Reconstructing biblical military campaigns using geomagnetic field data.

The Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts describe Egyptian, Aramean, Assyrian, and Babylonian military campaigns to the Southern Levant during the 10th to sixth centuries BCE. Indeed, many destruction layers dated to this period have been unearthed in archaeological excavations. Several of these layers are securely linked to specific campaigns and are widely accepted as chronological anchors. However, the dating of many other destruction layers is often debated, challenging the ability to accurately reconstruct the different military campaigns and raising questions regarding the historicity of the biblical narrative. Here, we present a synchronization of the historically dated chronological anchors and other destruction layers and artifacts using the direction and/or intensity of the ancient geomagnetic field recorded in mud bricks from 20 burnt destruction layers and in two ceramic assemblages. During the period in question, the geomagnetic field in this region was extremely anomalous with rapid changes and high-intensity values, including spikes of more than twice the intensity of today's field. The data are useful in the effort to pinpoint these short-term variations on the timescale, and they resolve chronological debates regarding the campaigns against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the relationship between the two kingdoms, and their administrations

Archaelogy and history of eighth-century Judah

Resumen: Ensayos de un grupo internacional de expertos sobre el antiguo Cercano Oriente y la Biblia hebrea que honran el trabajo pionero de Oded Borowski en la arqueología y la historia del antiguo Israel y Judá. Los colaboradores abordan la cuestión de lo que sabemos del Judá del siglo VIII desde múltiples ángulos, incluyendo un estudio de los vecinos de Judá, la tierra de Judá y sus ciudades, la vida diaria y la cultura material, las creencias y prácticas religiosas, y las primeras formas de lo que ahora son los textos bíblicos. Entre los colaboradores se encuentran Rami Arav, Shawn Zelig Aster, Assaf Avraham, Jeffrey A. Blakely, Sandra Blakely, Elizabeth Bloch-Smith, Efrat Bocher, Erin Darby, Jennie Ebeling, Zev I. Farber, Avraham Faust, Daniel E. Fleming, Yuval Gadot, Kristine Garroway, Seymour Gitin, James W. Hardin, Gilad Itach, Hayah Katz, Reinhard G. Kratz, Joel M. LeMon, Shani Libi, Oded Lipschits, Donald Redford, Christopher Rollston, Bruce Routledge, Yair Sapir, Konrad Schmid, Cynthia Shafer-Elliott, Brent A. Strawn, Andy Vaughn, Jacob L. Wright, y K. Lawson Younger Jr. Características: - Énfasis en la influencia de Asiria en las culturas políticas, religiosas y materiales de Judá; Múltiples modelos para las primeras etapas de la escritura y composición bíblica; Información actualizada sobre tipologías de cerámica