In the aftermath of the Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the area was settled by various populations, including Cutheans, Elamites and Medes, deported there by the Assyrians. These populations intermingled with the local Israelite population, creating a new ethnic group, the Samaritans. Some citadels, such as Megiddo, became Assyrian administrative centres. In Judah the situation was more complex. It seems that contrary to Assyrian policy, in 587 BC the Babylonians deported only the upper class as a whole, while the lower classes remained in their land, albeit deprived of any leadership. For a while, a certain measure of autonomy was conserved under the leadership of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. However, after his murder by political adversaries, the Babylonians curtailed any autonomy.
A plan of the Israelite fort at Kadesh Barnea. The fortress was a rectangular structure, enclosed by a casemate wall with eight rectangular towers. The wall was surrounded by an earth rampart supported by an outer retaining wall. (Dalit Weinblatt–Krausz)
A plan of the Israelite fort at Vered Jericho. The rectangular courtyard, surrounded by an outer wall, leads to two parallel and attached ‘four-room house’ units. (Dalit Weinblatt–Krausz)
The situation changed dramatically in 549 BC, when Cyrus of Anshan, king of Persia and Media, conquered Babylonia. Some years later, in 537 BC, he published his well-known edict, permitting the Jews exiled in Babylonia to return to Judah and Jerusalem. Moreover, the king was ready to finance the rebuilding of the Temple. Soon, the first waves of exiles returned to Judah, under the leadership of Sheshbazzar. Although he came from the House of David, the royal family of Judah, it seems that his mission was unsuccessful. Some time later, Zerubbabel Ben Shealtiel, also a scion of the House of David, and Joshua, the High Priest, were chosen as leaders of a second wave of exiles that wanted to return to Zion. This time the two leaders were more successful. Zerubbabel’s rebuilding of the Temple was opposed by various elements, including Tattenai, the Satrap of Abar Naharina. Yet by 515 BC the Second Temple had finally been rebuilt, during Darius I’s reign. However, the Jews (the name given to the exiles who returned from Babylon) only achieved their final political and religious organization a century after this date, during the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, between 457 and 428 BC. Ezra was mainly responsible for the political constitution of Yahud, the administrative area around Jerusalem, in which the returning Babylonian exiles lived. Although Yahud was under the spiritual leadership of the High Priest, the latter was supervised by a governor sent by Achaemenid Persia. Nehemiah had the walls of Jerusalem rebuilt, despite the opposition of neighbouring governors. In the Persian period, Jerusalem was a very small city, which included within its walls only the Temple Mount area and the City of David. Only later, with the Hasmoneans, did Jerusalem expand into a great city. Yahud was only a shadow of the state of Judah in the First Temple period, including only the immediate area around Jerusalem. The main administrative centres at this time comprised Jerusalem, Beth Ha Keren, Kahila, Beth-Zur, Mizpeh and Jericho.
An Assyrian relief from the time of Sennacherib depicting a battering ram. The wooden frame covered with animal skins of this siege machine was rectangular in shape, and it had four wheels, a frontal tower, and a ram used to batter away at the wall. (Author’s collection)
The conquest of Kharkar, plate 55 from Paul-Émile Botta and Eugène Flandin’s Monuments de Niniveh (Paris 1849–59); Botta’s archaeological discovery actually turned out to be the Royal Palace of Khorsabad, not Niniveh. This relief shows the final stages of the conquest of Kharkar; the Assyrian cavalry are pursuing the people fleeing from the city. (Author’s collection)
In the Persian period, the Land of Israel, part of the greater satrapy of Abar-Nahara, presented a very different mosaic of populations than at the end of the Iron Age. It was divided into three different types of administrative region: satrapies, cities with a certain amount of independence and tribes. The satrapies were smaller provinces, often ruled by a local governor, with a certain amount of autonomy. In Transjordan there were the satrapies of Ashteroth Karnaim, Hauran and Gilad. In the north there was Galilee, the capital of which was probably Hazor. In the centre the most important satrapy was that of Shomeron, ruled by the family of Sanballat. Yahud, the capital of which was Jerusalem, was ruled jointly by a High Priest from the Oniad family, and by the Persian governor, probably a Jew from the Persian diaspora. In the south was Edom, the capital of which was probably Lachish; it was ruled by a certain Geshem, an Arab from the Kedar tribe. The region of Ammon was under the control of the Tobias family. The Phoenician city-states of Tyre and Sidon ruled the northern coast, which included the cities of Akko and Dor. The southern coastal area was still inhabited by the Philistines, who lived in various urban settlements such as Ashdod, Ashkelon and Gaza. The two main tribes were the Arab tribe of Kedar (in the 5th century under the leadership of Geshem), which occupied the Negev, and the Nabataeans, who settled in the southern Transjordan area.
The conquest of Kisheshim, plate 68 from Paul-Émile Botta and Eugène Flandin’s Monuments de Niniveh (Paris 1849–59). The storming of the city after the erection of a siege ramp is depicted in this relief. (Author’s collection)
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JERUSALEM ON THE EVE OF THE BABYLONIAN SIEGE, 587 BC |
Following his capture of the city, King David continued to use the earlier Jebusite wall, although he erected a palace on the Millo, in the north-eastern extremity of the City of David. Solomon extended the city further, building a palace and the Temple on Mount Moriah. The third period of growth came under the rule of Uzziah, who reinforced the city walls and built towers. Hezekiah enlarged the city, with the creation of new quarters to the west of the City of David, and a new wall encompassing the City of David, the Temple Mount, and the Western Quarter, an area of no less than 25 acres (10 hectares). Manasseh was the last to refortify the city, and it was with these fortifications that Jerusalem faced the sieges of Nebuchadnezzar in 597 and 587 BC.
King Khanunu of Gaza facing Sargon II, plate 100 from Paul-Émile Botta and Eugène Flandin’s Monuments de Niniveh (Paris 1849–59). The Assyrian ruler on a chariot faces the defeated Philistine ruler of Gaza. (Author’s collection)
The political situation is reflected in the two main types of military fortification which characterized the Land of Israel in the Persian Period. Firstly, various small fortresses, garrisoned by Greek mercenaries, were erected by the Persian overlords to control the country; two examples include Hazor in Galilee and Beth Zur in Yahud. Secondly, the most important cities, which enjoyed a large degree of autonomy, were defended by city walls. By then much had changed. Sites such as Megiddo and Tel Beer-sheba were in ruin and lay all but forgotten. Others such as Hazor and Lachish were still in use, but had very different functions. Hazor in the Persian Period had a small fortress on the top of the tel, while at Lachish, now part of Edom, there was a small residence, probably that of a local governor. Shomeron was now the capital city of the eponymous province. However, no building or fortification from this period still stands. The remains of Persian Jerusalem are scant, and have been covered over by the later Hasmonean and Herodian strata.
Philistine prisoners, plate 92 from Paul-Émile Botta and Eugène Flandin’s Monuments de Niniveh (Paris 1849–59). (Author’s collection)