The highland tribes eventually formed a centralized state (a single government) because they needed to defend themselves against the powerful Philistines. We can see this military tension at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a heavily guarded 10th-century BCE fortress built directly on the border facing the Philistines. It had massive double-walls (casemate walls) and proves that early Judah had an organized military. To pay for this new government, they needed money. Recent carbon-dating shows a massive boom in copper smelting (extracting metal from rock) in the southern deserts at Timna and Edom. Taxing or controlling this copper trade likely paid for Israel’s early kings.

However, historians fiercely debate how big and powerful the kingdom of David and Solomon actually was:

• The Minimalists (Low Chronology) argue the kingdom was just a small, rural chiefdom.
• The Maximalists point to massive, standardized six-chambered city gates found at Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer as proof of King Solomon’s wealth. (The minimalists argue these gates were built a century later).

Regardless of how big the kingdom was, we know a government was forming. A government needs taxes and soldiers, which requires a bureaucracy (a system of officials and record-keepers). This sparked the rise of a scribal culture—people whose job was to write things down. One of the oldest examples of this writing was found at Qeiyafa on an ostracon (a piece of broken pottery used as scrap paper).

Outside of the Bible, we know the dynasty of David was real because of the Tel Dan Stele, a 9th-century stone monument created by an enemy king that brags about fighting the “House of David.” However, the united kingdom didn’t last long. Around 925 BCE, an Egyptian Pharaoh named Sheshonq I launched a massive military attack across the region, which shattered the government and caused the nation to split into two separate kingdoms.