The settlement center of gravity moved from Jerusalem to the close periphery, and
a new pattern of settlement was created in which the core was depleted and
the nearby periphery continued to exist almost unchanged.
The Judahite population that continued to subsist in the northern Judean highlands,
as well as in the Benjamin region, continued
to preserve its material culture, and there lies the great difficulty
posed to archaeological research in discerning this culture and defining it.
Many scholars have discerned the different fate of the Benjamin region and
the archaeological reality in it, after the destruction of Jerusalem.
The biblical description regarding the fate of this region during
the Babylonian campaign to Jerusalem, and after the destruction of the city,
together with excavation data of the main sites explored in the Benjamin region, and
the data of the surveys conducted there,
attest that the region was not destroyed together with Jerusalem.
As a historical representation of this data,
I already suggested that it was before the fall of Jerusalem when the Babylonians had
chosen Mizpah as the alternative capital of the Babylonian province, and
appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, as their first governor.