ANE 230 - Early Israelite State Formation

ANE 230: Seminar in Ancient Syria/Palestine
Spring 2003
Tuesdays, 1-3:50 PM, Bunche 3161

Topic: State formation in Palestine during the Iron Age
Instructor: Robert A. Mullins
E-mail: rmullins@humnet.ucla.edu
Office: 394 Kinsey Hall.
Hours: Tuesdays, 11 AM -12:30 PM; 4-6 PM

Description: This seminar examines the origin and development of the state during the Iron Age using ancient Israel as a case-study. The course will proceed on three levels: archaeological, historical and textual. The methodologies inherent in each approach and a comparison and critique of each in light of modern methods of research are central to the discussion. There are three parts. In the first, we will examine various anthropological models on state formation which have been applied mainly to the ancient Near East. In the second, we will look at the socio-political setting and archaeological background of Late Bronze I-Iron Age II Palestine. In the third and final part, we will investigate four main controversies surrounding the emergence of Israel and the rise of the Israelite state. Requirements: Students must attend class, complete the assigned readings, participate in assigned individual/group presentations, and complete a term paper on an assigned topic that is due by the end of the last class.

Texts: Each class session has a series of readings that must be completed according to the instructor’s guidelines. The books below are recommended for general background reading and reference. When known, the YRL call numbers are given in parenthesis.

Sessions 1-2. Introduction to the course. General models of state formation as viewed through the archaeological record and current anthropological theory. Questions for consideration: What forces contribute to the rise of states? When is a state a state?

	E. R. Service, Primitive Social Organization. An Evolutionary Perspective. 2nd edition. New York: Random House, 1971.
	R. L. Carneiro, A Theory of the Organization of the State. Science 169 (1970): 733-39.
	H. J. M. Claessen, The Internal Dynamics of the Early State. Current Anthropology 25 (1984): 365-79.
	H. Wright, Recent Research on the Origin of the State. Annual Review of Anthropology 6 (1977): 379-97.
.pdf	B. Price, Secondary State Formation: An Explanatory Model. Pp. 161-86 in R. Cohen and E. R. Service (eds). Origins of the State. The Anthropology of Political Evolution. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1978 (GN492.6 .O69).
	D. Esse, Secondary State Formation and Collapse in Early Bronze Age Palestine. Pp. 81-96 in P. de Miroschedji (ed). L'urbanisation de la Palestine a l'age du Bronze ancien. BAR International Series 527. Oxford, 1989.
	G. Buccelatti, Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria. Studi Semitici 26. Rome: Instituto di studi del vicino oriente, 1967.
	C. M. Sinopoli, The Archaeology of Empires: A View from South Asia. BASOR 299/300 (1995): 3-9.
	R. L. Carneiro, The Chiefdom: Precursor of the State. In G. D. Jones and R. R. Kautz (eds.) The Transition to Statehood in the New World. Cambridge, 1981 (E59.T75 T7).
	R. Cohen, Warfare and State Formation. H. J. M. Claessen, P. V. de Velde and M. E. Smith (eds). Development and Decline: The Evolution of Sociopolitical Organization. South Hadley: Bergin and Garvey, 1985.
	R. E. Blanton, et al. Ancient Qaxaca: the Monte Albán State. Cambridge, 1999 (F1219.1.O2 A63).

Part II: The socio-political setting and archaeological context of Late Bronze II-Iron I Palestine (ca. 1400-1000 BCE)

Sessions 3-4. Late Bronze Age Palestine under Egyptian control. Socio-political setting and organization of Iron I Palestine. The problem of ethnicity: a case study of highland populations compared to Canaanites and Philistines. Questions for consideration: What circumstances contributed to the rise of the Israelite state? Can one deduce this from the archaeological data? Can one detect ethnicity in the archaeological record?

.pdf	S. Bunimovitz, Socio-Political Transformations in the Central Hill County in the Late Bronze-Iron Age I Transition. Pp. 179-202 in I. Finkelstein and N. Na’aman (eds). From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994.
	I. Finkelstein, The Territorial-Political System of Canaan in the Late Bronze Age. Ugarit Forschungen 28:221-55.
.pdf	I. Singer, Egyptians, Canaanites and Philistines in the Period of the Emergence of Israel. Pp. 282-38 in From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994.
.pdf	J. Portugali, Theoretical Speculations on the Transition from Nomadism to Monarchy. Pp. 203-217 in From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994.
	W. G. Dever, Ceramics, Ethnicity, and the Question of Israel’s Origins. Near Eastern Archaeology 58/4 (1995): 200-13.
	I. Finkelstein, Pots and People Revisted: Ethnic Boundaries in the Iron Age I. Pp. 216-37 in N. A. Silberman and D. Small (eds). The Archaeology of Israel: Constructing the Past, Interpreting the Present. Sheffield, 1997.
	I. Finkelstein, Ethnicity and the origin of the Iron I settlers in the Highlands of Canaan. Can the Real Israel Stand Up? Biblical Archaeologist 59/4 (1996): 198-212.
	A. Faust, Ethnic Complexity in Northern Israel during Iron Age II. Palestine Exploration Quarterly (January-June 2000).

Session 5. Patterns of settlement, stratigraphy, architecture, pottery, and ethnicity for Iron II Palestine (10th – 6th centuries BCE). Question for consideration: Can one deduce statehood from the settlement patterns and the kinds of material culture that one finds?

	W. G. Dever, Archaeology in the ‘Age of Solomon’: A Case Study in Archaeology and Historiography. L. K. Handy (ed.), The Age of Solomon: scholarship at the turn of the millennium. Leiden: Brill, 1997 (BS580.S6 A34).
	A. Ben-Tor and D. Ben-Ami, Hazor and the Archaeology of the Tenth Century BCE. Israel Exploration Journal 48: 1-37.
	G. J. Wightman, The Myth of Solomon. BASOR 277-278 (1990): 5-22.
.pdf	L. G. Herr, The Iron Age II Period: Emerging Nations. Near Eastern Archaeology 60/3 (1997): 114-83.
	I. Finkelstein, Omride Architecture. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 116 (2000): 114-38.
	A. Mazar, General Aspects of the Israelite Material Culture. Pp. 463-530 in Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

The following four controversies are among the sharpest at present. For each issue in the debate (Sessions 6-9) the class will be divided into two or more groups. Each group will have its own bibliography representing a side of the issue. Each group will then divide the articles among themselves, read the one(s) assigned to them, and meet before class to discuss their joint position to present in class. Once the sides have put forth their views, we will critique the views and try to determine which have the stronger argument based on the evidence as we understand it.

Session 6: Controversy I. The emergence and establishment of an ancient Israelite state

	C. Schaefer-Lichtenberger. Sociological and Biblical Views of the Early State. Pp. 78-105 in V. Fritz and P. R. Davies (eds.) The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States. JSOT Supp Series 228. Sheffield, 1996.
	N. P. Lemche. From Patronage Society to Patronage Society. Pp. 106-20 in The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States. JSOT Supp Series 228. Sheffield, 1996.
.pdf	I. Finkelstein, The Emergence of Early Israel: Anthropology, Environment and Archaeology. Journal of the American Oriental Society 110 (1991): 677-86.
.pdf	H. M. Niemann, Megiddo and Solomon: A Biblical Investigation in Relation to Archaeology. Tel Aviv 27/1 (2000): 61-74.
	A. J. Frendo, Ancient Israel – An Invention? Review Article. Palestine Exploration Quarterly (July-December 1998).
.pdf	D. Master, State Formation Theory and the Kingdom of Ancient Israel. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 60 (2001): 117-31.
.pdf	I. Finkelstein, State formation in Israel and Judah: a contrast in context, a contrast in trajectory. Near Eastern Archaeology 62/1 (1999): 35-52.
.pdf	A. H. Joffe, The Rise of Secondary States in the Iron Age Levant. JESHO 45/4 (2003).

Session 7: Controversy II. The “tenth century” debate (Finkelstein vs. Mazar)

.pdf	I. Finkelstein, The Date of the Settlement of the Philistines in Canaan. Tel Aviv 22 (1995): 213-37.
.pdf	I. Finkelstein, The Archaeology of the United Monarchy: An Alternative View. Levant 28 (1996): 177-87.
.pdf	A. Mazar, Iron Age Chronology: A Reply to I. Finkelstein. Levant 29 (1997): 157-67.
.pdf	I. Finkelstein, Bible Archaeology or Archaeology of Palestine in the Iron Age? A Rejoinder. Levant 30 (1998): 167-74.
.pdf	I. Finkelstein, Hazor XII-XI with an Addendum on Ben-Tor’s Dating of Hazor X-VII. Tel Aviv 27/2 (2000): 231-47.
.pdf	I. Finkelstein, Hazor and the North in the Iron Age: A Low Chronology Perspective. BASOR 314 (1999): 55-70.
	I. Finkelstein, The Campaign of Sheshonq I to Palestine – A Guide to the 10th Century BCE Polity. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 118 (2002).

.pdf	G. Knoppers, The Vanishing Solomon: The Disappearance of the United Monarchy in Recent Histories of Ancient Israel. Journal of Biblical Literature 116 (1997): 19-44.
	S. Bunimovitz and A. Faust, Chronological separation, geographical segregation or ethnic demarcation? Ethnography and the Iron Age Low Chronology. BASOR 322 (2001): 1-10.
.pdf	H. M. Niemann, Megiddo and Solomon: A Biblical Investigation in Relation to Archaeology. Tel Aviv 27/1 (2000): 61-74.

.pdf	M. Steiner, David's Jerusalem: Fiction or Reality? It's Not There: Archaeology Proves a Negative. Biblical Archaeology Review 24/4 (1998): 26-33, 62-63.
.pdf	J. Cahill, David's Jerusalem: Fiction or Reality? It Is There: The Archaeological Evidence Proves It. Biblical Archaeology Review 24/4 (1998): 34-41, 63.
	M. Steiner, Jerusalem in the Tenth and Seventh Centuries BCE: From Administrative Town to Commercial City. Pp. 280-88 in Amihai Mazar (ed). Studies in The Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan. JSOT Supplement 331. Sheffield, 2001.
.pdf	J. Cahill, Jerusalem at the Time of the United Monarchy: The Archaeological Evidence. Pp. 13-80 in A. Killebrew and A. G. Vaughn (eds.) Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003.

.pdf	N. Naaman, The Contribution of the Amarna Letters to the Debate on Jerusalem’s Political Position in the 10th Century BCE. BASOR 304 (1996):17-27.
.pdf	N. Naaman, Cow Town or Royal Capital? Evidence for Iron Age Jerusalem. Biblical Archaeology Review 23/4 (1997): 43-47, 67.
.pdf	N. Naaman, David’s Jerusalem: Fiction or Reality? It is There: Ancient Texts Prove It. Biblical Archaeology Review 24/4 (1998): 42-44.
.pdf	E. A. Knauf, Jerusalem in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages: A Proposal. Tel Aviv 27/1 (2000): 75-90.
.pdf	I. Finkelstein, The Rise of Jerusalem and Judah: the Missing Link. Levant 33 (2001): 105-115.

Session 9: Controversy IV. Using the Bible and other written evidence as sources for historical reconstruction

.pdf	F. Frick, Social Science Methods and Theories of Significance for the Study of the Israelite Monarchy: A Critical Review. Pp. 9-52 in N. K. Gottwald (ed) Social Scientific Criticism of the Hebrew Bible and Its Social World: The Israelite Monarchy. Semeia 37. Decatur: Scholar’s Press, 1986.
.pdf	M. Chaney, Systemic Study of the Israelite Monarchy. Pp. 53-76 in N. K. Gottwald (ed) Social Scientific Criticism of the Hebrew Bible and Its Social World: The Israelite Monarchy. Semeia 37. Decatur: Scholar’s Press, 1986.
.pdf	R. B. Coote and K. W. Whitelam, The Emergence of Israel: Social Transformation and State Formation Following the Decline in Late Bronze Age Trade. Pp. 107-147 in N. K. Gottwald (ed) Social Scientific Criticism of the Hebrew Bible and Its Social World: The Israelite Monarchy. Semeia 37. Decatur: Scholar’s Press, 1986.
.pdf	N. K. Gottwald, The Participation of Free Agrarians in the Introduction of Monarchy to Ancient Israel: An Application of H. A. Landsberger's Framework for the Analysis of Peasant Movements. Pp. 77-106 in N. K. Gottwald (ed) Social Scientific Criticism of the Hebrew Bible and Its Social World: The Israelite Monarchy. Semeia 37. Decatur: Scholar’s Press, 1986.
.pdf	H. Shanks, Biblical Minimalists Meet Their Challengers Face to Face." Biblical Archaeology Review 23/4 (1997): 26-42, 66.
.pdf	B. Halpern, Erasing History. Bible Review 11 (1995): 26-35, 47.
.pdf	A. Hurvitz, The Historical Quest for “Ancient Israel” and the Linguistic Evidence of the Hebrew Bible: Some Methodological Observations. Vetus Testamentum 47 (1997): 310-15.
.pdf	W. G. Dever, Archaeology, Ideology, and the Quest for an “Ancient” or “Biblical Israel.” Near Eastern Archaeology 61/1 (1998).
	W. M. Schniedewind, How The Bible Became A Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

J. H. Steward, Theory of culture change: the methodology of multilinear evolution. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979.

M. E. Sahlins and E. Service (eds). Evolution and Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1960.

E. R. Service, The Origins of the state and civilization: the process of cultural evolution. New York: Norton, 1975 (GN490 .S49o).

A. Southall, A Critique of the Typology of States and Political Systems. M. Banton (ed). Political Systems and the Distribution of Power. London: Tavistock, 1965 (JC330 .P759).

C. Spencer, On the Tempo and Mode of State Formation: Neoevolutionism Reconsidered. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9 (1990): 1.

H. T. Wright, The Evolution of Civilizations. D. J. Meltzer, D. D. Fowler & J. A. Sabloff (eds). American Archaeology Past and Future. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1986.

W. T. Sanders and D. Webster, Unilineality, Multilineality and the Evolution of Complex Societies. Pp. 249-302 in C. L. Redman, et al. (eds). Social Archaeology. New York: Academic Press, 1978.

B. Price, Secondary State Formation: An Explanatory Model. Pp. 161-86 in R. Cohen and E. R. Service (eds). Origins of the State: The Anthropology of Political Evolution. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1978 (GN492.6 .O69).

D. Esse, Secondary State Formation and Collapse in Early Bronze Age Palestine. Pp. 81-96 in P. de Miroschedji, ed. L'urbanisation de la Palestine a l'age du Bronze ancien. BAR International Series 527, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

A. Joffe, The Rise of Secondary States in the Iron Age. Levant. JESHO 45:4.

R. L. Carneiro, The Chiefdom: Precursor of the State. G. D. Jones and R. R. Kautz (eds). The Transition to Statehood in the New World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981 (E59.T75 T7).

R. L. Carneiro, Chiefdoms and early states in the Near East: the organizational dynamics of complexity. G. Stein and M. S. Rothman (eds). Monographs in World Archaeology, no. 18. Madison: Prehistory Press, 1994 (GN778.2 U22 C48).

G. Buccelatti, Cities and Nations of Ancient Syria. Studi Semitici 26. Rome: Instituto di studi del vicino oriente, 1967.

R. L. Carneiro, A Theory of the Organization of the State. Science 169 (1970): 733-39.

K. Newman, Law and Economic Organization: A Comparative Study of Pre-Industrial Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

A. Baram, A Case of Imported Identity, The Modernizing Secular Ruling Elites of Iraq and the Concept of Mesopotamian-Inspired Territorial Nationalism, 1922-1992. Poetics Today 15 (1994): 297.

C. M. Sinopoli, The Archaeology of Empires: A View from South Asia. BASOR 299/300 (1995): 3-9.

C. M. Sinopoli, The Archaeology of Empires. Annual Review of Anthropology 23 (1994): 159.

A. C. Renfrew and J. F. Cherry (eds). Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-Political Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

M. J. Rowlands, M. Larsen and K. Kristiansen (eds). Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World. Cambridge University Press, 1987.

C. Edens, Synamics of Trade in the Ancient Mesopotamian World System. American Anthropologist 1992.

N. Yoffee and G. Cowgill (eds). The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1987.

C. Renfrew, Systems Collapse as Social Transformation: Catastrophe and Anastrophe in Early State Societies. Pp. 64-85 in C. Renfrew and K. L. Cooke (eds). Transformations: Mathematical Approaches to Cultural Change. New York: Academic Press, 1979.

J. A. Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

P. P. Abrams, Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State. Journal of Historical Sociology 1 (1988): 58-89.

T. P. Mitchell, The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics. The American Political Science Review 85 (1991): 77-96.

H. J. Claessen and J. G. Oosten, Introduction. In H. J. Claessen and J. G. Oosten, (eds). Ideology and the Formation of Early States. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.

K. A. Bard, Toward an Interpretation of the Role of Ideology in the Evolution of Complex Society in Egypt. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 11 (1992): 1.

D. J. Saitta, Agency, Class, and Archaeological Interpretation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13 (1994): 201.

C. L. Redman, Mesopotamian Urban Ecology: The Systemic Context of the Emergence of Urbanism. In C. L. Redman, M. J. Berman, E. V. Curtin, J. W. T. Langhorne et al. (eds). Social Archaeology: Beyond Subsistence and Dating. New York: Academic Press, 1978.

D. Webster, Warfare and the Evolution of the State: A Reconsideration. American Antiquity 40 (1975): 464.

R. M. Adams, The Evolution of Urban Society. New York: Aldine Publishing Co., 1966.

G. Algaze, Initial Social Complexity in Southwestern Asia: The Mesopotamia Advantage. Current Anthropology (1966).

G. M. Feinman and L. Manzanilla (eds). Cultural evolution: contemporary viewpoints. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2000 (GN281 .C85).

A. Wolters and G. J. Brooks, The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States. JSOT Supp Series 228. Sheffield Academic Press, 1996.

I. Finkelstein, The Iron Age: The Tel Masos “chiefdom” and the rise of the Israelite monarchy. Pp. 103-26 in Living on the Fringe: The Archaeology and History of the Negev, Sinai and Neighboring Regions in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Sheffield, 1995. (.pdf)

I. Finkelstein, The Emergence of the Monarchy in Israel: The Environmental and Socio-Economic Aspects. JSOT 44 (1989): 43-74.

C. Hauer, From Alt to Anthropology: The Rise of the Israelite State. JSOT 36 (1986): 3-15.

D. Edelman (ed). Towards a Consensus of the Emergence of Israel in Canaan. Scandanavian Journal of the Old Testament 1991/2. Aarhus, 1991.

I. Finkelstein and N. Naaman (eds). From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994.

V. Fritz and P. R. Davies (eds). The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States. JSOT Supp Series 228. Sheffield, 1996.

R. B. Coote and K. W. Whitelam, The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective. Social World of Biblical Antiquity Series 5. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1987.

J. W. Flanagan, David’s Social Drama. Social World of Biblical Antiquity Series 7. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1988.

R. Cohen, The Iron Age Fortresses in the Central Negev. BASOR 236 (1980): 61-79.

I. Finkelstein and N. Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

A. Opher, "All the Hill Country of Judah": From a Settlement Fringe to a Prosperous Monarchy. Pp. 92-121 in I. Finkelstein and N. Na’aman (eds). From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994. (.pdf)

Z. Herzog, The Beer-Sheba Valley: From Nomadism to Monarchy. Pp. 122-149 in I. Finkelstein and N. Na’aman (eds). From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994.

T. L. Thompson, Early History of the Israelite People. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992.

P. R. Davies, In Search of "Ancient Israel." JSOT Supp 148. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992.

W. G. Dever, What did the biblical writers know, and when did they know it? What archaeology can tell us about the reality of ancient Israel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001. (YRL: BS1180 .D66).

J. A. Blakely, Reconciling Two Maps: Archaeological Evidence for the Kingdoms of David and Solomon. BASOR 327 (2002): 49-54.