Articles by Zachary Thomas
Transjordan and the Southern Levant: Exploring New Research Perspective on Ancient Ammon, Moab and Edom of the Iron Age to the Persian Period from Hebrew Bible Studies and Adjacent Fields, 2024
Email me for a copy.
This publication highlights some of the arguments for why we need to adopt a completely new appro... more This publication highlights some of the arguments for why we need to adopt a completely new approach in the study of the early Israelite society and the United Monarchy. It follows our 2023 publication on "Complexity Without Monumentality" in the Journal of Archaeological Research.
![Research paper thumbnail of Complexity Without Monumentality in Biblical Times [Journal of Archaeological Research (2023): https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-023-09184-0]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/110015781/thumbnails/1.jpg)
One of the most significant aspects of cultural variation that world archaeology has revealed is ... more One of the most significant aspects of cultural variation that world archaeology has revealed is the many different forms of social complexity among ancient and more recent premodern societies. Although this exposes the shortcomings of older evolutionary approaches, Levantine and broader Near Eastern archaeology remains relatively inflexible and conservative in the perception of social complexity in the archaeological record. A necessary association between complexity and monumentality remains prevalent, whereby monumentality is understood as an important operative cog in the complexity machine. Conversely, complexity can only be read in the archaeological record where monumentality is present. This paper seeks to untie this necessary association by demonstrating that complexity without monumentality occurred in societies of the biblical period that were fully or partly nomadic and otherwise lacked a clear cultural conception of monumentality as central to the ideology of political authority and structure. This is done through the presentation of early Iron Age Edom and its implications for the understanding of the neighboring United Monarchy of ancient Israel.
The Ancient Israelite World, 2023
email me for a copy of the chapter
JEOL 48, 2020
This article details the way that sociopolitical power was expressed in ancient Israel and how mo... more This article details the way that sociopolitical power was expressed in ancient Israel and how modern scholars have distorted this expression through the application of post-Enlightenment concepts and terminology. As such, ancient Israel's early first millennium BCE polities are studied and articulated in anachronistic terms and concepts (e.g., the "state", "empire", what a "king" is) that find no home in the Bronze or Iron Age Near East (ca. 2000-500 BCE). This disaccord between indigenous concepts of power, terminology related to political structure and leadership roles, and modern discussion of these features has important repercussions for how the biblical text is interpreted, how the archaeological remains from the 11 th-10 th centuries BCE are interpreted, and how text and realia are collocated. This article traces the divergence between modern approaches to ancient Near Eastern sociopolitical structures and indigenous expressions of those same structures to establish a starting point for recalibrating the fierce debate about the historicity of the early Israelite monarchy in the days of Saul, David, and Solomon.
Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology , 2021
The early 10th-century BCE pottery assemblage from Khirbet al-Ra'i is presented. The assemblage, ... more The early 10th-century BCE pottery assemblage from Khirbet al-Ra'i is presented. The assemblage, which came from a few rooms that were suddenly destroyed, offers a large number of complete profiles. This is the second largest pottery assemblage, after that of Khirbet Qeiyafa, of this poorly known ceramic phase.
Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History, 2022
This article reviews the major problems in the political history of Megiddo during the early Iron... more This article reviews the major problems in the political history of Megiddo during the early Iron Age (Iron Age I–IIA), at the time of the early monarchic period in Israel (eleventh–ninth centuries BCE). Megiddo has been central to an ongoing debate over the nature of the early monarchic period in Israel and the exact chronology of the Iron Age I–IIA periods. This importance derives both from the extensive excavations of the relevant strata at Megiddo (VIA, VB and VA-IVB) as well as Megiddo’s appearance in relevant historical sources, namely the Hebrew Bible, which claims that Solomon “built” Megiddo, and its appearance in the campaign list of pharaoh Sheshonq I. Though the fragment of a stela of Sheshonq I was found at Megiddo, it was only found after having been discarded and so its stratigraphic attribution is unclear. Radiocarbon dating from these strata has assisted to some degree but still left dating and historical questions quite open. This article will demonstrate that the political history of Megiddo during the early Iron Age is beset with ambiguities in the evidence, which have been divided into seven ambiguities for the purpose of the discussion here. When these ambiguities are taken into account, it becomes clear that the interpreter has much latitude in making their reconstruction, specifically in how they date strata and associate them with putative historical developments. Different cases can be made for associating particular strata and their termination with Solomon, Sheshonq or even later kings, but none can claim to objectively be the correct or superior reconstruction.
Palestine Exploration Quarterly , 2021
The State has long been the dominant socio-political concept in the scholarly debate over the bib... more The State has long been the dominant socio-political concept in the scholarly debate over the biblical early monarchy in Israel and the archaeology of the 10th century bce. It has been assumed that if Israel had indeed become a kingdom already at this time that it would have adhered to the form of a State as conceived in modern scholarship, and that the material correlates of the State would appear in the archaeological record. This essay argues that this is a methodologically false approach and that the concept of the State is quite inappropriate to the context of socio-political relations in the ancient Near East on a theoretical and conceptual level. As such, the search for archaeological correlates to a State in 10th century Israel is an unnecessary one. Instead, the question of socio-political form can be approach emically from within Israel’s context, beginning with the native concepts and terminology that actually appear in the Hebrew Bible, which can then be linked to larger patterns of socio-political organisation in the Near East and to sociological conceptualisations, namely Max Weber’s idea of household-based patrimonial structure.
This paper re-examines the methodological framework for archaeological interpretation that has be... more This paper re-examines the methodological framework for archaeological interpretation that has been commonly used by the major voices in the debate concerning the archaeological record of the Iron Age IIA period and the related historicity of the biblical United Monarchy. It is contended here that this framework suffers from critical problems that undermine its applicability to an ancient Near Eastern polity, primarily in its anachronistic sociological assumptions concerning how authority was legitimated in the native social context of ancient Israel, and how power was therefore conceived of and understood by such a polity’s constituents. It is argued, therefore, that this is an undesirable framework to use in understanding the archaeological record of the tenth century B.C.E. Rather, this paper seeks to both describe a different understanding of authority more appropriate to ancient Israel and the wider Near East, and to demonstrate the significant impact such an understanding has on the archaeological evaluation of the Iron Age IIA and historicity of the United Monarchy.
Bible Lands E-Review, 2019
The southern Levant has a history of persistent polycentrism, the existence of multiple and dispe... more The southern Levant has a history of persistent polycentrism, the existence of multiple and dispersed centers of autonomous social and political power. This was no less the case in Israel during the pre-monarchic and early-monarchic periods. The structure of society and polity in early Israel matched this polycentric context, and this is reflected in the particular terminology of polity that appears in the biblical books that narrate this period. The present essay seeks to review and discuss this terminology and to show how reflective it is of polycentric environment.
This paper reviews the two opposing sides of the ongoing debate concerning the historicity of the... more This paper reviews the two opposing sides of the ongoing debate concerning the historicity of the biblical United Monarchy, the kingdom of David and Solomon. After discussing the scholarly background of archaeological research into the 10the century BCE and Iron IIA period, it discusses the major chronological and historical revision proposed by Israel Finkelstein and the counterarguments deployed by Amihai Mazar. After discussing particular issues highlighted by the archaeology of Jerusalem and Khirbet Qeiyafa, this paper closes with a brief reflection on how attitudes towards the Deuteronomistic History have affected this debate, with particular reference to the differing evaluations of Finkelstein and Baruch Halpern regarding its usability in historical reconstruction of the United Monarchy.
Theses by Zachary Thomas
The thesis presents a new reconstruction of the United Monarchy of ancient Israel as a patrimonia... more The thesis presents a new reconstruction of the United Monarchy of ancient Israel as a patrimonial kingdom. In so doing, this thesis seeks to offer a unified understanding of the relevant archaeological and historical evidence of Israel in the 10th century BC according to David Schloen’s Patrimonial Household Model. The kingdom and David and Solomon has now been a heavily contested subject within the study of ancient Israel for some time. Specifically, the historical veracity of the biblical picture of the kingdom provided in the books of 1-2 Samuel and 1 Kings has been variously challenged and defended. Differing chronological schemas for the early Iron Age (Iron I-IIA periods) have been proposed and arguments for their archaeological and historical implications made. Particular attention has fallen upon whether or not the 10th century BC falls within the Iron Age I or IIA, because it is generally accepted that only the latter contains classic indications of ‘state formation’. Reflections of the underlying methodological bases of the different positions in this debate has largely been lacking, and assumptions about what archaeological correlates of such a kingdom must be found have not been justified. There has been an absence of consideration for how the native social structure and understanding of the legitimation of authority in ancient Near Eastern kingdoms should inform how the historical and archaeological evidence for 10th century BC Israel is evaluated. As the Patrimonial Household Model originates as a method to describe this social structure and legitimation of authority, it offers a way forward, to correct the absence of interpretative sociological and anthropological considerations in the understanding of the historical United Monarchy. Thus the aim of this thesis is to offer a new reconstruction that sets this subject within the wider social, political and economic context of the ancient Near East.
This thesis seeks to apply the idea of ancient Israel as a patriarchal and patrimonial state with... more This thesis seeks to apply the idea of ancient Israel as a patriarchal and patrimonial state within its ancient Near Eastern context as adumbrated by David Schloen to the debate concerning the historicity of the biblical United Monarchy. Specifically, this thesis will apply this sociological idea to the archaeological aspects of this debate, a debate that has so far not taken account of the form and nature of ancient Israelite society as an aspect of the interpretation of the relevant archaeology and associated issues. Rather it has been content with a functionalist approach to archaeological interpretation that has not explored or justified its own assumptions about the social world and the legitimation of authority in ancient Israel. This thesis will discuss and analyse this functionalist approach, before moving on to apply a sociologically-informed approach centred upon patrimonial society to the methodology of the interpretation of the archaeological correlates for the United Monarchy.
Book Reviews by Zachary Thomas
Conference and Seminar Presentations by Zachary Thomas
** Complexity Without Monumentality: Rethinking Nomads of the Biblical Period **
The treatment o... more ** Complexity Without Monumentality: Rethinking Nomads of the Biblical Period **
The treatment of nomads/mobile peoples in biblical archaeology and biblical scholarship has until recently been confined to a narrow range of social interpretations, most of which are heavily based on Bedouin ethnography. Accordingly, the prevailing perception of biblical-era nomads has been one of people that could not form strong political entities, and whose influence on the course of history was marginal. Recent archaeological evidence of a strong nomadic polity in the Arabah Valley calls into question the existing research paradigm, with substantial implications for archaeologically based historical reconstructions and textual issues related to mobile groups, including the sedentarization process of the Israelite tribes and the emergence of a kingdom in the highlands. This session aims at furthering discussions of biblical-era nomads as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, consisting of complex continuums of sedentarization and subsistence practices. Papers include new or revised treatments of such societies in texts and archaeology, research on nomadism in other periods and geographic locations that can contextualize the southern Levantine case, and studies related to the epistemological challenges posed by archaeological and textual sources. This session will serve as a forum for scholars seeking to move beyond the existing paradigms and dichotomies around nomads and their socio-political role in the southern Levant and wider Near Eastern world.
For a Popular Audience by Zachary Thomas
ASOR Platt Excavation Fellowship report, 2017
Uploads
Articles by Zachary Thomas
Theses by Zachary Thomas
Book Reviews by Zachary Thomas
Conference and Seminar Presentations by Zachary Thomas
The treatment of nomads/mobile peoples in biblical archaeology and biblical scholarship has until recently been confined to a narrow range of social interpretations, most of which are heavily based on Bedouin ethnography. Accordingly, the prevailing perception of biblical-era nomads has been one of people that could not form strong political entities, and whose influence on the course of history was marginal. Recent archaeological evidence of a strong nomadic polity in the Arabah Valley calls into question the existing research paradigm, with substantial implications for archaeologically based historical reconstructions and textual issues related to mobile groups, including the sedentarization process of the Israelite tribes and the emergence of a kingdom in the highlands. This session aims at furthering discussions of biblical-era nomads as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, consisting of complex continuums of sedentarization and subsistence practices. Papers include new or revised treatments of such societies in texts and archaeology, research on nomadism in other periods and geographic locations that can contextualize the southern Levantine case, and studies related to the epistemological challenges posed by archaeological and textual sources. This session will serve as a forum for scholars seeking to move beyond the existing paradigms and dichotomies around nomads and their socio-political role in the southern Levant and wider Near Eastern world.
For a Popular Audience by Zachary Thomas
The treatment of nomads/mobile peoples in biblical archaeology and biblical scholarship has until recently been confined to a narrow range of social interpretations, most of which are heavily based on Bedouin ethnography. Accordingly, the prevailing perception of biblical-era nomads has been one of people that could not form strong political entities, and whose influence on the course of history was marginal. Recent archaeological evidence of a strong nomadic polity in the Arabah Valley calls into question the existing research paradigm, with substantial implications for archaeologically based historical reconstructions and textual issues related to mobile groups, including the sedentarization process of the Israelite tribes and the emergence of a kingdom in the highlands. This session aims at furthering discussions of biblical-era nomads as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, consisting of complex continuums of sedentarization and subsistence practices. Papers include new or revised treatments of such societies in texts and archaeology, research on nomadism in other periods and geographic locations that can contextualize the southern Levantine case, and studies related to the epistemological challenges posed by archaeological and textual sources. This session will serve as a forum for scholars seeking to move beyond the existing paradigms and dichotomies around nomads and their socio-political role in the southern Levant and wider Near Eastern world.