Archaeology · 3 · Deborah
The first Israelites lived in 250 hilltop villages
In the twelfth century BCE, around 250 small, unwalled villages sprang up in the central highlands. This is where Israel and Judah would later rise.
Nations begin as neighbors.
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The settlements were self-sufficient, with simple fieldstone 'four-room houses,' grain silos, cisterns, and plain, undecorated pottery. Most residents probably identified with their village and clan, not with a larger nation.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 51–54
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