Did Saul, David and Solomon really exist /his/ ?

>>1794414

Probably not.

>>1794415
Why ?

>>1794414
Probably yes.

>>1794422
Why ?

>>1794421
>>1794437
Because you are a nigger, kys.

There was no kingdom of Israel during the time period the Bible says they ruled it.

>>1794414
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Dan_Stele#.22House_of_David.22

>>1794464
Interesting. So David ( and probably Solomon ) only ruled Judah. But what about Saul ?

>>1794444
wow. first time on /his/, really insightful bunch of people here!

>>1794479
Nggr

Probably not. There's no real evidence they did, and a fair amount of evidence that the United Monarchy never existed. Even the Tel Dan Stele is ambiguous at best; it saying "House of David" is still contested, and even if it does, it doesn't actually refer to David directly, just people who maybe referred to him.

>>1794517
Thanks. Any book recommendations on this subject ?

>>1794532
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Dan_Stele#.22House_of_David.22
The Bible Unearthed by Finkelstein is the classic. I'm sure someone's going to come along and shit on it, but it's a pretty decent work of scholarship written by actual archaeologists who have done archaeology in the area for years. It's the best place to start if you're interested in biblical archaeology that has some amount of critical thought applied to it.

It's worst trait is that it's getting a little dated (it's about fifteen years old or so). So if you want more after reading it, you can easily follow up and read more current publications by the people cited in that book (in general, biblical archaeology is kin of a small field, so those authors are going to be where you'll find most recent scholarship anyway).

>>1794545
Thanks !! Will read it. Also, any books that talk about the ancient Levant in general ? Like, Ebla, Phoenicia, Philistia, etc..

>>1794545
What kind of archaeology has been done in the past 15 years? It might still be modern as long as all the sites are inaccessible warzones.

How do we know you exist, OP?

>>1794561
That I have less experience with, since most of what I learned on a that wider scale came from lecture, scholarly articles, and textbooks. Ancient Civilizations by Scarre and Fagan is decent in that regard, and probably the best recommendation I can give you. But I'm sure there are better options out there.

>>1794566
Honestly, not much that would change anything. The archaeology in that area in general is pretty conservative and mostly consists of people doing long excavations at single sites. Occasionally some new things will be found because of construction, or in collections, but as far as I can recall, no major finds would be left out of that book.

I just threw that in there because archaeology in general has made some pretty cool advances in that time, and a lot of people in the field like to stick to more current publications for more up-to-date information. Especially considering its focus, The Bible Unearthed is still very current, and still useful, given its intention as an overview.

I'm inclined to believe so, regardless of whether or not their stories are embellished. I also presume Agamemnon was real.