0:06
As demonstrated in the previous unit, the lack of local power
structures like the local kings, priesthood or the landed aristocracy.
In different provinces in the land of Israel at the end of the
sixth century BCE as the result of
the Assyrian and Babylonian destructions and deportations.
0:26
Along the coastal area the Achaemenides endowed the Phoenicians with the rights
to lead and develop the area in a very early stage of their rule there.
And, hence, the Phoenicians were the main factor behind
a very quick process of urbanization in all this area.
The nature of commerce is, of course, such that new social and economic
elites can develop very quickly. In the hill country the situation
was totally different, mainly because the agricultural economy and the
social, political and demographic conditions were not of the same kind.
Also the measure of the area's importance for the Archaemenid regime was much lower.
The Achaemenides, like the Babylonians that preceded them,
were interested in the continued existence of the
rural settlement in the hill country. It was an important source for
agricultural supply which was probably collected as tax and tribute.
Exactly the same situation existed in the area of
the Negev and the southern Shephelah as we can learn
from the many ostraca from the region, most of them
published in the last years and dated to the fourth
century BCE.
It looks like the Achaemenides had no interest in establishing urban centers in
the hill country and in creating new
social, political and economic local power structures.
They ruled over the hill country in a different way
than they ruled in the urban centers along the coast.
Along the main roads and in strategic points,
Achaemenid forts and administrative centers were built.
Garrison forces, mainly mercenaries, were stationed in the forts.
And different kinds of economic and administrative functionaries
were in the administrative centers where they managed
the different aspects of the province and were
responsible for collecting the taxes, preparing the Achaemenid expeditions,
and performing the orders of the central government.
2:43
Even when the Achaemenides had a specific commercial interest in the region,
such as the unique products in En-Gedi, they developed it as an isolated
imperial production center without any cooperation from the local population.
Around En-Gedi, for example, and along the ways that connected
it to the hill country, there is not
even one small settlement from the Persian Period.
Professor Oded Lipschits, Ph.D.Director, Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology
