History of ancient Israel and Judah Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Background: Late Bronze Age (1550β1150 BCE)== The [[eastern Mediterranean]] seaboard 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]].<ref>Miller 1986, p. 36.</ref> 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]]. East of the plain and the Shfela is a mountainous ridge, the "hill country of [[Judea]]" in the south, the "[[Mount Ephraim|hill country of Ephraim]]" north of that, then [[Galilee]] and [[Mount Lebanon]]. 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]]. Beyond the plateau is the Syrian desert, separating the Levant from Mesopotamia. To the southwest is Egypt, to the northeast Mesopotamia. The location and geographical characteristics of the narrow Levant made the area a battleground among the powerful entities that surrounded it.<ref>Coogan 1998, pp. 4β7.</ref> [[Canaan]] in the Late Bronze Age was a shadow of what it had been centuries earlier: many cities were abandoned, others shrank in size, and the total settled population was probably not much more than a hundred thousand.<ref>Finkelstein 2001, p. 78.</ref> Settlement was concentrated in cities along the coastal plain and along major communication routes; the central and northern hill country which would later become the biblical kingdom of Israel was only sparsely inhabited<ref name="killebrew38">Killebrew (2005), pp. 38β39.</ref> although letters from the Egyptian archives indicate that [[Jerusalem]] was already a Canaanite city-state recognizing Egyptian overlordship.<ref>Cahill in Vaughn 1992, pp. 27β33.</ref> Politically and culturally it was dominated by Egypt,<ref>Kuhrt 1995, p. 317.</ref> each city under its own ruler, constantly at odds with its neighbours, and appealing to the Egyptians to adjudicate their differences.<ref name="killebrew38" /> [[File:Merneptah Steli (cropped).jpg|thumb|The [[Merneptah Stele]]. While alternative translations exist, the majority of [[Biblical archeology|biblical archaeologists]] translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name ''Israel'' in the historical record.]] The Canaanite city state system broke down during the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]],<ref>Killebrew 2005, pp. 10β16.</ref> and Canaanite culture was then gradually absorbed into those of the [[Philistines]], [[Phoenicia]]ns and [[Israelites]].<ref>Golden 2004b, pp. 61β62.</ref> The process was gradual<ref name="mcnutt47">McNutt (1999), p. 47.</ref> and a strong Egyptian presence continued into the 12th century BCE, and, while some Canaanite cities were destroyed, others continued to exist in Iron Age I.<ref>Golden 2004a, p. 155.</ref> The name "Israel" first appears in the [[Merneptah Stele]] {{circa|{{BCE|1208}}}}: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more."<ref>Stager in Coogan 1998, p. 91.</ref> This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity, well enough established for the Egyptians to perceive it as a possible challenge, but an [[ethnic group]] rather than an organized state.<ref>Dever 2003, p. 206.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page