Editing Solomon (section)

====General observations====

The archaeological remains that are considered to date from the time of Solomon are notable for the fact that [[Canaan]]ite material culture appears to have continued unabated; there is a distinct lack of magnificent empire, or cultural development. Indeed, comparing pottery from areas traditionally assigned to Israel with that of the [[Philistines]] points to the latter having been significantly more sophisticated.{{Citation needed|date=November 2020|reason=Iron Age I and early II sites associated with Philistia lack written language, except for a single inscription with 7 letters. It's a little dubious to argue without evidence that Canaanite cultural development exceeded that of Israel, since Israel was itself a Canaanite culture. If the time of Solomon is taken as approximately 1,000 BCE, then this is very near the earliest supported date of divergence of the Israelites into a distinct identity. It would be reasonable to assume that, in the time of Solomon, Israel was more of a subgroup within the Canaanite culture than a separate culture.
However, if we hypothetically push that date back and decide that Israel was already a separate polity by the time the Merneptah Stele was inscribed, a comparison to Philistia would be the worst example, since the Philistines appear to have been one of the least advanced Canaanite groups of the time. The lack of written language found in major archaeological sites suggests that they did not routinely use writing for administration, which suggests a lower ceiling on the complexity of their organization and the power of their "state".
Many other civilizations in the Near East already had administrative record-keeping with advanced alphabetic or cursive script, including south Canaanite sites that have been (controversially) identified with the proto-Israelite culture, e.g. Khirbet Qeiyafa. In any case, a better example would be Ugarit, a north Canaanite site that had administrative written language 200-400 years before Qeiyafa.}} However, there is a lack of physical evidence of its existence, despite some archaeological work in the area.{{sfn|Finkelstein|Silberman|2001|pages=186–195}} This is not unexpected because the area was devastated by the [[Babylonians]], then rebuilt and destroyed several times.{{sfn|Kitchen|2003|p=123}}

In 2014, professor of anthropology Jimmy Hardin and his team discovered six official clay 
[[Bulla (seal)|bullae]] seals at a site east of [[Gaza City|Gaza]] called Khirbet Summeily. He states that these bullae are associated with an Iron Age IIA political entity typified by elite activities dated to the 10th century BCE. The bullae appear to be the only known examples that date to this period. In his view, this lends general support to the historical veracity of [[David]] and Solomon as recorded in the Hebrew biblical texts.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newsarchive.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2014/12/msu-department-announces-major-archaeological-find | title=MSU department announces major archaeological find &#124; Mississippi State University News Archive }}</ref>