Judah, Philistia, and the Mediterranean World: Reconstructing the Economic System of the Seventh Century B.C.E.

Abstract

The seventh century b.c.e. was a period of economic prosperity, for which several lines of evidence for trade and settlement expansion have been found along the coastal plain, in the Judaean desert and the Negev. The discovery of Judahite wheat in Ash kelon, together with other available archaeological evidence of trade and data on the local geographical conditions, enables us to reconstruct the well-integrated economy of the seventh century. Ashkelon, the site of a huge Mediterranean port, was at the heart of the local economic system. Ashkelon's immediate vicinity was used primarily for the production of the most profitable economic product of the time?wine. The inner coastal plain and the Shephe lah, farther to the east and best represented by Ekron, were used mainly for the pro duction of olive oil. Judah and the Negev formed the third and fourth zones of production (for grains and grazing). The growing need for these products was behind Judah*s ex pansion to the previously un-/under-exploited regions of the Judaean desert and the Negev. This complex economic system was peripheral to the Mediterranean economic system of the seventh century, the driving force behind which was Phoenician maritime trade.