JAMIESON-DRAKE, D. Scribes and Schools in Monarchic Judah: A Socio-Archaeological Approach. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010, 240 p. – ISBN 9781906055486.
This highly original study locates the question of scribes and scribal schools in monarchic Judah in a socio-archaeological context. It departs from earlier studies by assigning priority to interpreting archaeological data within a broad interdisciplinary framework before trying to assess biblical and epigraphic sources. The book provides an analysis of data on settlement, public works, and luxury items in order to produce an archaeologically based picture of the development of state level administrative systems in Judah. The study questions the consensus that the Judahite monarchy became a state at some point in the tenth century BCE. The evidence for the increase in population, building, production, centralization and specialization in the eighth century suggests that Judah did not function as a state before the eighth century BCE. This incisive study challenges the assumption of widespread literacy and the traditional picture of the development of the Judahite monarchy. This volume is a reprint of the 1991 edition with a new preface by Robert B. Coote and Keith W. Whitelam setting the work in the context of recent debates on the history of ancient Israel. David Jamieson-Drake is Director of Institutional Research at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
COOTE, R. B.; WHITELAM, K. W. The Emergence of Early Israel in Historical Perspective. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010, 220 p. – ISBN 9781906055455.
This highly original study takes a panoramic view of history in order to set the emergence of Israel in the broadest possible perspective. It begins with a study of the nature of historywriting and the increasing problems involved in utilizing the biblical text for historical reconstruction. The authors suggest an alternative approach which assigns priority to interpreting archaeological data within a broad interdisciplinary framework. The book provides a broad overview of settlement patterns and social relations throughout Palestinian history from the middle of the third millennium BCE to the present day in order to illustrate how the emergence of Israel in the early Iron Age fits into the march of time. Archaeological evidence for the appearance of dispersed settlements in the highlands and steppes of Palestine at the beginning of the early Iron Age followed by the rapid centralization of this area suggests that Israel emerged within Palestine in response to the decline in east Mediterranean trade at the end of the Late Bronze Age. The development of an Israelite monarchy is seen as being inextricably linked to the factors involved in Israel’s emergence-as distinct from much previous research which has presented the monarchy as alien to the origins of Israel. This volume is a reprint of the 1987 edition with a new preface by Robert B. Coote and Keith W. Whitelam setting the work in the context of recent debates on the history of ancient Israel. Robert B. Coote is Nathaniel Gray Professor of Hebrew Exegesis and Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union. Keith W. Whitelam is Professor of Biblical Studies in the University of Sheffield.
Robert B. Coote e Keith W. Whitelam veem as origens de Israel como parte de um processo de integração milenar entre as regiões das cidades e as regiões das montanhas. Processo que pode ser chamado de ‘realinhamento’ ou ‘transformação’, pois nos períodos de prosperidade as regiões das montanhas providenciavam recursos para as cidades dos vales, enquanto que nos momentos das crises elas absorviam as populações que deixavam tais cidades. No surgimento de Israel o colapso do comércio foi o fator mais significativo, segundo estes autores, pois colocou em crise a sobrevivência das cidades e exigiu dos povoados das montanhas uma forma mais eficaz de colaboração e cooperação para a sobrevivência, levando a um aumento populacional significativo. Com o desenvolvimento destas regiões o comércio foi recuperado, promovendo mais tarde o aparecimento do Estado.
HOPKINS, D. C. The Highlands of Canaan: Agricultural Life in the Early Iron Age. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010, 330 p. – ISBN 9781906055462.
In this masterly survey of the agricultural way of life and material world of late second millennium Canaan and emergent Israel, Hopkins asks, What obstacles did the Early Iron Age settlers of the Highlands face in their struggle for survival? How did they buffer the immense variability of their environment and take advantage of its natural diversity? How crucial were their particular social structures to their continued survival? The author’s researches into the dynamics of agricultural systems attested in ethnographic and anthropological sources constantly undergird the development of his picture. His work has proved to be a mandatory resource for all students of early Israel. Contents: the parameters of agricultural systems (e.g. environment, technology and population); geomorphology; climate and climatic change; natural vegetation and soils; population and settlement patterns; water conservation and control; soil conservation and fertility maintenance; risk spreading and the optimization of labor. This volume is a reprint of the 1985 edition, with a new preface by Keith W. Whitelam setting the work in the context of recent research on agriculture, daily life and the history of ancient Israel. David Hopkins is Professor of Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC.
David C. Hopkins faz neste livro uma avaliação detalhada da agricultura na região montanhosa da Palestina na Idade do Ferro I (1200-900 a.C.), observando que o desenvolvimento social aconteceu junto com a intensificação do cultivo da terra. Para Hopkins, estas pessoas desenvolveram um sistema de colaboração ao nível de clã e de famílias, o que lhes permitia uma integração de culturas agrícolas com a criação de animais, evitando, deste modo, os desastres comuns a que uma monocultura estava sujeita nestas regiões tão instáveis, especialmente em recursos hídricos. Hopkins valorizou mais o sistema cooperativo baseado no parentesco do que o uso de técnicas como terraços, cisternas e o uso do ferro para explicar o sucesso destes assentamentos agrícolas. Para Hopkins, diferentes unidades clânicas e tribais israelitas devem ter surgido a partir de diferentes atividades agrícolas.
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