There Was No Gap - The BAS Library

Endnotes

1.

William F. Albright, The Archaeology of Palestine (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1949), p. 142; The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1949), p. 86.

2.

Ephraim Stern’s BAR article is based on the relevant chapter of his recently published The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods (732–332 B.C.E.), Archaeology of the Land of the Bible series, vol. 2 (New York, NY: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 304–331.); I will refer to both the article and the book, but principally to the latter, which, unfortunately, has no notes or references. I will also refer to relevant articles in Stern, ed., The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (NEAEHL), 4 vol. (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993), and Eric M. Meyers, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East (OEANE), 5 vol. (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997), both of which are well documented.

3.

Yigal Shiloh, NEAEHL 3, p. 1023; David Ussishkin, OEANE 3, p. 468; Amnon Ben-Tor, NEAEHL 3, pp. 807–811; 3, p. 1228; OEANE 4, p. 338; 5, pp. 382–383.

4.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 315; Dor Ruler of the Seas (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1974), p. 147.

5.

Josephus, Against Apion I 144, 156, 159.

6.

Dothan found evidence of burning in two buildings from Iron Age IIB-III. He dated the lower phase to the reign of Sennacherib and the upper to that of Ashurbanipal (NEAEHL 1, p. 22). William G. Dever agrees: “The site was destroyed by fire, probably in the late 8th century B.C.E.” (OEANE 2, p. 55).

7.

Jean-Baptiste Humbert in NEAEHL 3, p. 867; William G. Dever arrived at the same conclusion in OEANE 3, p. 279.

8.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 315.

9.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 316.

10.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 316; emphasis mine.

11.

Moshe Dothan, NEAEHL 1, p. 100; William G. Dever, OEANE 1, pp. 219–220.

12.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 318. Oren’s reports are in Excavations and Explorations in Israel 2 (1983), pp. 33–35; 3 (1984), pp. 27–30; 4 (1985), pp. 31–33; 9 (1989/1990), pp. 69–73; also NEAEHL 2, p. 583 and OEANE 2, p. 476.

13.

See David Ussishkin, “The Date of the Judean Shrine at Arad,” Israel Exploration Journal 38 (1988), pp. 142–157. On Arad ostracon #14, referring to measures to be taken in the event of an Edomite attack, see Yohanan Aharoni, Arad Inscriptions (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1981), pp. 46–49. Aharoni’s stratigraphy has also been questioned by Yigael Yadin, Ehud Netzer, Amihai Mazar and others.

14.

NEAEHL 1, pp. 249–253. Stern (Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 325) is not clear on the subject of Beth-Shemesh. He does not say it was destroyed in 586, but it is classed with major towns in western Judah which were all totally destroyed. Earlier (p. 147) he states it was destroyed in 701 B.C.E.

15.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 324.

16.

Yohanan Aharoni, BASOR 224 (1976), pp. 73–90; David Ussishkin, BASOR 223 (1976), pp. 6–11; Rafi Greenberg, OEANE 1, p. 296.

17.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 323.

18.

Stern, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, p. 308. Among the Biblical scholars, archaeologists, historians and epigraphers assembled at a recent (May 29–31, 2001) conference on the Neo-Babylonian period at Tel Aviv University, there was broad though not unanimous agreement on continuity of material culture during the last phase of Iron Age II.

19.

Affirmed by Stern in Dor, p. 147 (“The Babylonians adopted and perpetuated the organizational structure of the Assyrian empire”) and denied in Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods, pp. 307–308 (“The Babylonians created a new administrative organization, different from that of their predecessors”).