to write an archaeology-based, Judahite ideology–free history of Israel,
Fascinated that no one has commented on this book!
Seven verses are given to Jeroboam II, one of the most important kings in the history of the two Hebrew kingdoms, who ruled for approximately 40 years (788–747 b.c.e.) and conquered vast territories. Very little is told about the capital Samaria, and relatively little is known about the countryside towns and villages.
"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
So far as I understand, the material is more or less from Finkelstein's previous books.
I'm not clear on Stephen Huller's opinions but they call Israel forgotten because there is very little stuff from First Temple times - depending on what is in the book.
Clive wrote:And should this sub forum be Hebrew texts? Jewish emphasising one tribe?
Not really.
Because those Hebrew texts were all [?] transmitted via that "one tribe". Had the Judahite state not adopted, co-opted, enlarged upon, supplemented and expanded those texts and traditions of the northern state - whatever their reasons for doing so - there would surely have been virtually no northern Israelites texts transitted at all, even though those that remain - as far as they can be identified - may be significantly altered by their new Judahite context; distorted, even, by the lens of the Judahite perspective.
semiopen wrote:So far as I understand, the material is more or less from Finkelstein's previous books.
Though unless I'm mistaken, he hasn't previously in his books given a clear a statement of his theory of Khirbet Qeiyafa. He here argues that it was not a settlement of a Philistine city-state nor a Judahite "Davidic" kingdom, but an outpost of a northern, notionally "Saulide" Israel.
That's from a skimpy perusal, by the way, not an in-depth reading of the relevant chapter.
Finkelstein notes the relative accuracy of the Kings chronology. I mentioned that also in the biblical figures in history thread and wondered if I was becoming too conservative in my old age or if I'd made a mistake (God forbid).
The demographic issues are interesting and not easy to get a handle on.
The population of Israel on both sides of the Jordan River in its peak prosperity in the middle of the eighth century can accordingly be estimated at 350,000—three times larger than the population of Judah of that time (Broshi and Finkelstein 1992).
Modern estimates place the population of ancient Palestine at a maximum of around one million. According to Israeli archeologist Magen Broshi, "... the population of Palestine in antiquity did not exceed a million persons. It can also be shown, moreover, that this was more or less the size of the population in the peak period – the late Byzantine period, around AD 600"[3] Similarly, a study by Yigal Shiloh of The Hebrew University suggests that the population of Palestine in the Iron Age could have never exceeded a million. He writes: "... the population of the country in the Roman-Byzantine period greatly exceeded that in the Iron Age...If we accept Broshi's population estimates, which appear to be confirmed by the results of recent research, it follows that the estimates for the population during the Iron Age must be set at a lower figure."[4]
It's not easy to find a reasonable guess of the population during Roman/Yoshke times, so I wonder if Roman-Byzantine means later times like the third century CE as the wiki seems to imply.
Demographics_of_Palestine