Lavis Knight

I was trying to find some historical background outside the biblical text concerning the size of Solomons Kingdom. Basically the size and power/influence of these people in this period of history.

I was wondering what evidence there currently was outside the bible concerning King Solomon and his kingdom. Was it really a great world power at one time? Was he really a revered leader?

From what i have been reading i am led to believe that it didn't exist at all.

skunker

According to Wikipedia:

"Historical evidence of King Solomon, independent of the biblical accounts, is scarce. Nothing indisputably of Solomon's reign has been found. Archaeological excavations at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer have uncovered structures that some[attribution needed] attributed to the reign of Solomon based on Biblical accounts, but these structures are now generally dated to the Omride period, more than a century after Solomon's reign. Excavations on such sites are ongoing.[4] Israeli archaeologists Ammon Ben-Tor and Amihai Mazar and US Professor William G. Dever argue that these sites and Bethshan all belong to the mid to late 10th century BCE and all were simultaneously destroyed by a raid of Shiskak. [5]"

Hope that helps.

Toto

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts is a good place to start.

The same authors have written David and Solomon which is the subject of this thread from 2 years ago.

XKV8R

israel finkelstein (see toto's reference above) is a leading archaeologist arguing for the 'downdating' of the northern kingdom. basically, he used to argue that david and solomon didn't exist, and that if they did, they were very small chieftans. (he bases this on the archaeological evidence alone and not the biblical text) finkelstein argues that megiddo stratum 5a/4b dates to 9th c. (ahab) rather than 10th c. (david and solomon). thus any archaeological evidence that might speak to solomon's expansion of the kingdom should actually be attributed to ahab.

finkelstein has softened his denial of the existence of david. i heard him debate larry stager at ucla and he conceded that david may have existed, but that solomon is a fictional construction of the jewish imagination. it's hard to dismiss finkelstein because he is a very good archaeologist. however, several archaeologists (stager being one of them) have argued for the traditional dating, which would attribute megiddo 5a/4b (and all corresponding expansion throughout the 'kingdom') to david and solomon. however, even if megiddo 5a/4b dates to solomon, it is difficult to argue much more than that he had a military presence at megiddo.

so the short answer is no, there isn't much archaeological evidence to support the biblical claims of solomon's splendor. but we must keep digging, for truth lies within (the ground)....