The destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile were a great catastrophe in the history of the Jewish Nation. What really happened during that dark, fateful age, and how did new opportunities arise from the ashes?
The Rise of Judah (Optional)
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From the course by Tel Aviv University
The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem
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From the lesson
Introduction to geopolitics and geography of the Ancient Near East
Welcome to the first module of "The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem"! In this module you will be introduced to the geopolitical reality of the time of the Assyrian empire, followed by the Neo-Babylonian. We hope you'll find the videos informative and interesting. We encourage you to use the discussion forums in order to raise any questions or thoughts you might have after watching the videos.
Meet the Instructors
Professor Oded Lipschits, Ph.D.Director, Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology
Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures
Through out most of the tenth and the early 9th Century BCE,
Jerusalem was a hilly stronghold blocked by the desert fringe on its eastern
flank, bordering the political and economic systems thriving to its north,
the Kingdom of Israel, to its west The Philistine cities and to its south,
this desert polity with a center in Tel Masos.
The poor material culture in Jerusalem and it surroundings,
together with a slow gradual development of the economic activity in the rural
hinterland reflect its seclusion, and its inferior status in southern Canaan.
However, in a small and gradual process during the first half
of the ninth Century BCE, Judah started to develop as a kingdom
to fortify its borders and develop a more mature administration and economy.
With the collapse of the economic political systems to its west and
to the south of Jerusalem,
in the second half of the 9th Century BCE,
the Judahite kings expand their sovereignty into these regions.
It is during this period, that the first indication of an administrative system and
the adoption of an alphabetic script appear in the form of Bullae,
used to seal documents.
Concurrently, luxury items show the first indication of trade
with the western coast and to some extent social stratification in Jerusalem.
For example, thousand of fish bones were discovered at the stratum from this period
in the City of David.
It means that people in Jerusalem had the money and the means to buy fish.
Some of them came from the Nile.
Some of them came from the Mediterranean sea.
Someone brought this fish to Jerusalem.
During the second half of the 8th century BCE,
there was a quick ripening process of Judah's administration and economy
which set Judah as a well developed kingdom from many different aspects.
Assuming that Judah became an Assyrian vassal kingdom during the years of King Ahaz
the beginning of the last quarter of the eighth century BCE, the question is,
how much these developments are part of the natural local development of Judah and
how much it is part of the Assyrian rule, demand, and direct or indirect influence.
In some aspects, no clear answer can be given to this question.
From the corelogical point of view, many of the finds can't be dated more
precisely, and some of the changes can be seen as a natural process of development.
The amount of changes however, and the quick turn of Judah to a well
developed agricultural entity are, in my opinion, a clear sign
to the impact of the Assyrian rule over the local developments in Judah.
At the end of the 8th century BCE, a significant change occurred in all aspects
of the ceramic culture in Judah, which evolved from an unstandardized small scale
production in local workshops to a standardize mass industry
with a broad range of distribution and a limited variety of shapes and
the use of larger storage jars than had previously been used.
All of the above point to a centralized royal economy which improved
agricultural production and its mobility under the guidance of a central authority.
The best example to this change can be found in a study of the local production
of storage jars and the change in this production in the late 8th century BC.
The typical oval storage jars in Judah,
known also as the LMLK jar or the royal Judahite jar, is a well-known find.
New studies of these jars,
including computer-generated topology of large samples of these oval jars,
demonstrated that there are three main chronological stages in the development
and use of oval storage jars that were produced in the lowlands.
In the first stage, dated to the late 9th and the early 8th century BCE,
when the lowland was still outside of any direct rule of Judah, the oval storage jars were
characterized mainly by the manufacturing of non-standardized subtypes.
These jars appeared mainly in the lowland, also in large numbers in site that were
not included inside the border of Judah, like Tell es-Safi, which is Biblical Gath, and Gezer.
In the second stage, dated to the early mid 8th Century BCE, under the rule
of Judah and probably as part of its developing administration and economy,
the standardized jars became more common than the non-standardized jars,
and in the third stage, dated to the late 8th century BCE,
when Judah was already under Assyrian rule, one type of jar was adopted for
use by the royal administrative system of Judah, as can be demonstrated by
the appearance of stamped impressions on handles of jars from this type.
The gradual standardization of the jars in the mid 8th century BC
indicates a more centralized production and consumption than should be associated
with a consolidation of the Judahite political, economical and administrative systems.
However, the next phase in the history of these jars, during
the late 8th century BC is its adaptation into the royal
administrative system which expanded the distribution and brought
them to all the different geographic regions of the kingdom of Judah.
All jars continued to be manufactured in the same place, and
this one main production center, probably Tel Socho in the Ellah Valley,
became integrated into the royal administrative system,
connected with the stamped jar handles.
Which dictated the main function,
until the destruction of Judah in the early 6th Century BC.
As Ido Koch will describe in one of the next part of the course,
under Assyrian rule, the Judahite tradition of stamping or incising jar
handles began with the early LMLK stamp impression at the end of the eighth century BCE,
was followed by the late LMLK stamp impression in the early 7th century,
the incised concentric circle in the mid 7th century and
the Rosette stamp impression at the end of the 7th and the early 6th century BCE.
The continuity in the manufacturing of royal storage jars, and
the use of royal emblem stamps on the handles indicate
that the different stamps are all part of the same administrative system
that probably had the same function from about 140 years,
from the late 8th century to the early 6th century BCE.
The same administrative system continued after 586 BCE,
when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem.
For an additional 450 years, during the Babylonian period, and
then we know about the Mozah and the lion stamped handles,
during the Persian and early Hellenistic period and
then we have the early and middle types of the Yehud stamped handles and
until the late Hellenistic period when we know the late Yehud stamp impression and
the Yrslm stamp impression.
Throughout these 600 years Judah, and then Yehud and Judea,
was a land under direct rule of great empires.
The stamped jar handles should be understood as part of the administrative
system that had already been established when Judah became an Assyrian vassal
kingdom and continued in use as long as Judah was vassal kingdom and
continued to be used later when it became a province
under the hegemony of the Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires.
More changes occurred in Judah's economy and
administration when it became an Assyrian Vassal kingdom like the rise of
agricultural royal estates together with a dramatic increase in the number of farms,
small villages, and agricultural installations around Jerusalem.
These developments can be explained as resulting from the demand for more
agricultural products and can also explain technological changes in the agricultural
production installations that occurred in Judah at the end of the 8th century B.C.
These developments should be explained and understood together with new weight system
that was part of Judah's entrance to the Imperial sphere of economy and trade.
Weights are indication for mature and standardized economy and
the fact that this part of the economy in administration appear only in this stage
is a clear indication to the change that took place under Assyrian rule.
According to this approach, many of the changes occurred after Judah became
an Assyrian vassal kingdom and they had to pay tribute, and
taxes, and get it mainly by producing wine, oil, and grain.
All this should be connected to Ramat Rahel, that was initially founded as
a Judean administrative center under the supervision and guidance of imperial rule.
In the next unit of this course,
we will introduce the first phase of this amazing site, and its importance for
our understanding the history of Judah under Assyrian rule.
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