Edom in the Iron I

Abstract

Following her excavations in three Iron Age sites in Edom, Crystal-M. Bennett concluded that the region was not inhabited prior to c. 800 B.C. This view has been accepted by all archaeologists working in southern Transjordan. But Iron I sherds which were found at scores of Edomite sites—including Umm el-Biyara, Tawilan and Buseirah—and which were wrongly dated to the Iron II, call for a reevaluation of the archaeological data. Consequently, the history of Edom in the Iron I and in the early Iron II should also be reconsidered.