The Rural Settlement in Judah in the Sixth Century B.C.E.: A Rejoinder

Abstract

A revival of an ultra-conservative thesis, supporting the reality of the 'empty land' biblical descriptions and the historicity of the 'Babylonian gap' in Judah, may be detected in recent research. The present paper claims that the major and most conspicuous archaeological phenomenon in Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem is the sharp decline in urban life, which is in contrast to the continuity of the rural settlements in the region of Benjamin and in the area between Bethlehem and Beth-Zur. These archaeological investigations demonstrate that a new pattern of settlement was created in Judah, in which the core settlements were destroyed or abandoned while, at the same time, the surrounding region continued to exist almost unchanged. The differences between the various regions of this small kingdom should be understood as the outcome of a planned Babylonian policy of using some of the rural highland areas as a source for agricultural products. The settlement in those areas became a place of specialized wine and oil production, and was used both for paying the taxes and supplying the basic products for the Babylonian administration and forces stationed in the area. A similar situation is detectable in the area south of Rabbath-Ammon, around Tell el 'Umeiri and Tell Hesbân, and perhaps also in the Baq'ah region, north of Rabbath-Ammon.