mukaDDimah;LOCATION OF FALASTIN

  The region of Palestine is the geographical region from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. Situated at a strategic location between Egypt, Syria and Arabia, and the birthplace of the Abrahamic religions, the region has a long and tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. Human history in the region goes back 500,000 years or more, with civilisation reaching the region shortly after the first city-states in Mesopotamia. Since that time the region has been controlled by numerous different peoples, including Ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Ancient Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Sunni Arab Caliphate, the Shia Fatimid Caliphate, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mameluks, Ottomans, the British and modern Israelis.
Other terms for the same area include Canaan, Zion, the Land of Israel, Syria Palaestina, Southern Syria, Jund Filastin, Outremer, the Holy Land and the Southern Levant. Modern archaeologists and historians of the region refer to their field of study as Syro-Palestinian archaeology.



 According to Biblical tradition, the United Kingdom of Israel was established by the Israelite tribes with Saul as its first king in 1020 BC.^[29] In 1000 BC, Jerusalem was made the capital of King David's kingdom and it is believed that the First Temple was constructed in this period by King Solomon.^[29] By 930 BC, the united kingdom split to form the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the southern Kingdom of Judah.^[29] These kingdoms co-existed with several more kingdoms in the greater Palestine area, including Philistine town states on the Southwestern Mediterranean coast, Edom, to the South of Judah, and Moab and Ammon to the East of the river Jordan.^[30] According to Jon Schiller and Hermann Austel, among others, while in the past, the Bible story was seen historical truth, "a growing number of archaeological scholars, particularly those of the minimalist school, are now insisting that Kings David and Solomon are 'no more real than King Arthur,' citing the lack of archaeological evidence attesting to the existence of the United Kingdom of Israel, and the unreliability of biblical texts, due to their being composed in a much later period."^[31][32]
There was an at least partial Egyptian withdrawal from Palestine in this period, though it is likely that Bet Shean was an Egyptian garrison as late as the beginning of the 10th century BC.^[21] The socio-political system was characterized by local patrons fighting other local patrons, lasting until around the mid-9th century BC when some local chieftains were able to create large political structures that exceeded the boundaries of those present in the Late Bronze Age Levant.^[21]
Archaeological findings from this era include, among others, the Mesha Stele, from c. 850 BC, which recounts the conquering of Moab, located East of the Dead Sea, by king Omri, and the successful revolt of Moabian king Mesha against Omri's son, presumably King Ahab (and French scholar André Lemaire reported that line 31 of the Stele bears the phrase "the house of David" (in Biblical Archaeology Review [May/June 1994], pp. 30–37).^[33]); and the Kurkh Monolith, dated c. 835 BC, describing King Shalmaneser III of Assyria's Battle of Qarqar, where he fought alongside the contingents of several kings, among them King Ahab and King Gindibu.