Location: Old Library
The second lecture analyzes Iron Age socio-political transformations in the Levant, with a special focus on early Israel. The social profile of the protagonists of political action is that of charismatic warlords, individuals able to recruit large groups of armed followers and to build networks of alliances with leaders of local communities, often in the form of patronage relations. This social type was already known during the Late Bronze Age, when it identified individuals who operated at the margins of the palatial systems. In the Canaanite highlands, rulership rested on unstable foundations until, by the mid-9th century, the Omrid family managed to establish a royal seat in Samaria. Stories which found their way into the Hebrew Bible provide the discursive foundations for the ethno-political identity of the newly consolidated kingdom of Israel and offer insights into contrasting views on the nature of political leadership that were current at the time.
