Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)

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The Kingdom of Israel was an Israelite kingdom that may have existed in the Southern Levant. The first extra-biblical mention of Israel dates from the Merneptah Stele created by Pharaoh Merneptah in 1208 BC. According to the Deuteronomistic history in the Hebrew Bible, the United Kingdom of Israel or the United Monarchy existed under the reigns of Saul, Ish-bosheth, David, and Solomon, encompassing the territories of both the later kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

Quotes about

For a long time, historians [...] have told of the great Kingdom of Israel, which existed in Palestine a thousand years before Christ, a great and powerful kingdom, with a great city as its capital: Jerusalem. Grand buildings, the Temple of Solomon, its glorious Kings David and Solomon. Historians told this story, because the only sources we had were the accounts in the Old Testament. Then Israeli archaeologists began to dig in search of this great kingdom and its great capital. They started digging, they kept digging, and after a while they started saying to each other, "Well, you know, nothing's coming out here?! We've actually reached the layer from a thousand years ago", there was nothing. A few nomadic settlements. After a while, Israeli historians and archaeologists began to say that they were finding this. Obviously, the Israeli politicians were not happy, nor was public opinion, but – and this must be said to the everlasting credit of the Israeli archaeologists – the Israeli archaeologists went ahead and proved that the great Kingdom of Israel a thousand years before Christ never existed. There was no Jerusalem, there was no Temple of Solomon, there was nothing. Only nomads wandering in the steppe.

Alessandro Barbero, Le "visioni" di uno storico, from a speech held at the Festival della Comunicazione, Camogli, Italy, 2018. Video available on YouTube.com (at minutes 56:10-57:38).

And this is what caused him to rebel against the king: Solomon had built the Millo and repaired the damages to the City of David his father.

It is not known when the moat was originally cut, but evidence suggests it was used during the centuries when Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah, almost 3,000 years ago, beginning with King Josiah. During those years, the moat separated the southern residential part of the city from the ruling Acropolis in the north — the upper city where the palace and the temple were located.