Ancient Edom: The Tel Masos Polity from the tenth to the mid-ninth Century bc
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Edomite polity of the tenth to the mid-ninth century bc encompassed the Arabah, the Judean highlands and the eastern Beersheba Valley. Its centre was located at Tel Masos, in the Beersheba valley. The pre-Deuteronomistic stories that relate events of the early monarchical period memorialised the struggles of the era between the young Israelite kingdom and the tribal groups that formed part of the Edomite polity. Among the memorialised events are: (a) Saul’s campaign against the Amalekites, the main tribal group that lived in the confines of the Edomite polity; (b) the fierce struggle that David, when he sojourned at Ziklag, conducted against the Amalekites who lived in the eastern Beersheba Valley; (c) David’s offensive against the polity of Edom in his efforts to curtail its threat to the settlements of his kingdom; and (d) the dramatic effect of Sheshonq’s campaign on the fate of the two deportees to Egypt, Hadad the Edomite and Jeroboam the Ephraimite. The pillaging nature of the Amalekite society and the fierce struggles with their plunderers were deeply engraved in the mind of the Israelite society; hence, they were memorialised as such in the biblical tradition of the early monarchical period.
Source: Palestine Exploration Quarterly
Author: Nadav Na’aman
Institution: Tel Aviv University
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4414243160