This view is associated with the name of Israel Finkelstein. Note his plenary talk at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Nashville, November 2000, entitled “Archaeology and the Biblical Text 2000: The View from the Center.” And now see the coauthored volume: Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed (New York: Free Press, 2001), p. 14 and passim.