The Archaeology of the Return to Zion and the Achaemenid Economic Revolution

Is the "Return to Zion" historical? The paper uses a bottom-up approach to examine this question within the broader historical and social background of the Persian empire. The paper will first review the archaeological evidence concerning Persian-period settlement throughout the Land of Israel and will highlight a unique reality, in which most excavated sites were interpreted as forts. Based on both, archaeological evidence and textual information, I will argue that these sites were estates. I will then review "the Achaemenid revolution", i.e., the drastic changes implemented in the imperial economy (compared to previous empires), and will explain it in light of the broader imperial history and the geographical reality of the Persian empire. Finally, the paper will argue that the above-mentioned unique settlement patterns reflect the settling down of new settlers - the returnees - and that this exceptional feature was a direct result of the new imperial economy.

Prof. Dr. Avraham Faust is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of General History at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His research focuses on the archaeology and history of the Land of Israel during the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Persian period, with particular emphasis on social and anthropological archaeology, settlement patterns, rural society, urban-rural interaction, socio-economic stratification, ethnicity, state formation, imperial rule, and processes of social complexity.

He received his BA, MA, and Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University, completing his doctorate in 2000. He also studied at the University of Oxford as a visiting graduate student and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University. His international academic appointments have included visiting and research positions at the University of Oxford, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, KU Leuven, the University of Bonn, and the University of Cambridge.

Prof. Faust has participated in and directed archaeological excavations and surveys in Israel and abroad. He co-directed the excavations at Khirbet er-Rasm and, since 2006, has directed the excavations at Tel 'Eton and the archaeological survey of its surrounding region. He currently also directs research and survey work in the Negev Highlands.

His scholarship combines archaeological evidence with social theory, anthropology, historical analysis, settlement archaeology, and the study of biblical and Ancient Near Eastern societies. His books and articles address Israelite society, ethnogenesis, rural settlement, imperial domination, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian rule, and the archaeology of the early monarchy.