Archaeology and the Era of Settlement

All scholars working in the field of biblical archaeology recognize the existence of a significant process of settlement in the central mountainous region of Eretz Yisrael, starting from the 13th century B.C.E., as manifest in the establishment of hundreds of small points of settlement bearing a unique character. These villages stand out in their modesty and simplicity, with no decorations on the clay vessels and almost no jewelry; they possess a special form of construction of houses, and a number of other characteristics.

The main controversy among archaeologists concerns the question of the identity of these new settlers. The minimalist school maintains that what became known as Am Yisrael was actually formed out of a collection of local nomadic groups who abandoned their villages on the coastal plain or in the Negev, and settled in these new areas. Not only was there no sojourn in, and no exodus from Egypt, but there is no evidence as to the invasion of the land of Israel by an external population. Rather, the process of settlement described above is a phenomenon that began from within the country, by the ancient inhabitants of the land. These settlers slowly invented for themselves an Israelite identity and stories about the origins of their existence, such as the stories about the forefathers and the Exodus. Hundreds of years later, these stories were committed to writing, and thus the majority of the Tanakh came into being.

However, there is a wide gap between the claim that there is no evidence of the entry of any external population into the land – itself a weak argument – and the actual evidence. This once again points to the issue of whether this is a genuine archaeological dispute or a dispute over fundamental world-views, whose roots have nothing to do with archaeology. 

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Edited by the HaTanakh Site team

Courtesy of the Virtual Beit Midrash, Yeshivat Har Etzion