Lecture 7: Jan 25

Today we talked about Hezekiah's Jerusalem: the growth of the city. We started off by asking how do you make a godlen age??? some things that are important are build great places, create a united kingdom, and build a great temple. All of which can be found in 1 kings 4-9. Jerusalem's Golden age lasted from 1010 to 930 BCE under the rein of David and Solomon.
In the eight centry of Jerusalem,, the Rise of United monarch happened, the split into isreal and Judah, the rise of the Assyriah empire, growth and urbanization of Jerusalem and the Hezekiah came, and was called the "messiah". In 925 BCE, Pharaoh Shoshenq invaded isreal. It has been said that it was  bribe and invitation to shoshenq to restore order. In 875, Baasha, King of Isreal attacked Judah. Asa, teamed up wiht ben-hadad of syria for help. THen Jehu, king of isreal, becomes vassal of Assyria and send tribute to shalmaneser III in 841.
We then looked at the timeline of the assyrian Empire. It began in 745BCE. Tiglath-Pileser III reined from 745-727, Shalmaneser V reined from 727-722, Sargon II reined from 722-705, Sennacherib reined from 705-681, Esarhaddon reined from 681-669, and Assurbanipal reined from 669- 642. The Babyloninas then took over Assyria in 609 BCE. There were fears of Assyria. Some were Policy of massive deprotations, impaling rebels outside the city, wall and public display.

We then talked about Jerusalems growth and the outcomes from it. The kingdom was divided in 925BCE and Jerusalem expanded to western hill in the 8th century. The responce to all this growth was Urbanization. Tiglath-PileserIII was ruler from 745-727. The rise of the Assyrian empire began to happen as well as industrialization.Another outcome was Global economy. It was seen that there was merchant or craft literacty. They found things like Economic Seals, receipts (ostraca),or "signature" literacy. He showed us a picture of a silver receipt with 17 signatures.There were also growths in the olive industry and wine production.Within the growth of jerusalems population, there was an increase of 400%. Jerusalem increases from 6% to 30% Judah's population. Some of the changest that came with urbanization and rapid growth were Social Dislocation. Changing Family structure (extended vs. Nuclear), they split up into groups or clans vs Individuals. There were new religious movenments, more specifically Manasseh and Josiah's reform. There were urban vs Rural or Cosmopolitan vs Traditional. The centralization of power, and government bureaucracy changed. Lastly the issues of social justice. There were rise of craft specialiazation as well as social classes.
Next we talked about Hezekiah's preparations. He did three main things. He fortified Jerusalem, he added water supplies, and created administration. When fortifying Jerusalem, he created a "broad" wall which can be seen in Isaiah 22:9-11. With the water supply, Hezekiah's tunnel was created. With Administration, royal storage jars and LMLK seal impressions were found.
We finished class with a question. How was the Assyrian failure to conquer Jerusalem interpreted? The Assyrians failure to destroy Jerusalem was the single greatest catalyst for the snowballng legend of an inviolable Jerusalem.