From Nomadism to Monarchy? Revisiting the Early Iron Age Southern Levant

Extensive archaeological exploration in the Central Highlands of the Southern Levant during the 1970s and 1980s elicited a dramatic transformation of the scholarly perception of the early Iron Age. This development consequently required a reassessment of the prevailing historical reconstructions of the period that heavily relied upon uncritical acceptance of the biblical narrative. Israel Finkelstein and Nadav Na'aman's From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel (published in Hebrew in 1990 and in English in 1994) was the first volume to present the newly assembled archaeological data and to outline an updated view of the period, thus becoming a cornerstone for all subsequent studies of ancient Israel. Now, three decades later, the time has come to reevaluate the reconstructions presented in that volume through the lens of current theoretical frameworks, taking into account new data derived from several important excavations in the lowlands and from the incorporation of methodologies from multiple branches of the exact and natural sciences. This book contains seventeen essays covering the archaeology of the Southern Levant during the early Iron Age and the ways in which the period may be reflected in the biblical accounts. The variety of methodologies employed and the historical narratives presented within these contributions illuminate the multifaceted contemporary study of this formative period.