Antiquity

Main article: History of ancient Israel and Judah

Further information: Israelites, Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), and Kingdom of Judah

The Large Stone Structure, archaeological site in Jerusalem

The early history of the territory is unclear.[29]:104 Modern archaeology has
largely discarded the historicity of the narrative in the Torah concerning the
patriarchs, The Exodus, and the conquest of Canaan described in the Book of Joshua,
and instead views the narrative as constituting the Israelites' national myth.[82]
During the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE), large parts of Canaan formed vassal
states paying tribute to the New Kingdom of Egypt, whose administrative
headquarters lay in Gaza.[83] Ancestors of the Israelites are thought to have
included ancient Semitic-speaking peoples native to this area.[84]:78–79 The
Israelites and their culture, according to the modern archaeological account, did
not overtake the region by force, but instead branched out of these Canaanite
peoples and their cultures through the development of a distinct monolatristic—and
later monotheistic—religion centered on Yahweh.[85][86][87][88][89][90] The
archaeological evidence indicates a society of village-like centres, but with more
limited resources and a small population.[91] Villages had populations of up to 300
or 400,[92][93] which lived by farming and herding, and were largely self-
sufficient;[94] economic interchange was prevalent.[95] Writing was known and
available for recording, even in small sites.[96]

Map of Israel and Judah in the 9th century BCE

While it is unclear if there was ever a United Monarchy,[97][29][98][99] there is
well-accepted archeological evidence referring to "Israel" in the Merneptah Stele
which dates to about 1200 BCE;[100][101][102] and the Canaanites are
archaeologically attested in the Middle Bronze Age (2100–1550 BCE).[28][103] There
is debate about the earliest existence of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah and
their extent and power, but historians agree that a Kingdom of Israel existed by
ca. 900 BCE[29]:169–195[98][99] and that a Kingdom of Judah existed by ca. 700 BCE.
[30] The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by
the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[31]

In 586 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon conquered Judah. According to the

Hebrew Bible, he destroyed Solomon's Temple and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The
defeat was also recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles.[32][104] The Babylonian
exile ended around 538 BCE under the rule of the Medo-Persian Cyrus the Great after
he captured Babylon.[105][106] The Second Temple was constructed around 520 BCE.
[105] As part of the Persian Empire, the former Kingdom of Judah became the
province of Judah (Yehud Medinata) with different borders, covering a smaller
territory.[107] The population of the province was greatly reduced from that of the
kingdom, archaeological surveys showing a population of around 30,000 people in the
5th to 4th centuries BCE.[29]:308