The sheshonq i campaign and the 8th–century bce earthquake–more on the archaeology and history of the south in the iron i–iia

The article attempts to reconstruct the history of southern Israel (the Beersheba Valley, the Shephelah and the southern Coastal Plain) in the Late Iron I and Iron IIA. It shows that activity in the so-called 'Tel Masos chiefdom' commenced in the Iron I and peaked in the Early Iron IIA-parallel to the copper mining activity at Khirbet en-NalJas. Regarding the early phase of this time-span, the article proposes that the Sheshonq I campaign did not bring about the destruction of the Tel Masos chiefdom; rather, the major phase of activity in the south-in the Early Iron IIAwas a result of Egyptian involvement in the region. Regarding the end of the Iron IIA, the article rejects the notion that the Iron IIA-IIB transition should be affiliated with the earthquake mentioned in Amos 1: 1; it dates this transition to ca. 800 BCE.