D.C.-Area Archaeology Event: A Hittite in King David’s Court?
Statue of Hittite King Mutallu at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey. Photo: John Nordquist via Flickr.
On Wednesday, May 4, 2016, Dr. Billie Jean Collins, Adjunct Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies at Emory University, will deliver the lecture “A Hittite in King David’s Court? In Search of the Iron Age Hittites” in the Washington, D.C. area. The event is hosted by the Biblical Archaeology Society of Northern Virginia (BASONOVA) and Biblical Archaeology Forum (BAF).
At about the same time that David and Solomon were establishing the kingdom of Israel, to the north a number of small city kingdoms were persevering in the aftermath of the catastrophic collapse of the Late Bronze Age empires. We call them “Neo-Hittites” in acknowledgment of their material, cultural and linguistic connections with the great Late Bronze Age empire of the Hittites that was perhaps the biggest victim of the catastrophe. This illustrated talk will discuss the nature and extent of the Hittite imperial presence in Turkey and Syria at the end of the Bronze Age and survey the new data resulting from recent excavations in several “Neo-Hittite” centers of the Iron Age that are shedding light on what was once considered a “dark age.” What can the evidence tell us about continuity between the Late Bronze period and the Iron Age? And how are these cities connected to the Hittites mentioned in the Bible, including Uriah, King David’s trusted officer?
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Interested in the empires of the ancient Near East? Read about the great civilizations of Mesopotamia in our FREE eBook From Babylon to Baghdad: Ancient Iraq and the Modern West.
Related reading in Bible History Daily:
Bronze Age Collapse: Pollen Study Highlights Late Bronze Age Drought
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I thought it went: “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court.”
I believe ALL of Israel was considered the “Kingdom of Israel” until the northern kingdom was established under Jereboam. At that time the northern kingdom became the Kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom, which included Jerusalem, became the “Kingdom of Judah” under Rehoboam, Solomon’s son.
“At about the same time that David and Solomon were establishing the kingdom of Israel….”
Were they? I was under the impression that David and Solomon established the Southern Kingdom of Judah, while the Northern Kingdom was established under Jeroboam, after Solomon’s death.