Levant: Neo-Babylonian Control

After destroying Ashkelon and the Philistine coastal plain, the Babylonians besieged Judah and controlled it form 604-538 BC (Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC). The Persian Empire (its first incarnation was under the Medes) began around this time. The Babylonian administration in Judah used an Assyrian approach of balkanization: Megiddu (capital at Megiddo); Samerina (Samaria); Dor; and Yehud (Mizpah). There was a short-lived temple to Yahweh in Yehud (Jer 41:4–6).

Jewish diaspora communities (any Jewish community outside Israel) were an inevitable consequence of deportations, beginning with deportations by Assyria. Babylonian deportations led to Jewish diaspora in Babylon (2 Kings 24–25), along the Khabur River (Ezekiel 3:15) and in Egypt (as refugees) (Jeremiah 42–44). Regarding Egypt, ,Jewish mercenaries had already settled Elephantine Island. Judah’s population underwent an extreme decline. There were almost 120 sites in the time of Josiah, and just over 40 sites in the time of Babylonia. There had been more sites even before the United Monarchy. Luxury items, once popular, vanished almost completely from the archaeological record.

Destroyed sites included Ashlar House, House of Ahiel, Burnt Room and House of the Bullae. The Babylonian presence in Judah is attested only via its army, as its time physically spent in Judah was too brief to leave a lasting impression on the material culture (besides the population depletion). The army left behind scythian arrowheads (a giveaway of Babylonian presence), slingballs and much fiery destruction.