Household economies in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah

The archaeological and historical evidence indicates that, during the Iron Age II, there were several levels of socioeconomic systems in Israel and Judah. In the rural sector, most households were part of a communal, lineage system that paid taxes to the monarchy and was pressed by it, but, generally speaking, maintained their autonomy throughout the period (for the relations between the various components, see Faust 2005, forthcoming b). The lineage economy mediated between the households and the royal economy. In the urban sector there was a private system that was operated by the many nuclear (the majority of urban households) and extended families. It is likely that most families were pressed by the royal system, while some of them (mainly those that maintained the form of the extended family) were part of it. However, whether part of it or not, the urban families interacted directly with the royal system that collected part of their surpluses as tax, and, at least during part of the time, also took charge of (some of) the production (e.g., at Gibeon, Hazor, and Ekron). In the end, however, it must be stressed that these systems - the private family, the lineage, and the royal - coexisted, sometimes in the very same settlements.