Language:
English
Year of publication:
2017
Titel der Quelle:
Transeuphratène; recherches pluridisciplinaires sur une province de l'Empire achéménide
Angaben zur Quelle:
49 (2017) 135-162
Keywords:
Climate and civilization History
;
Arid regions climate
;
Idumaea (Hasmonean province) History To 70 A.D.
;
Yehud (Persian province) History
;
Judea (Region) (Israel) Climate
;
Eretz Israel History To 70 A.D.
;
Eretz Israel Geography
;
Eretz Israel Boundaries
;
History
Abstract:
In the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, the province of Idumea included all of the Beersheba-Arad Valley, the southern Shephelah, and the southern Judean hill country; the majority of the population was Idumean and Arab. The borders of Yehud had contracted and most of the Judahite population was concentrated around Jerusalem. Explanations for these historical, geopolitical, cultural, and demographic changes have been well-discussed by scholars. In this article, the authors provide a set of paleo-environmental data that sheds new light on this issue. Palynological and sedimentological information show that during the late 6th through the mid-5th centuries BCE (~ 520-450 BCE) dryer climate conditions were prevalent in the region. During the early Hellenistic period, wet climate conditions and intense olive horticulture characterized the region. Since in the steppe-marginal areas of the southern Levant even minor climatic variation can result in major environmental change, the main argument advanced here is that the dry conditions of the early Persian period caused abandonment of most villages in the southern parts of the former kingdom of Judah, triggering nomadization by some elements of the local population and immigration to core areas of the province of Yehud by others. After the destruction of the kingdom of Judah and the collapse of the southern settlement and military system, this process provoked a demographic vacuum in the southern lowlands (the Shephelah), the southern hill country, and the Beersheba-Arad Valley that attracted the nomadic populations. The gradual increase in moisture in the late-5th and 4th centuries BCE probably reinforced a cultural progression by stabilizing the settlements that were highly dependent on water resources and local agriculture. The semi-nomadic elements could have easily settled in the area and quickly created the settlement alignment of the province of Idumea.
Note:
Appeared also in "About Edom and Idumea in the Persian Period" (2022) 151-176
URL:
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