The location and geographical characteristics of the narrow Levant made the area a battleground among the powerful entities that surrounded it. To the southwest is Egypt, to the northeast Mesopotamia. Beyond the plateau is the Syrian desert, separating the Levant from Mesopotamia. To the east again lie the steep-sided valley occupied by the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and the wadi of the Arabah, which continues down to the eastern arm of the Red Sea. East of the plain and the Shfela is a mountainous ridge, the " hill country of Judea" in the south, the " hill country of Ephraim" north of that, then Galilee and Mount Lebanon. The coastal plain of the southern Levant, broad in the south and narrowing to the north, is backed in its southernmost portion by a zone of foothills, the Shfela like the plain this narrows as it goes northwards, ending in the promontory of Mount Carmel. The eastern Mediterranean seaboard – the Levant – stretches 400 miles north to south from the Taurus Mountains to the Sinai Peninsula, and 70 to 100 miles east to west between the sea and the Arabian Desert. Late Bronze Age background (1550–1150 BCE) The return to Zion and the construction of the Second Temple marked the beginning of the Second Temple period (c. First Temple period / Israelite period (c.During this time, the destroyed Solomon's Temple was replaced by the Second Temple, marking the beginning of the Second Temple period. Cyrus' proclamation began the exiles' return to Zion, inaugurating the formative period in which a more distinctive Jewish identity was developed in the Persian province of Yehud. Subsequently, Persian king Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation known as the Edict of Cyrus, which authorized and encouraged exiled Jews to return to the Land of Israel. The exilic period, which saw the development of the Israelite religion ( Yahwism) towards the distinct monotheism of Judaism, ended with the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Persian Empire around 538 BCE. According to the biblical account, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem between 589–586 BCE, which led to the destruction of Solomon's Temple and the exile of the Jews to Babylon this event was also recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles. However, Jewish revolts against the Babylonians led to the destruction of Judah in 586 BCE, under the rule of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. While the Kingdom of Judah remained intact during this time, it became a client state of first the Neo-Assyrian Empire and then the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It was theorized by Israel Finkelstein that Shoshenq I invaded the Levant in order to prevent the formation of a unified state under the Israelites, thus forming the basis of the biblical story of Jeroboam's Revolt. For unknown reasons the 22nd Dynasty did not directly annex the Levant following the conquest, but merely put the Levant back under Egyptian domination. Unlike the United Monarchy, archaeological evidence of the conquest has been found in various sites in the Levant. Īrchaeological remains during that time do, however, include Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt invading the Levant around 930-925 BCE, conquering many cities and settlements. The historicity of the United Monarchy is debated as there are no archaeological remains of it that are accepted as consensus, but historians and archaeologists agree that Israel and Judah existed as separate kingdoms by c. Two related Israelite polities known as the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and the Kingdom of Judah had emerged in the region by Iron Age II.Īccording to the Hebrew Bible, a " United Monarchy" (consisting of Israel and Judah) existed as early as the 11th century BCE, under the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon the country later would have split into two separate kingdoms: Israel, containing the cities of Shechem and Samaria in the north, and Judah (containing Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple) in the south. According to modern archaeology, ancient Israelite culture developed as an outgrowth from the Semitic Canaanites. "Israel" as a people or tribal confederation (see Israelites) appears for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an inscription from ancient Egypt that dates to about 1208 BCE, with the people group possibly being older. The history of ancient Israel and Judah begins in the Southern Levant region of Western Asia during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.
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