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57-715: The site was discovered in November 1992 by Adam Zertal during the Manasseh Hill Country Survey . The settlement has been dated to the Bronze and Iron Ages . It is considered to be the location of the northwesternmost settlement of the ancient Sea Peoples in the region. Zertal's hypothesis is that the site, which resembles Late Bronze Age sites in Sardinia , was a settlement of the Shardana tribe of

114-636: A Hebrew -speaking ethnoreligious group consisting of tribes that inhabited much of Canaan during the Iron Age . The name of Israel first appears in the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt , dated to about 1200 BCE. Modern scholarship considers that the Israelites emerged from groups of indigenous Canaanites and other peoples. They spoke an archaic form of the Hebrew language , which

171-608: A Canaanite language known as Biblical Hebrew . The language's modern descendant is today the only surviving dialect of the Canaanite languages . Gary Rendsburg argues that some archaic biblical traditions and other circumstantial evidence point to the Israelites emerging from the Shasu and other seminomadic peoples from the desert regions south of the Levant , later settling in the highlands of Canaan. Several theories exist for

228-454: A common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in what is today identified as the paternally inherited Israelite high priesthood ( Cohanim ), with a common ancestor projected to the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel ." A 2020 study (by Agranat-Tamr et al.) stated that there was genetic continuity between

285-677: A connection with the biblical Land of Israel . Other groups claim continuity with the Israelites, including Pashtuns , British , Black Hebrew Israelites , Igbos Mormons , and evangelical Christians that subscribe to covenant theology . Some argue that some Palestinians descend from Israelites who were not exiled by the Romans. As of 2024, only one study has directly examined ancient Israelite genetic material. The analysis examined First Temple -era skeletal remains excavated in Abu Ghosh , and showed one male individual belonging to

342-491: A genealogical basis. Other scholars argue that the distinction is based on religion. For example, Troy W. Martin argues that biblical Jewishness is based on adherence to 'covenantal circumcision', regardless of ancestry ( Genesis 17:9–14 ). In Judaism , "Israelite", broadly speaking, refers to a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites . In legal texts, such as

399-631: A period of nominal independence for the Jewish people under the Hasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE). Initially operating semi-autonomously within the Seleucid sphere, the Hasmoneans gradually asserted full independence through military conquest and diplomacy, establishing themselves as the final sovereign Jewish rulers before a prolonged hiatus in Jewish sovereignty in the region. Some scholars argue that Jews also engaged in active missionary efforts in

456-508: A reporter for The Jerusalem Post , “I spent a year at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, and I became interested in archaeology. Although I had argued that the Bible was full of myths, I decided after my recovery to travel the land by foot to look for archeological evidence.” Zertal claimed to have identified several sites he worked on as being connected to sites, events and characters from

513-592: A series of inscriptions mention the " House of David ". They came from Israel's neighbors. Compared to the United Monarchy, the historicity of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah is widely accepted by historians and archaeologists. Their destruction by the Assyrians and Babylonians respectively is also confirmed by archaeological evidence and extrabiblical sources. Christian Frevel argues that Yahwism

570-457: Is tenuously identified with Yahweh. However, modern scholarship interprets El as the subject, "El rules/struggles", from sarar ( שָׂרַר ) 'to rule' (cognate with sar ( שַׂר ) 'ruler', Akkadian šarru 'ruler, king' ), which is likely cognate with the similar root sara ( שׂרה ) "fought, strove, contended". Afterwards, Israel referred to the direct descendants of Jacob and gentiles (i.e. resident aliens ) who assimilated in

627-745: The First Temple , marking the kingdom's demise. Subsequently, a segment of the Judahite populace was exiled to Babylon in several waves. Judeans were progenitors of the Jews, who practiced Second Temple Judaism during the Second Temple period . With the fall of Babylon to the rising Achaemenid Persian Empire , king Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation known as the Edict of Cyrus , encouraging

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684-603: The Greco-Roman world , which led to conversions. Several scholars, such as Scot McKnight and Martin Goodman , reject this view while holding that conversions occasionally occurred. A similar diaspora existed for Samaritans but their existence is poorly documented. In 63 BCE, the Roman Republic conquered the kingdom. In 37 BCE, the Romans appointed Herod the Great as king of a vassal Judea . In 6 CE, Judea

741-834: The J2 Y-DNA haplogroup, a set of closely-related DNA sequences thought to have originated in the Caucasus or Eastern Anatolia, as well as the T1a and H87 mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, the former of which has also been detected among Canaanites, and the latter in Basques, Tunisian Arabs, and Iraqis, suggesting a Mediterranean, Near Eastern, or perhaps Arabian origin. A 2004 study (by Shen et al.) comparing Samaritans to several Jewish populations (including Ashkenazi Jews , Iraqi Jews , Libyan Jews , Moroccan Jews , and Yemenite Jews ) found that "the principal components analysis suggested

798-605: The Mishnah and Gemara , ישראלי ( Yisraeli ), or Israelite, is used to describe Jews instead of יהודי ( Yehudi ), or Jew. In Samaritanism , Samaritans are not Jews יהודים ( Yehudim ). Instead, they are Israelites, which includes their Jewish brethren, or Israelite Samaritans. The history of the Israelite people can be divided into these categories, according to the Hebrew Bible : Efforts to confirm

855-690: The Nineteenth Dynasty (i.e. reign of Ramesses II ) or the Eighteenth Dynasty , but this reading remains controversial. In the Hebrew Bible, Israel first appears in Genesis 32:29 , where an angel gives the name to Jacob after the latter fought with him . The folk etymology given in the text derives Israel from yisra , "to prevail over" or "to struggle with", and El , a Canaanite- Mesopotamian creator god that

912-539: The Philistines , who were of Mycenaean Greek origin. As a result, intermarriage with other Semites was common. But what distinguished Israelite circumcision from non-Israelite circumcision was its emphasis on 'correct' timing. Israelite circumcision also served as a mnemonic sign for the circumcised, where their 'unnatural' erect circumcised penis would remind them to behave differently in sexual matters. Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen suggests that Israelite identity

969-830: The Sea People , a seafaring culture from the 12th century, as the architecture of the site is similar to nuraghe sites in Sardinia. Zertal dates the site to 1160–1150 BCE, which conforms with the supposed date of the Sea Peoples' incursion to Israel, and the Biblical conflict between Sisera and Barak ben Avinoam (Judges 4-5). Zertal suggests that the site may have been the city of Harosheth Haggoyim , mentioned in Judges 4:2 as Sisera's place of residence. Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein says that Zertal erred in his dating of

1026-641: The Sea Peoples , particularly the Dan(an)u . Nonetheless, they intermingled with the former nomads, due to socioeconomic and military factors. Their interest in Yahwism and its concern for the underprivileged was another factor. Possible allusions to this historical reality in the Hebrew Bible include the aforementioned tribes, except for Issachar and Zebulun, descending from Bilhah and Zilpah , who were viewed as "secondary additions" to Israel. El worship

1083-427: The Second Temple period , "Israel" included the members of the united monarchy, the northern kingdom, and eschatological Israel. " Jew " (or " Judean ") was another popular ethnonym but it might refer to a geographically restricted sub-group or to the inhabitants of the southern kingdom of Judah. In addition, works such as Ezra-Nehemiah pioneered the idea of an "impermeable" distinction between Israel and gentiles, on

1140-489: The Second Temple period . This event marked a cataclysmic moment in Jewish history, prompting a reconfiguration of Jewish identity and practice to ensure continuity. The cessation of Temple worship and disappearance of Temple-based sects facilitated the rise of Rabbinic Judaism , which stemmed from the Pharisaic school of Second Temple Judaism, emphasizing communal synagogue worship and Torah study , eventually becoming

1197-631: The Tribe of Levi . Josephus quoting Manetho identifies them with the Hyksos . Other scholars believe that the Exodus narrative was a " collective memory " of several events from the Bronze Age. In addition, it is unlikely that the Israelites overtook the southern Levant by force, according to archaeological evidence. Instead, they branched out of indigenous Canaanite peoples that long inhabited

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1254-403: The death penalty was legislated for these 'secret crimes', they functioned as a warning, where offenders would confess out of fear and make appropriate reparations. The historicity of the United Monarchy is heavily debated among archaeologists and biblical scholars: biblical maximalists and centrists ( Kenneth Kitchen , William G. Dever , Amihai Mazar , Baruch Halpern and others) argue that

1311-521: The "complexities of the Jewish soul". Names were significant in Israelite culture and indicated one's destiny and inherent character. Thus, a name change indicated a 'divine transformation' in one's 'destines, characters and natures'. These beliefs aligned with the Near Eastern cultural milieu, where names were 'intimately bound up with the very essence of being and inextricably intertwined with personality'. In terms of appearance, rabbis described

1368-462: The "general Southland" (i.e. modern Sinai and the southern parts of Israel and Jordan ), who abandoned their pastoral-nomadic ways. Canaanites who lived outside the central hill country were tenuously identified as Danites, Asherites, Zebulunites, Issacharites, Naphtalites and Gadites. These inhabitants do not have a significant history of migration besides the Danites, who allegedly originate from

1425-494: The Biblical Jews as being "midway between black and white" and having the "color of the boxwood tree". Assuming Yurco 's debated claim that the Israelites are depicted in reliefs from Merneptah 's temple at Karnak is correct, the early Israelites may have wore the same attire and hairstyles as non-Israelite Canaanites. Dissenting from this, Anson Rainey argued that the Israelites in the reliefs looked more similar to

1482-674: The Bronze Age and Iron Age southern Levantines, which included the Israelites and Judahites. They could be "modeled as a mixture of local earlier Neolithic populations and populations from the northeastern part of the Near East (e.g. Zagros Mountains , Caucasians / Armenians and possibly, Hurrians )". Reasons for the continuity include resilience from the Bronze Age collapse , which was mostly true for inland cities such as Tel Megiddo and Tel Abel Beth Maacah . Elsewhere, European -related and East African -related components were added to

1539-466: The Exodus narrative. Israel's demographics were similar to the demographics of Ammon , Edom , Moab and Phoenicia . Besides their focus on Yahweh worship, Israelite cultural markers were defined by body, food, and time, including male circumcision , avoidance of pork consumption and marking time based on the Exodus, the reigns of Israelite kings , and Sabbath observance . The first two markers were observed by neighboring west Semites besides

1596-515: The Israelite community. Hebrew is a similar ethnonym but it is usually applied whenever Israelites are economically disadvantaged or migrants. It might also refer to their descent from Eber , the grandson of Noah . During the period of the divided monarchy, "Israelites" referred to the inhabitants of the northern Kingdom of Israel , but eventually, included the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah in post-exilic usage. In literature of

1653-673: The Israelite tribes, located between the ancient sites of Taanach and Megiddo .” Adam Zertal Adam Zertal ( Hebrew : אדם זרטל ; 1936 – October 18, 2015) was an Israeli archaeologist and a tenured professor at the University of Haifa . Adam Zertal grew up in Ein Shemer , a kibbutz affiliated with the Hashomer Hatzair movement. Zertal was severely wounded in the Yom Kippur War . He later told

1710-521: The Israelites . Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) The first reference to Israel in non-biblical sources is found in the Merneptah Stele in c.  1209 BCE . The inscription is very brief and says: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The inscription refers to a people , not an individual or nation state , who are located in central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria . Some Egyptologists suggest that Israel appeared in earlier topographical reliefs, dating to

1767-674: The Samaritans identify as "Israel", "B'nai Israel" or "Shamerim/Shomerim" (i.e. "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers"). Towards the end of the same century, the Neo-Babylonian Empire emerged victorious over the Assyrians, leading to Judah's subjugation as a vassal state . In the early 6th century BC, a series of revolts in Judah prompted the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II to lay siege to and destroy Jerusalem along with

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1824-657: The Shasu. Based on biblical literature, it is implied that the Israelites distinguished themselves from peoples like the Babylonians and Egyptians by not having long beards and chin tufts. However, these fashion practices were upper class customs. In the 12th century BCE, many Israelite settlements appeared in the central hill country of Canaan, which was formerly an open terrain. These settlements lacked evidence of pork consumption, compared to Philistine settlements, had four-room houses and lived by an egalitarian ethos , which

1881-420: The al Ahwat structures as Shardana ones, having no other parallels with other places outside of Sardinia and its Shardana culture. Among the more intriguing objects uncovered by the dig is a small, round, bronze relief measuring about 2 cm. in diameter and 5 mm. thick. The bronze shows the "face of a woman wearing a cap and earrings shaped as chariot wheels." It was found inside a structure identified by

1938-405: The archaeological team as the “Governor's House”. It is clear that the bronze was once the finial or end of an "elongated object" from which it had been broken off in antiquity. It has now been identified as a linchpin from the wheel of a war chariot belonging to a high-ranking personage. It would have appeared on the side of a chariot in much the position as a modern hubcap. Zertal explained

1995-404: The biblical account is more or less accurate, while biblical minimalists ( Israel Finkelstein , Ze'ev Herzog , Thomas L. Thompson and others) argue that Israel and Judah never split from a singular state. The debate has not been resolved, but recent archaeological discoveries by Eilat Mazar and Yosef Garfinkel show some support for the existence of the United Monarchy. From 850 BCE onwards,

2052-422: The biblical ethnogenesis of Israel through archaeology have largely been abandoned as unproductive. Many scholars see the traditional narratives as national myths with little historical value, but some posit that a small group of exiled Egyptians contributed to the Exodus narrative. William G. Dever cautiously identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph , while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with

2109-430: The disappearance of Israelite tribes from Galilee and Transjordan, it's plausible that many Israelites from Samaria survived and remained in the region. These survivors, contrary to Jewish tradition, are believed to have become the ancestors of the Samaritans, who followed Samaritanism . Research indicates that only a portion of this population intermarried with Mesopotamians settlers. In their native Samaritan Hebrew ,

2166-623: The exiles to return to their homeland after the Persians raised it as an autonomous Jewish-governed province named Yehud . Under the Persians ( c.  539–332 BCE ), the returned Jewish population restored the city and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. The Cyrus Cylinder is controversially cited as evidence for Cyrus allowing the Judeans to return. The returnees showed a "heightened sense" of their ethnic identity and shunned exogamy , which

2223-461: The latter is disputed. Jews and Samaritans both trace their ancestry to the ancient Israelites. Jews trace their ancestry to tribes that inhabited the Kingdom of Judah, including Judah , Benjamin and partially Levi , while the Samaritans claim their lineage from the remaining members of Ephraim , Manasseh , and Levi who were not deported in the Assyrian captivity after the fall of Israel. Other groups have also claimed affiliation with

2280-436: The narratives in the Hebrew Bible : Zertal's work was not without controversy, and, in particular, his claims about Mount Ebal, where he worked for nine years, never gained traction within the wider archaeological community. While many archeologists agree that the structure was a site of an early Israelite cultic activity , its identification with Joshua's altar is disputed. Israelites The Israelites were

2337-591: The norm. In addition, royal inscriptions were scarce, along with imported and decorated pottery. The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE . The records of Sargon II of Assyria indicate that he deported part of the population to Assyria. This deportation became the basis for the Jewish idea of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel . Some Israelites migrated to

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2394-436: The origins of historical Israelites. Some believe they descended from raiding groups, itinerant nomads such as Habiru and Shasu or impoverished Canaanites, who were forced to leave wealthy urban areas and live in the highlands. The prevailing academic opinion is that the Israelites were a mixture of peoples predominately indigenous to Canaan, with additional input from an Egyptian matrix of peoples, which most likely inspired

2451-595: The predominant expression of Judaism. Concurrently, Christianity began to diverge from Judaism, evolving into a predominantly Gentile religion. Decades later, the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE) further diminished the Jewish presence in Judea , leading to a geographical shift of Jewish life to Galilee and Babylonia , with smaller communities scattered across the Mediterranean . Jews and Samaritans share

2508-469: The region, which included Syria , ancient Israel , and the Transjordan region . Their culture was monolatristic , with a primary focus on Yahweh (or El) worship, but after the Babylonian exile, it became monotheistic , with partial influence from Zoroastrianism . The latter decisively separated the Israelites from other Canaanites. The Israelites used the Canaanite script and communicated in

2565-416: The significance of the discovery, “This identification enhances the historical and archaeological value of the site and proves that chariots belonging to high-ranking individuals were found there. It provides support for the possibility, which has not yet been definitively established, that this was Sisera's city of residence and that it was from there that the chariots set out on their way to the battle against

2622-575: The site. By comparing ceramic typologies and radiocarbon dating with other early Iron Age sites in Israel, Finkelstein estimates its date to be around 100 years later than Zertal. Eric Cline and David O'Connor commented on Zertal's claim, saying that "So far, however, there is no identifiable Shardana pottery found at this or any other site in the region, and the interpretation of the architecture at El-Ahwat remains open to question." Archaeologist Bar Shay, from Haifa University, has recently argued that

2679-537: The southern kingdom of Judah, while those Israelites that remained in Samaria, concentrated mainly around Mount Gerizim , came to be known as Samaritans . Foreign groups were also settled by the Assyrians in the territories of the conquered kingdom. The exiled Israelites from non-Judean regions faced assimilation into the Assyrian population, unlike their counterparts from Judea. While historical records indicate

2736-468: Was Moses's successor. Most modern scholars agree that the Torah does not provide an authentic account of the Israelites' origins, and instead view it as constituting their national myth . However, it is supposed that there may be a "historical core" to the narrative. The Bible also portrays the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as the successors of an earlier United Kingdom of Israel , though the historicity of

2793-535: Was a regional variety of the Canaanite languages , known today as Biblical Hebrew . In the Iron Age , the kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged. The Kingdom of Israel , with its capital at Samaria , fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE; while the Kingdom of Judah , with its capital at Jerusalem , was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. Some of the Judean population

2850-531: Was an independent socio-political entity for most of the 9th century BCE. Avraham Faust argues that there was continued adherence to the 'ethos of egalitarianism and simplicity' in the Iron Age II (10th-6th century BCE). For example, there is minimal evidence of temples and complex tomb burials, despite Israel and Judah being more densely populated than the Late Bronze Age. Four-room houses remained

2907-837: Was based on faith and adherence to sex-appropriate commandments. For men, it was circumcision. For women, it was ritual sacrifice after childbirth ( Leviticus 12:6 ). Genealogy was another ethnic marker. It was a matter of cultural self-identity rather than biological descent. For example, foreign clans could adopt the identity of other clans, which subsequently changed their status from "outsider" to "insider". This applied to Israelites from different tribes and gentiles. Saul Oylan argued that foreigners automatically became Israelite if they lived in their territory, according to Ezekiel 47:21–23 . That said, Israelites used genealogy to engage in narcissism of small differences but also, self-criticism since their ancestors included morally questionable characters such as Jacob. Both these traits represented

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2964-552: Was central to early Israelite culture but currently, the number of El worshippers in Israel is unknown. It is more likely that different Israelite locales held different views about El and had 'small-scale' sacred spaces . Himbaza et al. (2012) states that Israelite households were typically ill-equipped to handle conflicts between family members, which may explain the harsh sexual taboos enforced against acts like incest , homosexuality , polygamy etc. in Leviticus 18–20 . Whilst

3021-461: Was exemplified by the absence of elaborate tombs, governor's mansions, certain houses being bigger than others etc. They followed a mixed economy , which prioritized self-sufficiency , cultivation of crops , animal husbandry and small-scale craft production . New technologies such as terraced farming , silos for grain storage and cisterns for rainwater collection were simultaneously introduced. These settlements were built by inhabitants of

3078-704: Was exiled to Babylon , but returned to Israel after Cyrus the Great conquered the region. According to the Bible , the Israelites are the descendants of Jacob , a patriarch who was later renamed as Israel. Following a severe drought in Canaan , Jacob and his twelve sons fled to Egypt, where they eventually formed the Twelve Tribes of Israel . The Israelites were later led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses and conquered Canaan under Joshua 's leadership, who

3135-673: Was fully incorporated into the Roman Empire as the province of Judaea . During this period, the main areas of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel were Judea, Galilee and Perea , while the Samaritans had their demographic center in Samaria . Growing dissatisfaction with Roman rule and civil disturbances eventually led to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, which ended

3192-410: Was rooted in the culture of the Kingdom of Israel, who introduced it to the Kingdom of Judah via Ahab 's expansions and sociopolitical cooperation, which was prompted by Hazael 's conquests. Frevel has also argued that Judah was a 'vassal-like' state to Israel, under the Omrides . This theory has been rejected by other scholars, who argue that the archaeological evidence seems to indicate that Judah

3249-452: Was treated as a "permissive reality" in Babylon. Circumcision was no longer a significant ethnic marker, with increased emphasis on genealogical descent or faith in Yahweh. In 332 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire fell to Alexander the Great , and the region was later incorporated into the Ptolemaic Kingdom ( c.  301–200 BCE ) and the Seleucid Empire ( c.  200–167 BCE ). The Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid rule ushered in

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