The growth and development of Judah and Jerusalem in the eighth century BCE: A rejoinder

In this rejoinder to a recent article by Israel Finkelstein, I suggest that: A. - The kingdom of Judah experienced a steady growth in urbanization, population and economy during the 9th-8th centuries BCE, and there is no need to contrive an external factor in order to explain the picture discovered in the excavations and surveys of the end of the 8th century. B. - All speculation about a mass migration of tens of thousands of inhabitants from Israel to Judah following the Assyrian conquest in 720, and their speedy settlement all over the kingdom, has no textual or archaeological evidence to support it. In explaining the discovered realities scholars must content themselves with such knowledge as we have; even if the explanations they offer are less captivating, they may do more to illuminate the ancient reality.