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Science 7 January 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5450, pp. 31 - 32
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5450.31
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News Focus

CHRONOLOGY:
The Two Tels: Armageddon for Biblical Archaeology?

Michael Balter

TEL MEGIDDO AND TEL REHOV--A proposed revision of the dating of remains in Israel challenges the Bible's depiction of a powerful state ruled by Kings David and Solomon. The new dates imply that David and Solomon may simply have been tribal chiefs whose reputations were greatly aggrandized by the biblical authors, who wrote their texts hundreds of years after the events they describe; or they may never have existed at all. The debate, which touches on the politically sensitive issue of Jewish roots in Palestine, has been followed with keen interest by archaeologists and other scholars who work in the region.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
14C Dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age Chronology, Pharaohs, and Hebrew Kings.
H. J. Bruins, J. van der Plicht, and A. Mazar (2003)
Science 300, 315-318
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