Volume 60 Number 3
September 1997
114
The Iron Age II Period: Emerging Nations
Larry G. Herr
What were the salient features of the best known archaeological period in the history of Palestine? The three hundred and fifty years of Iron Age 11 open with the onset of the new millennium as marked by changes in pottery assemblages, architecture, and settlement pattern. The advent of the Persian empire in about 540 BCE-rather than the more traditional marker provided by the Babylonian conquest-brings the period to a close. Herr's presentation of the archaeology of these pivotal centuries encompasses settlement pattern, subsistence system, urban plans, architecture, technology, trade, writing, religion, art, burials, and water systems. It also includes a general treatment of the conservative aspects of everyday life that characterize the period's entire duration.
How do history and archaeology intersect in these centuries which abound in literary remains? Produced by both small city states and vast empires, ostraca, clay tablets, stelae, monumental wall reliefs, and a significant portion of the biblical literature offer a tremendous resource and equally high risk. This tension is intrinsic to biblical archaeology, as it is to the broader issue of the relationship between political-historical events and archaeologically observable change in the material culture. Balanced attention to the whole spectrum of data does permit the division of the Iron 11 era into periods. Each of the three subdivisions of Iron 11 merits its own historical and social overview sketched from biblical as well as inscriptional and ethno-archaeological evidence from Egypt, SyroPalestine, and Mesopotamia. The archaeological data then take center stage for each of the polities of the southern Levant: Israel, Judah, Philistia, Phoenicia, Aram, Ammon, Moab, and Edom. Each of these "national" sections includes a list of sites exhibiting the material culture of that people group.
The portrait of the material culture of Palestine shows how self-awareness of these small nations grew gradually across the Iron II period so that, by period's end, material culture marks out territories and identifies the nationalities of the peoples of ancient Palestine.
115 Biblical Archaeology 132 Iron IIB Ninth to Late Eighth 116 History of Iron II Syntheses Centuries 117 Periodization 151 Iron IIC Late Eighth to Mid- 118 Goals and Organization Sixth Centuries 119 Archaeology of Everyday Life 176 Conclusions and 120 Iron IIA Tenth Century Generalizations
184 Arti-Facts
A Rejoinder to "Was the Siloam Tunnel Built by Hezekiah?"
International Conference in Near Eastern Archaeology
Art from the Ancient City of Kerma on View at the National Museum of African Art
Spirit Houses
Smart Museum of Art to Host Special Exhibition of Sumerian Temple Treasures from the Oriental Institute Museum