Chronological and spatial changes in the rural settlement sector of ancient Israel during the iron age: An overview

The rural settlement sector of Iron Age Israel did not attract much scholarly attention, and although various discussions were published over the years, those tended to be specific and did not present overall developments and trends. It is therefore the aim of this article to present, for the first time, an overview on this neglected settlement sector during the Iron Age. The article will review the evidence, mainly on the basis of excavations, and will reconstruct the developments and changes this sector experienced at the time. The data will enable us to discuss questions related to social structure on the one hand, and to assess the influence of the various historical events and processes on rural settlement patterns on the other hand. These processes include the Iron Age I settlement phenomenon, the emergence of various polities in the Iron IIA, as well as the incorporation of the region within the Assyrian, and later Babylonian, empires.