The Holy Land, at times variously named Canaan,1 Israel, the Levant or Palestine, has changed hands many times and has often been the center of conflict. The archaeology of Palestine is complex, in that it reflects all eras of the region’s long history.
Pre-Israelite Culture
Prehistoric and Early Bronze Age
Canaan was inhabited from prehistoric times. The earliest Stone Age culture was discovered at Mount Carmel, and remains of a later Stone Age culture, called the Natufian, were unearthed at Jericho. Agriculture and the production of pottery began during the Neolithic period,2 which is divided into “pre-pottery” and “pottery” periods. During the late fifth and fourth millenniums B.C. a culture called “Ghassulian” emerged in the southern Jordan Valley. Along with a site in Beersheba, this marked the beginning of the Chalcolithic Age in the region. Ghassulian pottery is remarkably advanced and attests to the sophistication of these early people.
The beginning of the Early Bronze Age (3400–2000 B.C.) in the Levant corresponds with late predynastic and early dynastic Egypt, around 3400–3000 B.C. Important Early Bronze I sites include Megiddo, Jericho, Ai and Beth Shan, all in northern or central Palestine; a more advanced culture developed in the southern part of the region somewhat later. An important Early Bronze II site in the south is Arad.3 The Early Bronze Age saw the beginning of urban culture in the land, with more or less autonomous city-states developing around major walled cities.
Around 2650–2350 B.C. a breakdown of unspecified origin occurred in urban culture, especially in the north. One suggested reason is that nomadic Amorites invaded the land and disrupted the culture. It is questionable, however, whether this change in culture can be attributed to an Amorite migration or invasion, and today many scholars reject this suggestion. Some believe that environmental problems were a more likely cause; Abraham is said to have gone down to Egypt because of a famine (Ge 12:10). The decline of Early Bronze culture in Canaan may be related to the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt in the twenty-second century B.C., as “Asiatics” (Semitic peoples from Canaan and Syria) pushed their way into Egypt.
Middle Bronze and Late Bronze Ages
A new urban culture, contemporary with the beginning of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt, arose at the start of the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000–1550 B.C.). Prominent cities included Tel Aphek, Byblos, Acco, Megiddo, Jericho and Beth Shan. The art of pottery-making advanced significantly as potters learned to use the fast wheel to fashion fine vessels. The Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe provides a portrait of Canaanite life at this time. The Middle Bronze Age in Canaan also spans the Hyksos era of the Second Intermediate period in Egypt; some have argued for a Hyksos presence in Canaan, but this is unlikely.4
There was a decline in the quality of material culture (especially pottery) in Canaan at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 B.C.), and there appears to have been a great deal of destruction during Late Bronze I (c. 1550–1400 B.C.). Egyptian rulers, especially Thutmose III (c. 1479–1425 B.C.), made forays into Canaan to keep the city-states there subservient to Egyptian demands, and Egyptian influence is evident at a number of sites (e.g., Megiddo). Many scholars, on the basis of destruction levels for various Late Bronze II sites, have argued that the Israelite invasion under Joshua occurred around 1250 B.C., but this argument has largely collapsed since in fact no cities, with the possible exception of Hazor,5 have destruction levels that fit this interpretation.
Israelite Culture
Although the Israelites appear to have invaded Canaan around 1400 B.C., they left almost no archaeological footprint until about 1200 B.C.6 During Iron I (usually dated c. 1200–1000 B.C.) the nation of Israel began to take shape. Examples of what appears to be Israelite material culture, such as the “four-room house” and “collar-rim” pottery, appear in the archaeology of this time. Hundreds of villages in central Canaan dated to this period may be regarded as Israelite. The Philistines first appeared in Canaan at this time as a part of the migration of the “Sea Peoples,” and examples of their material culture (such as a distinctive bichrome pottery that is comparable to a type of Mycenaean Greek pottery) began to appear.
Inasmuch as the Biblical record indicates that Israel was in the land and contending with various other enemies long before the Philistines became a threat, the argument that the Philistines and Israelites emerged in Canaan at about the same time is erroneous. Indeed, the presence of “Israel” on the Merneptah Stele (c. 1210 B.C.) strongly suggests that Israel was well established in the land prior to 1200 B.C., the beginning of the Iron I Age.7
During the Judges period the Israelites were held together by their common covenant with God, but constant pressure from outside enemies led them to seek protection in stronger political unity (1Sa 8:19–20). Saul was Israel’s first king, but the nation reached its cultural and political apex under David and Solomon (tenth century B.C.), when Israel dominated the entire Levant. Important physical remains from the united monarchy have been excavated at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer, where triple-gated city entryways and casemate walls illustrate the fortification work described in 1 Kings 9:15.8
Israelite supremacy was weakened by the division of the kingdom between Rehoboam and Jeroboam I (1Ki 12) and shattered by the raid of the Egyptian Shishak (1Ki 14:25–26). Indeed, Shishak’s attack seems to have been little more than a slash-and-burn campaign aimed at reducing Israel’s power vis-é-vis Egypt.9 The fortunes of Samaria (the northern kingdom of Israel)10 vacillated during the next two centuries. Samaria was sometimes powerful, under kings such as Omri and Jeroboam II, but notably weak at other times, as when under pressure from kings such as Hazael of Damascus.11 Samaria finally succumbed to Assyria around 720 B.C., and Judah, a relatively minor state, hung on until it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 B.C.12
The Persian Period
The land was fairly desolate during the exile, with all but the poorest Jews scattered across the Near East from Egypt to Babylonia. Other peoples began to migrate into the land. Edomites, perhaps impelled by Arabs exerting pressure from the south, moved north. The Samaritans, a people of partly Israelite and partly pagan origin, soon emerged.13 In 539 B.C. Cyrus II of Persia conquered Babylon, and by 500 B.C. all of the Near East was in Persian hands.14 Jews began to return to the land, but the situation was discouraging and little progress was made until Ezra and Nehemiah arrived during the fifth century to rebuild Jerusalem and reestablish the temple.
Archaeologically, this has been a somewhat dark period, but there have been some important finds. For example, papyri from Samaria containing legal documents dating to approximately 375–335 B.C. have been discovered at Wadi ed-Daliyeh in the central hill country of Israel. Numerous locations in the land have yielded evidence of Persian-era occupation levels, but, beyond the use of Persian royal names for dating purposes, little direct evidence of Persian influence has been found.
The Greek and Hasmonean Periods
Greek Rule
When Alexander the Great marched through the Levant in 333 B.C., he kept to the coastline in order to destroy the Persian navy and so bypassed Jewish areas. All of the Persian Empire fell under Greek control. After the death of Alexander (323 B.C.), a Greek family known as the Ptolemies took control of Egypt.15 The Levant fell under the control of the Ptolemies as well. The letters of Zenon, a business manager under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 B.C.), reveal that there was active trade between the Levant and Egypt in various food staples and in slave girls (used as prostitutes). Meanwhile, the process of Hellenization moved forward, with many societal leaders embracing Greek culture and religion.
Ptolemaic rule in the region continued until 200 B.C., when it fell under the rule of the Seleucids, the Greek rulers of Syria.16 The Seleucid who took the Levant from the Ptolemies was Antiochus III (223–187 B.C.). After losing Asia Minor to Rome in 189 B.C., however, Antiochus III found his kingdom in financial straits. His son, Seleucus IV (187–175 B.C.) failed in an attempt to plunder the riches of the Jewish temple, but Antiochus IV (175–164 B.C.) did so around 170 B.C. Antiochus IV is the best remembered Seleucid in Jewish history. Around 168 B.C. he destroyed much of Jerusalem, set up an altar to Zeus in the temple and forbade the observance of Judaism.17 The Jews, under Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, defeated the Seleucids in successive campaigns. Judas died in battle in 160 B.C., but his brother Jonathan took the lead until his death in approximately 142 B.C. He was in turn followed by a third brother, Simon (rulers in the Maccabean line are referred to as “Hasmoneans”).
Hasmonean Rule
By this time Judea had become all but independent (Simon became in effect both king and high priest, although the Hasmonean rulers typically presented themselves as high priests only). Simon was followed by his son John Hyrcanus I (134–104 B.C.), who extended the domain of Judah. After the brief reign of Aristobulus I (104–103 B.C.), the next Hasmonean leader was Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 B.C.), who continued to expand Judah’s domain through military means. Enormous ideological divisions developed in Jewish society, however—primarily between the more conservative and religious groups, led by the Pharisees, and the more Hellenized and aristocratic groups, led by the Sadducees.18 Alexander Jannaeus’s widow, Salome Alexandra, ruled after him, and with her death in 67 B.C. her sons Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II fought for the throne.
The Roman and Byzantine Periods
Roman Rule
By this time Rome had moved into the area. Pompey the Great destroyed the Seleucid kingdom, captured Jerusalem and set up the Decapolis as a region independent of Judean control. Hyrcanus II gained the high priesthood, but his political clout disappeared. The Idumean (i.e., Edomite) Antipater was given the title of “Procurator of Judaea” for services to Julius Caesar. In 40 B.C. the Parthians seized Jerusalem and reinstated Hasmonean rule in the person of Antigonus. Herod (the Great), son of the Idumean Antipater, escaped to Rome and returned with Roman forces to seize control of Jerusalem and, with Roman support, to claim the title of king.
Relief commemorating Roman victory over Judea
Preserving Bible Times; © Dr. James C. Martin; permission of Eretz Israel Museum
Herod ruled until 4 B.C., during which time he engaged in numerous building projects, including the port city of Caesarea Maritima, the palace-fortresses at Masada and Herodium, the Antonia fortress and the Jerusalem temple. Paranoid and vicious near the end of his life, he murdered several sons and left no clear heir.19 Emperor Augustus divided Herod’s domain among three of his surviving sons (Archelaus, Herod Antipas and Philip). The region was briefly united again under Herod Agrippa I, but with his death in A.D. 44 Herodian rule ended, and the Holy Land came under direct Roman control.
The mixture of Roman arrogance and Jewish antagonism to pagan rule proved lethal. The incompetent and heavy-handed administration of Gessius Florus, procurator in A.D. 64–66, proved to be intolerable, and the Jews revolted in A.D. 66. After initial successes they were crushed by a Roman army led by Vespasian and his son Titus. In A.D. 70 Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed amid horrific Jewish casualties.20 Caesarea Maritima, the governor’s city, became a Roman colony,21 and the center of Jewish religious life moved to Jamnia, a town located west of Jerusalem near the Mediterranean. In A.D. 132 Emperor Hadrian decided to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina. This provoked a rebellion under Simeon Bar Kosba, who was hailed as the messiah and called Bar Kokhba (“the son of the star”) by Rabbi Akiba. The fighting was ferocious and ended in the near extermination of Jews in the region and in an edict forbidding them from entering Jerusalem. Christians, who did not join in the revolt, fared better.
Byzantine Rule
The Roman Empire eventually split into two parts, with the eastern portion governed from the city of Byzantium (also called Constantinople and now Istanbul). Thus, the region now known as Palestine fell under Byzantine control. The conversion of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine I to Christianity (A.D. 312) greatly enhanced the prestige of the region as shrines, pilgrimage sites and churches were built with imperial patronage.22 Archaeology has recovered remains from many of these sites, and archaeological reports frequently mention finds from the Byzantine period. Except for the occasional revolt, the region enjoyed a prolonged period of peace under Byzantine rule.
Islamic Rule
The rise of Islam brought an Arab invasion from the east. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, called for a jihad to take the region and, after a bloody conflict with Byzantine forces, the land fell to Umar I in A.D. 636. Thereafter, the Holy Land came under the rule of the Umayyads, and the process of Arabizing the region and converting it to Islam began. In A.D. 691 Muslims built the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount, claiming this to be the spot from which Mohammed had ascended to heaven. Other Muslim dynasties (the Abbasid, the Ikhshidid and the Fatimid) successively seized control of the area.
The Fatimid rulers, and in particular the Caliph al-Hakim (A.D. 996–1021), were harsh toward Christians. In reaction, the western churches began the crusades. By A.D. 1100 Jerusalem was in crusader hands. Prolonged wars between Muslims and crusaders ensued. The Muslims won decisive victories under the leadership of Saladin (A.D. 1137–1193), and by A.D. 1291 the Holy Land was again securely in Muslim hands. Meanwhile, a Turkish-speaking military aristocracy called the Mamelukes had wrested power in Egypt and became rulers as well in the Levant. The Near East was then convulsed by the invasion of the Mongols, and the weakened Mamelukes fell to the Ottoman Turks in A.D. 1516.
The otherwise highly contested region was more or less isolated during 300 years of Ottoman rule, although it was often troubled internally by revolts and massacres, as well as by wars among factions vying for power in the empire. Direct European involvement began again with Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt (A.D. 1798–1801). Thereafter, a weakened Ottoman Empire was at times propped up by European support. French, Russian and German settlements appeared in the region, and the first Zionist settlement sprang up in A.D. 1882. In 1896 Theodor Herzl wrote a pamphlet advocating the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
The British Mandate
World War I brought about decisive changes. There was extensive fighting in Palestine itself during the war, and the decrepit Ottoman Empire finally expired. In 1917 British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, hoping for Jewish support in the war effort, issued the “Balfour Declaration,” which advocated a Jewish state in Palestine. In the aftermath of the war, Arabs rejected the Balfour Declaration and elected Faysal to rule a united Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. However, a conference in 1920 mandated Syria and Lebanon to the French and Palestine to the British. Faysal’s short-lived kingdom ended, and Arabs referred to 1920 as “the year of catastrophe.” During the 1930s, with the rise of Nazism, large numbers of Jews began immigrating to Palestine, and serious conflicts between Jews and Arabs began to occur. British policy vacillated between support for the Jews and for the Arabs.
World War II and the holocaust led to massive Jewish immigration into the region. The Arab League officially opposed a Zionist state in Palestine, but western powers, especially the United States, were sympathetic to the Jewish position, and the Jews themselves were determined never again to allow themselves to be in a position where a pogrom or holocaust could devastate their numbers. In 1947 the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab, but the plan met with armed resistance from Palestinian Arabs. Zionists routed the Arabs in early 1948, however, and the British Mandate came to an end. On May 14, 1948, the modern state of Israel was created. By the end of the year all opposing Arab armies had been defeated, and Israel was a member of the United Nations.
Israel and Palestine
During the ensuing years many Palestinian Arabs left the Israeli territory for either the Palestinian area (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) or for other lands. In 1964 the Palestinian Liberation Organization emerged, and guerilla movements such as Fatah began their activities. In the 1967 war the Israeli military decisively defeated all Arab forces arrayed against the nation and took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (also the Sinai, which returned to Egyptian hands after the Yom Kippur war of 1973). Jordan drove Palestinian guerrilla units out of its territory, and the Palestinians fled into Lebanon, with the result that Lebanon itself was convulsed by civil wars. Israelis continued to battle Palestinian guerrillas and terrorists based in the occupied territories and in Lebanon.
The archaeology of this land, then, is not just concerned with Biblical history but with all eras, from the Stone Age to the modern. At any given site archaeologists may find Chalcolithic, Middle Bronze, Iron I, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Crusader and/or Ottoman occupation levels, as well as artifacts from the countless invaders who had passed through. The progress of archaeology is, of course, seriously hindered by modern conflicts. The history of the promised land has long been written in blood.
1. See Glossary for definitions of bolded words.
2. See “Archaeological Periods Chart.”
4. See “The Hyksos and the Old Testament.”
6. See “Changes in Canaan.”
7. See “The Merneptah Stele.”
8. See “The Building Activity of Solomon.”
9. See “The Campaign of Shishak.”
10. See “Omri and Samaria.”
11. See “Hazael, the Nemesis of Israel.”
12. See “The Last Days of Jerusalem.”
13. See “The Samaritans.”
14. See “Cyrus the Great.”
15. See “The Ptolemies.”
16. See “The Seleucids.”
17. See “Antiochus IV Epiphanes.”
18. See “The Pharisees” and “The Sadducees.”
19. See “Herod the Great.”
20. See “Josephus and the Fall of Jerusalem.”
21. See “Caesarea Maritima.”
22. See “Constantine and Queen Helena’s Role in Preserving Holy Sites.”