Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah.

• Author: Crowell, Bradley L.

Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah. Edited by ZEV I. FARBER and JACOB L. WRIGHT. Ancient Near East Monographs, vol. 23. Atlanta: SBL PRESS, 2018. Pp. xv + 593, illus. $79.95 (paper).

The eighth century ?? is increasingly becoming a focus for biblical scholars and historians of ancient Israel. By the beginning of that century, the expanding Assyrian empire loomed on the northern horizon. When the century closed, the empire controlled much of the southern Levant, annexed Israel, and significantly diminished the freedom of Judah, Phoenicia, and Philistia. This volume gathers current research by leading scholars of the period in a series of accessible essays that serve as a benchmark for the importance of this period for the study of ancient Israel during the opening decades of the twenty-first century. This book also serves as a Festschrift for Oded Borowski on his retirement from Emory University. Dr. Borowski produced many important books and articles on this period during his career.

The book opens with an introduction by Jacob Wright, one of the editors, that both emphasizes the importance of the eighth century ?? in contemporary discussions of the history of ancient Judah and its literature and offers a brief summary of the chapters in the volume. The order of the chapters follows a logical and accessible order: Seven chapters are devoted to Judah's Neighbors, four chapters discuss the Land of Judah, six chapters review innovations within Ancient Technology, five chapters focus on Religion and Ritual in ancient Judah, and finally five chapters deal directly with issues about the Bible and Literary texts. With a volume of this size and content coverage, Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah represents a collection of scholarship that will be consulted for many years by scholars engaged in the study of the history and archaeology of the southern Levant as well as the formation of the literature within the Hebrew Bible.

The volume's first chapter, by K. Lawson Younger Jr., sets the stage for the tumult and transformations of the region during this period by discussing the expansion of the Assyrian empire westward into Syria and then the Levant. Younger provides a detailed account of the relevant Assyrian rulers, emphasizing those who affected the economic and political order of the region. By establishing a pax Assyriaca through what Younger calls an "ideology of terror," the empire would become a geopolitical force in the region for the next two and a half centuries.

After the initial chapter on the imperial force in the region, the subsequent chapters in the first section turn toward the archaeological portraits of the territories surrounding Judah during the eighth century ??. In chapter 2, Sandra Blakely surveys Aegean material excavated in the territory of Judah, arguing that the eighth-century ?? trade network promoted by the pax Assyriaca also opened new connections between the Aegean and the southern Levant. Evidence for increased interaction with Greeks is more pronounced in areas like Syria and Egypt; in Judah the items that are clearly Hellenic-influenced were found largely in ritual or feasting contexts. The third chapter examines Judah's most influential neighbor to the north, Israel, which started the eighth century ?? at the peak of its influence under Jeroboam II. Gilad Itach traces the trajectory of the...