Was David a nomad king?

ARCHAEOLOGY: What did King David’s Israel look like? The answer is not set in stone. Archeological investigation of King David's kingdom has been suffering from an inherent bias of the western world (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post).

As [Tel Aviv University archaeologist Prof. Erez] Ben-Yosef noted in a paper recently published in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, up until now, the consensus among scholars has been that before a society became sedentary, it could not be considered complex or evolved. For this reason, many have dismissed the notion that ancient Israel could be as powerful as described in the Bible.

However, in order to understand the Israel of King David and King Solomon, a new approach is required, one that leaves behind the need for remains of magnificent buildings but is able to ask the right questions and put archaeological and historical records in the right perspective.

As the Post article notes, you can read the underlying article by Professor Ben-Yosef and related work at his Academia.edu page here.

For more on the Timna Valley excavation, on which I have been keeping a close eye for my own reasons, see here and links.

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