only genuine but that the reference is indeed to the House of David, thus representing the first allusion found anywhere outside the Bible to the biblical David.

8. Mykytiuk, Lawrence J. (1 January 2004). Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. Society of Biblical Lit. ISBN 9781589830622. Some unfounded accusations of forgery have had little or no effect on the scholarly acceptance of this inscription as genuine.

9. Compare: ^ Hagelia, Hallvard (2004). "Philological Issues in the Tel Dan Inscription". In Edzard, Lutz; Retsö, Jan (eds.). Current Issues in the Analysis of Semitic Grammar and Lexicon. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, ISSN 0567-4980, volume 56, issue 3. 1. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag (published 2005). pp. 233-234. ISBN 9783447052689. Except for some extremely late datings, most scholars date the text to the second half of the 9th century. The late datings come mainly from the Copenhagen scholars N. P. Lemche,[...] T. L. Thompson[...] and the late F. H. Cryer.[...] A not so late dating is argued by Athas, [...] dating the inscription to around 796 BC.

10. ^ Na'aman, Nadav. "Three Notes on the Aramaic Inscription from Tel Dan", Israel Exploration Journal (2000), pp. 92-104

11. ^ Ghantous, Hadi. The Elisha-Hazael paradigm and the kingdom of Israel: the politics of God in ancient Syria-Palestine. Routledge, 2014, pg. 61

12. ^ Suriano, Matthew. "The Apology of Hazael: A Literary and Historical Analysis of the Tel Dan Inscription", Journal of Near Eastern Studies (2007), pp. 163-176

13. ^ Mykytiuk 2004, p. 126: is best translated as "the house of david," meaning the dynasty of David or the territory it ruled; Pioske 2015, p. 180: The most straightforward reading of the phrase bytdwd in line A9 of the Tel Dan inscription is the construct phrase "House of David," and this interpretation has garnered the assent of the majority of scholars familiar with the text.; Schmidt 2006, p. 315

14. ^ Stavrakopoulou 2004, p. 86: However, though the reference to a "king of Israel" is fairly secure, the rendering of the phrase bytdwd as "House of David" is disputed, not least because it occurs without the expected word dividers, which are employed elsewhere throughout the inscription.; Athas 2003, p. 218: The crux for interpreting the lexeme ... lies in the fact that there is no word divider between the seeming two parts, .... This suggests that the lexeme incorporates only one idea rather than two separate ideas, and is to be understood as a single concept or entity. This is confirmed by the fact that elsewhere in the Tel Dan Inscription, construct expressions are used to denote two or more concepts that are both individually exclusive, yet connected genitivally in the given context.

Athas, George, "Setting the Record Straight: What Are We Making of the Tel Dan Inscription?" Journal of Semitic Studies 51 (2006): 241-256.

Biran, Avraham; Naveh, Joseph (1993). An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan, Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 43, No. 2/3 (1993), pp. 81-98. Israel Exploration Society. JSTOR 27926300.

Davies, Philip R., "'House of David' Built on Sand: The Sins of the Biblical Maximizers." Biblical Archaeology Review 20/4 (July/August 1994): 54-55.

Dever, William G. (2001). What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?. Eerdmans. ISBN 9780802821263.

Finkelstein, Israel. "State Formation in Israel and Judah: A Contrast in Context, a Contrast in Trajectory" Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Mar. 1999), pp. 35-52.

Rainey, Anson F. (November 1994). "The 'House of David' and the House of the Deconstructionists". Biblical Archaeology Review. 20 Issue=6: 47.

Pioske, Daniel (2015). David's Jerusalem: Between Memory and History. Routledge Studies in Religion. 45. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317548911.

Schniedewind, William M. and Bruce Zuckerman, "A Possible Reconstruction of the Name of Hazael's Father in the Tel Dan Inscription," Israel Exploration Journal 51 (2001): 88-91.

Schniedewind, William M., "Tel Dan Stela: New Light on Aramaic and Jehu's Revolt." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 302 (1996): 75-90.

Suriano, Matthew J., "The Apology of Hazael: A Literary and Historical Analysis of the Tel Dan Inscription," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66/3 (2007): 163-76.

Lemaire, André (1998). "The Tel Dan Stela as a Piece of Royal Historiography". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 23 (81): 3-14. doi:10.1177/030908929802308101. ISSN 0309-0892.

Wesselius, Jan‐Wim (1999). "The first royal inscription from ancient Israel: The tel dan inscription reconsidered". Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament. 13 (2): 163-186. doi:10.1080/09018329908585153. ISSN 0901-8328.

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The Tel Dan Stele is a fragmentary stele containing a Canaanite inscription, discovered in 1993 in Tel-Dan by Gila Cook, a member of an archaeological team lead by Avraham Biran, the pieces having been used to construct an ancient stone wall that survived into modern times.

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Northern Kingdom Attacked by the Assyrians

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Northern Kingdom Attacked by the Assyrians

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722 BCE

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Hezekiah Defends Jerusalem From Assyrian Attack 

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Hezekiah Defends Jerusalem From Assyrian Attack 

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701 BCE

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In approximately 701 BCE, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of the Kingdom of Judah in a campaign of subjugation. Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, but failed to capture it - it is the only city mentioned as being besieged on Sennacherib's Stele, of which the capture is not mentioned.

In 721 BCE, the Assyrian army captured the Israelite capital at Samaria and carried away the citizens of the northern Kingdom of Israel into captivity. The virtual destruction of Israel left the southern kingdom, Judah, to fend for itself among warring Near-Eastern kingdoms. After the fall of the northern kingdom, the kings of Judah tried to extend their influence and protection to those inhabitants who had not been exiled. They also sought to extend their authority northward into areas previously controlled by the Israeli kingdom. The latter part of the reigns of King Ahaz and King Hezekiah were periods of stability during which Judah was able to consolidate both politically and economically. Although Judah was a vassal of Assyria during this time and paid an annual tribute to the powerful empire, it was the most important state between Assyria and Egypt.

When Hezekiah became king of Judah, he initiated widespread religious changes, including the breaking of religious idols. He re-captured Philistine-occupied lands in the Negev desert, formed alliances with Ashkelon and Egypt, and made a stand against Assyria by refusing to pay tribute. In response, Sennacherib attacked Judah, laying siege to Jerusalem.

Sources from both sides claimed victory, the Judahites (or Biblical author(s)) in the Tanakh, and Sennacherib in his prism. Sennacherib claimed the siege and capture of many Judaean cities, but only the siege-not capture-of Jerusalem.

Hebrew account

The story of the Assyrian siege is told in the Biblical books of Isaiah (" Proto-Isaiah", 7th century BCE), Second Kings (mid-6th century BCE) and Chronicles (c. 350-300 BCE). As the Assyrians began their invasion, King Hezekiah began preparations to protect Jerusalem. In an effort to deprive the Assyrians of water, springs outside the city were blocked. Workers then dug a 533-meter tunnel to the Spring of Gihon, providing the city with fresh water. Additional siege preparations included fortification of the existing walls, construction of towers, and the erection of a new reinforcing wall. Hezekiah gathered the citizens in the square and encouraged them by reminding them that the Assyrians possessed only "an arm of flesh", but the Judeans had the protection of Yahweh.

According to 2 Kings 18, while Sennacherib was besieging Lachish, he received a message from Hezekiah offering to pay tribute in exchange for Assyrian withdrawal. According to the Hebrew Bible, Hezekiah paid 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold to Assyria-a price so heavy that he was forced to empty the temple and royal treasury of silver and strip the gold from the doorposts of Solomon's temple. Nevertheless, Sennacherib marched on Jerusalem with a large army. When the Assyrian force arrived, its field commander Rabshakeh brought a message from Sennacherib. In an attempt to demoralize the Judeans, the field commander announced to the people on the city walls that Hezekiah was deceiving them, and that Yahweh could not deliver Jerusalem from the king of Assyria. He listed the gods of other peoples defeated by Sennacherib then asked, "Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save his land from me?"

During the siege, Hezekiah dressed in sackcloth (a sign of mourning), but the prophet Isaiah assured him that the city would be delivered and Sennacherib would fail. Overnight, an angel killed 185,000 Assyrian troops. Some scholars believe this number has been transcribed incorrectly, with one study suggesting the number was originally 5,180.

Assyrian account

Sennacherib's Prism, which details the events of Sennacherib's campaign against Judah, was discovered in the ruins of Nineveh in 1830, and is now stored at the Oriental Institute in Chicago, Illinois. The account dates from about 690 BCE. The text of the prism boasts how Sennacherib destroyed 46 of Judah's cities and trapped Hezekiah in Jerusalem "like a caged bird." The text goes on to describe how the "terrifying splendor" of the Assyrian army caused the Arabs and mercenaries reinforcing the city to desert. It adds that the Assyrian king returned to Assyria where he later received a large tribute from Judah. This description inevitably varies somewhat from the Jewish version in the Tanakh. The massive Assyrian casualties mentioned in the Tanakh are not mentioned in the Assyrian version.

After he besieged Jerusalem, Sennacherib was able to give the surrounding towns to Assyrian vassal rulers in Ekron, Gaza and Ashdod. His army still existed when he conducted campaigns in 702 BCE and from 699 BCE until 697 BCE, when he made several campaigns in the mountains east of Assyria, during one of which he received tribute from the Medes. In 696 BCE and 695 BCE, he sent expeditions into Anatolia, where several vassals had rebelled following the death of Sargon II. Around 690 BCE, he campaigned in the northern Arabian deserts, conquering Dumat al-Jandal, where the queen of the Arabs had taken refuge.

Other theories

Herodotus wrote that the Assyrian army was overrun by mice when attacking Egypt. Some Biblical scholars take this to an allusion that the Assyrian army was decimated by a mouse or rat borne disease such as bubonic plague. Even without relying on that explanation, John Bright suggested it was an epidemic of some kind that saved Jerusalem.

In , a collection of essays on counterfactual history, historian Willian H. McNeill speculates that the accounts of mass death among the Assyrian army in the Tanakh might be explained by an outbreak of cholera (or other water-borne diseases) due to the springs beyond the city walls having been blocked, thus depriving the besieging force of a safe water supply.

Henry T. Aubin writes in The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 B.C. that the Assyrian army was routed by an Egyptian army under Kushite ( Nubian) command.

Willian H. McNeill's essay speculates that the retreat served to support Judaism's then-new monotheistic tradition. McNeill reasons that the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem holds special historical significance due to the newness (at the time) of the monotheistic tradition in Judaism. McNeill argues that the apparent defeat of Sennacherib by YHWH supported the idea of monotheism in an age when a conquered people typically adopted the god or gods of their conquerors, as their own had failed to protect them. The extraordinary defeat of Sennacherib which McNeill suggests, by disease which was as yet not understood, would have proven YHWH superior to the gods of the most powerful nation then known to the Jews, Assyria. McNeill concludes that if Sennacherib had taken the city, the Jews may have adopted polytheism, and consequently, the Abrahamic religions would not exist.

An 1813 poem by Lord Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib, commemorates Sennacherib's campaign in Judea from the Hebrew point of view. Written in anapestic tetrameter, the poem was popular in school recitations.

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In approximately 701 BCE, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of the Kingdom of Judah in a campaign of subjugation. Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, but failed to capture it - it is the only city mentioned as being besieged on Sennacherib's Stele, of which the capture is not mentioned.

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722-586 BCE

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597/586/581 BCE

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"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat. We wept when we remembered Zion." (Psalm 37:1)

(This is the third and final part of a three-part series on the Babylonian invasion of Judah in archeology. In part 1 we looked at the archeological memory of the invasion and conquest of Jerusalem. In part 2 we examined the famous "Lachish Letters". In part 3 we will investigate evidence of the famous captivity of the Judean population in Babylon.)

As recently as last year, I heard an archeologist refer to the "so-called Babylonian exile". For decades there have been those who argue that the Bible exaggerates the extent of the exile. These would argue that the exile consisted largely of the King Jehoiachin, his royal family, select others of noble birth and talented tradesmen. The prophet Daniel and his three faithful companions would have been taken to Babylon at this time. (Daniel 1: 1-7) This limited exile took place during the first Babylonian invasion.

"In the third year of the kingship of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. In time Jehovah gave King Jehoiakim of Judah into his hand... Then the king ordered Ashpenaz his chief court official to bring some of the Israelites, including those of royal and noble descent... Now among them were some from the tribe of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah." (Daniel 1 :1-7)

This first invasion did not result in the total destruction of Jerusalem or the kingdom of Judah. Although King Jehoiachin was deposed, his uncle Zedekiah was placed on the throne by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar after taking an oath to be a loyal vassal king. Nine years later, Zedekiah broke his oath and rebelled against Babylon. This oath is the covenant that the prophet Ezekiel refers to when he says, " Can he break the covenant and still escape? " (Ezekiel 17:15)

He did not escape. King Nebuchadnezzar returned to Jerusalem with his military forces and laid siege to Jerusalem. The siege lasted 18 months, during which the people of Jerusalem suffered terribly from hunger and want. When the walls of Jerusalem are broken through, King Zedekiah and his household flee the fallen city. They don't get far and are caught near Jericho where Zedekiah's sons are slaughtered before him and his eyes are put out. He dies a broken man in a Babylonian prison.

After the fall of Jerusalem the Bible describes how the population is led captive into exile by the Babylonian chief of the guard,

"Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard took into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to him, and anyone who remained. But Nebuzaradan the chief of the guard left in the land of Judah some of the poorest people, those who had nothing at all. On that day he also gave them vineyards and fields to work." (Jeremiah 39: 9,10)

A small remnant of " the poorest people" are left in place to serve as agricultural laborers. A governor, Gedaliah, is appointed over them. Seven months later, Gedaliah is assassinated and anyone remaining in the land, " from small to great " fearing Babylonian reprisals, flees to Egypt (2 Kings 25: 25,26). The land of Judah is now desolate and

Some of the Al Yahuda tablets at the Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem.

empty, the capital city Jerusalem is in ruins and the famous Temple is no more.

If there was a large-scale deportation of exiles from Judah to the land of Babylon, archeologists might look to find two things. First, one would expect to find no evidence of continued habitation in the land of Judah for decades. This is very difficult to prove because as is often said, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

The second thing archeologists might expect to find is evidence of Jewish exiles in Babylonia. According to the Bible, the deported Jewish population was to live in exile for 70 years. During that time, a generation would pass and a new one that had never known life anywhere other than in Babylonia would emerge. Speaking to the exiles, the prophet Jeremiah encouraged them to accept their situation and to take measures to ensure that they would not only survive, but proper.

"This is what Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiled people, whom I have caused to go into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 'Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Become many there, and do not decrease. And seek the peace of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray in its behalf to Jehovah, for in its peace you will have peace." (Jeremiah 29: 4-7)

Is there evidence for large communities of Jewish people dwelling in Babylonia over multiple generations? A number of records have come to light over the last hundred years indicating that a large Jewish diaspora existed throughout the Persian empire and the logical origin for that diaspora was the Babylonian exile. Perhaps the most dramatic evidence for large-scale Jewish exile communities in Babylonia was seen by the public for the first time only recently.

In 2015 the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem displayed a collection of cuneiform tablets. This collection is called the Al-Yahudu archive and is composed of about 200 separate clay tablets. Although the authenticity of the tablets are unchallenged, the archive is unprovenanced, meaning they were not discovered in a proper archeological dig but rather surfaced in the massive illegal black market for archeological artefacts.

The black market in ancient artefacts has always existed, but especially since the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq and its chaotic aftermath has the unlicensed and unscientific looting of Mesopotamian archeological sites become so widespread. In more recent years we have witnessed the wilful destruction of historic sites for religious and ideological reasons by the so-called Islamic State. The same group has also conducted large-scale looting of historic sites to sell artefacts on the black market to finance their operation.

Since the Al-Yahudu archive was purchased on the black market we cannot be sure of exactly where it was discovered. Information like this is often lost forever when a site is plundered. Still the archive tells an important story and it is one that illuminates a chapter in Jewish history that until now has mainly been known through the pages of the Bible.

The archive is composed primarily of administrative and legal documents from a previously unknown settlement called "Al-Yahudu" or "Judahtown" (alternatively, the City of the Jews). The name of the town confirms that the population was primarily composed of Jews. Some of the other towns mentioned in the archive are named after Semitic or Hebrew people.

One of the towns mentioned is of immediate interest to Bible students. The town is called Nar-Kabara which translates to, "the town of the river Kabara". Kabara is from the Babylonian word Kebar, rendered in the Bible as Chebar. Where have we heard that before? The book of Ezekiel opens with the words,

"In the 30th year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiled people by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened and I began to see visions of God." (Ezekiel 1:1)

The Babylonian word for river can also mean "canal" and the accepted meaning of "Chebar" is "the Grand Canal". Apparently Jewish exile communities including one called Tel-Abib (Ezekiel 3:15) were situated near this canal. It seems likely that the Chebar of Ezekiel and the river Kabara from the Al-Yahuda archive refer to the same thing.

The documents in the archive detail business transactions among the communities that span almost the entire length of time between the beginning of the Jewish exile in Babylonia through to the Persian kings who ruled after Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia. They even trace the business history of one Jewish family over 4 generations. The evidence these documents reveal is that at least some of the Jewish exile families prospered and even became wealthy while in captivity.

The overall picture the archive paints, is that the Jews were not mere slaves pressed into forced labour on projects in which they had no stake. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon's policy with populations he had forcibly displaced was more sophisticated. The archives show that the deportees were settled in abandoned or newly created towns in the countryside. There, the deportees worked to cultivate previously unused land and in return for the taxes they would pay and the military service they would provide as part of their obligation to their new Babylonian ruler, they received land and the opportunity to make a profit. So successful were many of the exiled families that some passed up the opportunity to return to their homeland when the 70 years of enforced exile had passed. Instead many choose to stay in the only homes they had ever known and where they had become wealthy and comfortable.

Decades later during the reign of Persian King Xerxes I (called Ahasuerus in the Bible), it was said of the Jews that they had communities all across the Persian empire (Esther 3: 8) which at that time stretched from Ethiopia all the way to the border of India. The origin of this Jewish diaspora is found in the Babylonian exile.

There can be no question that a large-scale deportation of Jewish people took place during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Nor can there be any doubt that Jewish communities lived for generations in new communities throughout Babylonia. The Al-Yaduda archive provides strong archeological support for the Biblical account.
Image Credits:
"By the rivers of Babylon" painting by Gebhard Fugel, circa 1920. {PD} Source: Wikimedia Commons

Al Yahudu Tablets photo by Amit Avidan. {CC BY-SA 4.0} Source: Wikimedia Commons

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The Babylonian Invasion in Archeology - Part 3: Exile

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"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat. We wept when we remembered Zion." (Psalm 37:1) (This is the third and final part of a three-part series on the Babylonian invasion of Judah in archeology. In part 1 we looked at the archeological memory of the invasion and conquest of Jerusalem.

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Babylonians Destroy Jerusalem and Temple

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Babylonians Destroy Jerusalem and Temple

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587/6 BCE

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The siege of Jerusalem (circa 589-587 BC) was the final event of the Judahite revolts against Babylon, in which Nebuchadnezzar II, king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, besieged Jerusalem, the capital city of the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem fell after a 30-month siege, following which the Babylonians systematically destroyed the city and Solomon's Temple. The Kingdom of Judah was dissolved and many of its inhabitants were exiled to Babylon.

During the late 7th century BC, Judah became a vassal kingdom of Babylon. In 601 BC, Jehoiakim, king of Judah, revolted against Babylonian rule despite the strong remonstrances of the prophet Jeremiah. Jehoiakim died for reasons unclear, and was succeeded by his son, Jeconiah. In 597 BC, the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, and the city surrendered. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and deported Jeconiah and other prominent citizens to Babylon; Jeconiah's uncle, Zedekiah, was installed as king. Later, encouraged by the Egyptians, Zedekiah launched a second revolt, and a Babylonian army was sent to retake Jerusalem.

On Tisha B'Av, July 587 or 586 BC, the Babylonians took Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and burned down the city. The small settlements surrounding the city, and those close to the western border of the kingdom, were destroyed as well. According to the Bible, Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was captured near Jericho. He was forced to watch the execution of his sons in Riblah, and his eyes were then put out.

The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple led to a religious, spiritual and political crisis, which left its mark in prophetic literature and biblical tradition. The Kingdom of Judah was abolished and annexed as a Babylonian province with its center in Mizpah. The Judean elite, including the Davidic dynasty, were exiled to Babylon. After Babylon had fallen to Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, in 539 BC, he allowed the exiled Judeans to return to Zion and rebuild Jerusalem. The Second Temple was completed in 516 BC.

Whereas the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle provides information about the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC, the only known records of the siege that culminated in Jerusalem's destruction in 587 BC are found in the Hebrew Bible.

The Jews are led away into prison in Babylon. The city is on fire, and the Ark of the Covenant is taken. Wood engraving after the original painting by Eduard Bendemann (1872)

In 601 BC, during the fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar II unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt and was repulsed with heavy losses. The failure led to numerous rebellions among the Kingdoms of the Levant which owed allegiance to Babylon, including the Kingdom of Judah, where King Jehoiakim stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II and took a pro-Egyptian position.

In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II laid siege to Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died during the siege and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight or eighteen. The city fell about three months later, on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar II pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple and carted all of his spoils to Babylon. Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah; According to the Book of Kings, about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire.

Nebuchadnezzar II installed Jeconiah's uncle, Zedekiah as vassal king of Judah, at the age of 21. However, despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar II by ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra. Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah, aiming to capture Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 25:1).

Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Jerusalem in January 589 BC. Many Jews fled to surrounding Moab, Ammon, Edom and other kingdoms to seek refuge. The Bible describes the city as enduring horrible deprivation during the siege ( 2 Kings 25:3; Lamentations 4:4, 5, 9). The city fell after a siege, which lasted either eighteen or thirty months. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign ( 2 Kings 25:2; Jeremiah 39:2), Nebuchadnezzar broke through Jerusalem's walls, conquering the city. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape but were captured on the plains of Jericho and taken to Riblah. There, Zedekiah's followers, including his own sons, were executed. After being forced to watch their executions, Zedekiah had his eyes gouged out and was taken captive to Babylon ( 2 Kings 25:1-7; 2 Chronicles 36:12; Jeremiah 32:4-5; 34:2-3; 39:1-7; 52:4-11), where he remained a prisoner until his death.

According to the Bible, following the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonian general Nebuzaradan was sent to complete its destruction. The city and Solomon's Temple were plundered and destroyed, and most of the Judeans were taken by Nebuzaradan into captivity in Babylon, with only a few people permitted to remain to tend to the land ( Jeremiah 52:16). Archaeological evidence confirms that the city was systematically destroyed by fire. Archeological evidence also indicates that towns close to the kingdom's western border and small villages in Jerusalem's near vicinity were destroyed.

Gedaliah, a Judean, was made governor of the remnant of Judah, the Yehud Province, with a Chaldean guard stationed at Mizpah ( 2 Kings 25:22-24; Jeremiah 40:6-8). The Bible reports that, on hearing this news, Jews who had fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and in other countries returned to Judah ( Jeremiah 40:11-12). Gedaliah was assassinated by Ishmael son of Nethaniah two months later, and the population that had remained and those who had returned then fled to Egypt for safety ( 2 Kings 25:25-26, Jeremiah 43:5-7). In Egypt, they settled in Migdol (it is uncertain where the Bible is referring to here, probably somewhere in the Nile Delta), Tahpanhes, Memphis (called Noph), and Pathros in the vicinity of Thebes ( Jeremiah 44:1).

There has been some debate as to when Nebuchadnezzar's second siege of Jerusalem took place. According to the Hebrew Bible, the city fell in the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year. It is agreed that Jerusalem fell the second time in the summer month of Tammuz (as recorded in Jeremiah 52:6). However, scholars disagree as to whether this dates to 586 BC or 587 BC. William F. Albright dated the end of Zedekiah's reign and the fall of Jerusalem to 587 BC whereas Edwin R. Thiele offered 586 BC. In 2004, Rodger Young published an analysis in which he identified 587 BC for the end of the siege, based on details from the Bible and neo-Babylonian sources for related events.

The inscription on this clay tablet highlights the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II and the surrender of Jehoiakim in 597 BC

Thiele's reckoning is based on the presentation of Zedekiah's reign on an accession basis, which he asserts was occasionally used for the kings of Judah. In that case, the year that Zedekiah came to the throne would be his zeroth year; his first full year would be 597/596 BC, and his eleventh year, the year that Jerusalem fell, would be 587/586 BC. Since Judah's regnal years were counted from Tishri in autumn, that would place the end of his reign and the capture of Jerusalem in the summer of 586 BC.

The Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle (BM 21946), published in 1956, indicates that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem the first time putting an end to the reign of Jehoaichin, on 2 Adar (16 March) 597 BC, in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year. Jeremiah 52:28-29 gives the relative periods for the end of the two sieges as Nebuchadnezzar's seventh and eighteenth years, respectively. (The same events are described at 2 Kings 24:12 and 2 Kings 25:8 as occurring in Nebuchadnezzar's eighth and nineteenth years, including his accession year.) Identification of Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year for the end of the siege places the event in the summer of 587 BC, which is consistent with all three relevant biblical sources-Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and 2 Kings.

Archaeological evidence supports the biblical account that Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 or 586 BC. Archaeological research has shown that the Babylonians systematically destroyed the city with fire and that the city wall was pulled down.

The remains of three residential structures excavated in the City of David (the Burnt Room, House of Ahiel, and House of Bullae) contain burned wooden beams from a fire started by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Ash and burnt wood beams were also discovered at several structures in the Givati Parking Lot, which were attributed by the archeologists to the destruction of the city in 586 BC. Arrowheads of the socketed bronze trilobate type, associated with the destruction of cities in the Assyrian heartland by the Babylonians and the Medes, likewise first appear in the Southern Levant in the burnt layers associated with Nebuchadnezzar II's destruction of the city. Samples of soil and fragments of a plaster floor recovered from one of the structures indicate that it was exposed to a temperature of at least 600°C. A number of wine jars were found to contain remains of vanilla, indicating that the spice was used by the Jerusalemite elite before destruction of the city.

Archaeological investigations and surveys have also revealed that, about the time the Babylonians came to besiege Jerusalem, the majority of towns surrounding Jerusalem and along the kingdom's western frontier were also completely destroyed. However, it is unclear if the array of outlying communities to the east and south of the kingdom were destroyed at that time or if it was a continuous process that occurred after the collapse of the administrative structure of the kingdom and the loss of its military force.

The region of Benjamin, located in the northern Judean hill country was mostly unaffected by the invasion and became the center of the Babylonian province of Yehud, with Mizpah as its administrative center.

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The siege of Jerusalem (circa 589-587 BC) was the final event of the Judahite revolts against Babylon, in which Nebuchadnezzar II, king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, besieged Jerusalem, the capital city of the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem fell after a 30-month siege, following which the Babylonians systematically destroyed the city and Solomon's Temple.

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586-539 BCE

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Cyrus of Persia issues the Cyrus Cylinder, permitting Babylonian exiles to repatriate

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Cyrus of Persia issues the Cyrus Cylinder, permitting Babylonian exiles to repatriate

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538 BCE

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Completion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem

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Completion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem

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515 BCE

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539-332 BCE

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Alexander the Great conquers Syro-palestine

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Alexander the Great conquers Syro-palestine

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333 BCE

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332-63 BCE

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164-63 BCE

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63 BCE

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63 BCE-330 CE

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Herod the Great rules Israel/Palestine as a client king of the Romans

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Herod the Great rules Israel/Palestine as a client king of the Romans

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40-4 BCE

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4 BCE

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30 CE

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The Apostle Paul is in Corinth  (see the Gallio Inscription)

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The Apostle Paul is in Corinth  (see the Gallio Inscription)

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51-53 CE

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First Jewish Revolt and the Destruction of the Second Temple Temple by the Romans

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First Jewish Revolt and the Destruction of the Second Temple Temple by the Romans

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70 CE

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Second Jewish Revolt against the Romans (The Bar Kokhba Revolt)

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Second Jewish Revolt against the Romans (The Bar Kokhba Revolt)

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135 CE

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Constantine makes Christianity an official religion in the Roman Empire in the Edict of Milan

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Constantine makes Christianity an official religion in the Roman Empire in the Edict of Milan

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313 CE

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Emperor Constantine (ca A.D. 280- 337) reigned over a major transition in the Roman Empire-and much more. His acceptance of Christianity and his establishment of an eastern capital city, which would later bear his name, mark his rule as a significant pivot point between ancient history and the Middle Ages.

The Roman Empire that Constantine was born into was one of chaos and anarchy. Civil wars, invasions, and disease were rending the empire so badly that the era is regarded as the Crisis of the Third Century. Emperor Diocletian tried to bring order by distributing power to a four-ruler tetrarchy that would govern the four quarters of the empire. Constantine's father, Constantius I, was one of the rulers.

Diocletian's plan fell apart. After the death of his father in A.D. 306, Constantine was declared emperor by his father's soldiers. He spent the next 18 years battling the three other Roman rulers-his rivals-to become the sole emperor.

The Battle of Milvian Bridge outside Rome in A.D. 312 was a watershed moment for Constantine. He defeated one rival, his brother-in-law Maxentius, and gained the mantle of western Roman emperor. But of far greater import was a revelation he experienced before the battle.

According to Constantine's biographer Eusebius, Constantine and his forces saw a cross of light in the sky, along with the Greek words for "In this sign conquer." That night, Constantine had a dream in which Christ reinforced the message. The emperor marked the Christian symbol of the cross on his soldiers' shields. When he triumphed at Milvian Bridge, he attributed the victory to the god of the Christians. Modern scholars still debate the tale and whether Constantine's conversion was sincere or a political maneuver. Regardless, in A.D. 313 Constantine met with Licinius, the eastern emperor, and together they issued the Edict of Milan. The edict granted "to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred."

A change of scene

Constantine assumed sole control over the empire in A.D. 324. Rome, however, was losing its luster for him. Tensions remained high between the city's pagans and the Christian emperor. Moreover, from a military standpoint, Constantine realized it would be easier to fend off threats from the east and to protect valuable territory-and granaries-in Egypt if he moved his capital to a more defensible eastern location. He left Rome for good to build an imperial city that would glorify both his power and his faith.

Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), his capital, was dedicated in A.D. 330. Previously known as Byzantium, it had been under Roman control for well over a century, but Constantine rebuilt and expanded it on a monumental scale. He tripled the size of the existing city and offered full citizenship and free bread to encourage men of rank to move there with their families. A large palace and imposing legislative halls established the city's gravitas as the new capital. Churches began to punctuate the skyline; Christians were welcomed, and other faiths were generally tolerated.

The ascendant Constantinople soon eclipsed Rome. The western empire gradually crumbled until Rome's fall in A.D. 476. Yet Constantine's capital-and the Christian foundation he laid there for the empire-continued to thrive for nearly a thousand years.

This text is an excerpt from the National Geographic special issue The Most Influential Figures of Ancient History.

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Emperor Constantine (ca A.D. 280- 337) reigned over a major transition in the Roman Empire-and much more. His acceptance of Christianity and his establishment of an eastern capital city, which would later bear his name, mark his rule as a significant pivot point between ancient history and the Middle Ages.