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Israelite Settlement Surveys

Hundreds of new hill-country villages appear around 1200 BCE

Conquest & Judges · city / site, palace / house, pottery / vessel · Accepted by scholars · found 1978

Stone foundations of a pillared four-room house
Photo: Claude Valette · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Found 1978 — Adam Zertal (Manasseh Hill Country Survey, 1978–2015); Israel Finkelstein (Land of Ephraim Survey, 1980s); Avi Ofer (Judah); with earlier work by Moshe Kochavi (1968)

Where Central hill country from the Jezreel Valley to Hebron (Israel / West Bank)

Dates from c. 1200–1000 BCE · Iron Age I · Conquest and Judges

Now at Survey data published by the Israel Antiquities Authority, University of Haifa, and Tel Aviv University

How Israelite Settlement Surveys was found

Teams walked the hills field by field after 1967, collecting surface pottery. They found that the Late Bronze highlands held a few dozen sites, but by Iron I there were more than 250 small new villages, mostly on previously empty hilltops, with pillared houses, silos, and collared-rim jars.

What it is

A pattern rather than a single object: unwalled villages of 1–3 acres, houses of the 'four-room' type, rock-cut cisterns, terraced slopes, hand-dug silos, and large collared-rim storage jars. Pig bones are almost absent, unlike at Philistine sites.

Why it matters for the Bible

This is the most solid archaeological fact about early Israel: a new population filled the hills exactly where Yehoshua and Shoftim place the tribes, at exactly the time the Merneptah Stele names 'Israel.' Scholars disagree about who they were. Some see conquerors from outside, others pastoral nomads settling down, others Canaanite peasants moving uphill. The Bible itself mixes all three: Yehoshua 17:14-18 shows tribes clearing forest to build, and Shoftim 1 shows many cities never taken.

The Hebrew word: nah-chah-LAH

נַחֲלָה

נַחֲלָה is pronounced nah-chah-LAH and means inheritance, tribal allotment (Strong's H5159).

People this discovery connects to

Places

Events

Tribal allotments in the hill country (Joshua 13-19) · Clearing the forest of the hill country (Joshua 17:14-18)

Israelite Settlement Surveys in Scripture

Genesis 32:28 First mention of Israel in Scripture.

Joshua 17:15-18 Joseph's tribes are told to clear the forested hill country and settle it; surveys show that is exactly where the new villages sprang up.

Judges 1:27-35 Lists of Canaanite cities in the valleys not taken; the surveys show Israel in the hills and Canaanites in the lowlands.

Questions people ask

What is Israelite Settlement Surveys?
A pattern rather than a single object: unwalled villages of 1–3 acres, houses of the 'four-room' type, rock-cut cisterns, terraced slopes, hand-dug silos, and large collared-rim storage jars. Pig bones are almost absent, unlike at Philistine sites.

When was Israelite Settlement Surveys discovered?
It was found in 1978 by Adam Zertal (Manasseh Hill Country Survey, 1978–2015); Israel Finkelstein (Land of Ephraim Survey, 1980s); Avi Ofer (Judah); with earlier work by Moshe Kochavi (1968), at Central hill country from the Jezreel Valley to Hebron.

Where is Israelite Settlement Surveys today?
Survey data published by the Israel Antiquities Authority, University of Haifa, and Tel Aviv University.

Which Bible verses does Israelite Settlement Surveys relate to?
Genesis 32:28, Joshua 17:15-18, Judges 1:27-35.

Related discoveries

Sources

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