Source of this Article.

https://www.academia.edu/34956320/_The_Tribe_of_Manasseh_and_the_Jordan_River_Geography_Society_History_and_Biblical_Memory_PhD_Dissertation_Bar-Ilan_University_Ramat_Gan_2017_?email_work_card=minimal-title
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1. Archaeological Time Periods
*
 (All dates approximate)
Iron I A1200 - 1140/1130 BCE
Iron I B1150/1140 - ca. 980 BCE
Iron II A980 - 840/830 BCE
Iron II B840/830 - 732/701 BCE
Iron III A732/701 - 605/586 BCE
Iron III B605/586 - 520 BCE
*Reflecting the 'Modified Conventional Chronology (MCC)' in Amihai Mazar, 'The Debate Over theChronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant' in
The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology,Text, and Science (Eds. Thomas E. Levy and Thomas Higham; London: Equinox, 2005), 15-30. See there forother dating systems, which vary by up to 50-80 years.

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2. Early Israelite Settlement
The primary researcher of west Manasseh was Adam Zertal, who conducted surveys of approximately 2500 sq km in the Samaria Hills between 1978 and1990.
 Zertal found that approximately 75% of the Iron Age I sites in the region were newly founded. These sites generally had four-room houses and a number of collared-rim pithoi.This is in contrast to the Late Bronze Age, when only 20% of the sites were newly founded, there were no four-room houses, very few if any collared-rim pithoi, and nearly every site had a more robust, 'Canaanite' style pottery assemblage. In other words, the new Iron Age I sites had a different type of architecture and pottery, which indicates the settlement of a new population or the beginning of a new way of life. Approximately 67% of the new Iron I sites continued into the Iron II period, when the Israelite presence is strongly detected archaeologically and textually. For Zertal, 'The considerable continuity in site location from Iron Age I to Iron Age II may be interpreted as an indicator of the ethnic homogeneity of the two societies. This stands in contrast to the low degree of continuity between Late Bronze and Iron Age I sites.'

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 In other words, the Manassites of the Iron II period can already be detected archaeologically as early as the Iron I, but not the Late Bronze Age.
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3. Samaria Ostraca (Pot Sherds) and Tribal Names
The Samaria Ostraca are perhaps the most important texts for the study of Israelitetribalism, and they come from the heart of west Manasseh. The Samaria Ostraca were found in two stages at Samaria (modern Sebaste), the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel ca.870-720 BCE. One hundred and two potsherds were found by George A. Reisner in 1910 and another seven were found by the Joint Expedition to Samaria from 1931-1935. 90
 Of the 109 ostraca, only 63 are legible....
Scott B. Noegel describes a scholarly consensus that has persisted for over one hundred years: 'The archaeological context in which they were found and paleographic analysis of the Hebrew script in which they were written suggest that they date to the second quarter of the eighth century BCE, thus roughly 50 years before the Assyrian destruction of the city.' 91
 This corresponds to the Iron Age II period, i.e., before the fall of the northern kingdom ca. 732-720 BCE. Based upon an analysis of the texts, most scholars suggest that they date to either the reign of Joash (ca.800 - 785 BCE ) or Jeroboam II (ca. 785 - 749 BCE).....92

For our specific purposes, the importance of the Samaria Ostraca lies in their relation to the biblical text. Although the Samaria Ostraca do not mention Manasseh by name, the following clans or settlements mentioned in them are also found in the Bible, all within the tribal framework of Manasseh: Shemida (Num 26:32; Josh 17:2; 1 Chr. 7:19), Helek (Num26:30; Josh. 17:2), Abiezer (Josh17:2; Judg 6:11, 34; 8:2; 1 Chr 7:18), Asriel (Num 26:31;Josh 17:2; 1 Chron 7:14 ), Shechem (Num 26:31; Josh 17:2, 7; 20:7; 24:32; Judg 9:1; 1 Chr7:19, 28), Hoglah (Num 26: 33; 27:1; 36: 11; Josh 17:3-4) and Noah (Num 26:33; 27: 1; 36:11; Josh 17: 3). Tirzah, another Manassite (Num 26:33; 27:1; 36:11; Josh 17:3), is known as the locale by the same name (e.g., Josh 12:24; 1 Kings 15:21, 33; 16:6; the site is identified by many as Tell el-Far ~ah [north]). Thus, the ostraca provide external evidence that biblical texts such as Joshua 17 contain legitimate 'on-the-ground' Iron Age II information. Although tribes are not the focus of the monarchic histories found in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, the Samaria Ostraca reveal that the people and settlements the Bible calls Manassite did not disappear from the scene.
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4. Arabs from Diverse Places
Tawfiq Canaan, 'Theaqr Bedouin of Besn,' Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 16 (1936), 21-32

First, the genealogy of the Saqr a 19th to 20th century tribe from the Beth-Shean valleynot to be confused with the similarly named Beni Sakhr, offers an example of the fluidity of tribal genealogies.
108
 The Saqr considered themselves kin to the Sardiyeh of southern Syria and the Abbad of the Belka on the other side of the Jordan River. All three of these tribes traced their genealogies to the two sons of Saqr named Mallak and Fawwaz. While all of these tribesmen treated each other as kin, Tawfiq Canaan studied their genealogies in 1936 and noticed that the different sub-clans emigrated to the region from disparate places such as the Hejaz, the Golan, Aleppo, Najd, Egypt, Tripoli, and Kerak. According to Canaan, I have been told that there are no foreigners in the Abbad tribe. This list shows clearly that the different clans came from different countries... A thorough analysis of all the data given above shows clearly that the Aqr and the Abbd tribes, which claim to be descendants of one and the same father, came from different regions. Time and political needs amalgamated them.
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5. Manasseh had the Most Fertile Land
There are two pieces of evidence that suggest that Manasseh was a leading tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel. First, from a geographical perspective, Manasseh was in the center of the kingdom and contained the most fertile land. It should come as no surprise, then, that all of the capitals of the northern kingdom were situated in or adjacent to west and east Manasseh:
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6. The Assyrian Campaigns
In the western campaign of 733/732 BCE, Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria (r. 744-727BCE) waged war on the northern kingdom of Israel.
According to 2 Kings 15:29,
In the days of King Pekah of Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, the entire region of Naphtali; and he deported the inhabitants to Assyria.

1 Chronicles 5:26, which attributes the exile of the Transjordanian Israelites to Tiglath-pileser:

The biblical description of 732 BCE is paralleled by Tiglath-pileser III's own account,discovered at the excavations at his palace in Nimrud. The Assyrian king boasts,

Although the text is broken, in his annals Tiglath-pileser III speaks of exiling 13,520 people just after mentioning 'the land of (the house) of Omri,' the king of Israel.

 These passages are in harmony with the biblical portrayal, that is, the Assyrians conquered a great deal of the northern kingdom from Pekah (r. ca. 735-732 BCE) and exiled a number of the kingdom's inhabitants to Assyria. There is no mention of any Assyrian sponsored resettlement at this time.
Approximately ten years later in 722 BCE, Shalmaneser V (r. ca. 727-722 BCE) captured Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel in the heart of west Manasseh.
The three year siege that led to Samaria's downfall is recorded in 2 Kings 17:1-6 (as well as 2-Kings 18:9-12):

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7. Locations of Exile

Halah is usually identified with the Assyrian region named Halahhu located in the vicinity of Kirkuk northeast of the Assyrian heartland.

 Habor and the River Gozan are to be identified with today's Khabur River, a northern tributary of the Euphrates that passes ancient Guzan/Gozan (Tell Halaf).

 The cities of Media could have been anywhere in what is contemporary Iran, but were most likely in the vicinity of Kar-arruken..

The capture of Samaria appears in Assyrian sources as well. In contrast to the biblical author, who attributes the exile of Samaria to Shalmaneser V, the Assyrian sources attribute it to Sargon II, who took the throne immediately after Shalmaneser V died in ca. 721 BCE. ... the precise history is opaque due to the paltry amount of inscriptions in our possession attributed to Shalmaneser V. It is likely that Shalmaneser V was the first to conquer Samaria
 and that Sargon II later boasted of conquering Samaria himself, deporting 27,280 refugees to Assyria and repopulating the region with deportees from other areas:

According to K. Lawson Younger, Jr., the chronology of the Ashur Charter, the Borowski Stela, and Sargon II's Khorsabad annals and reliefs suggest that Sargon II's actions in Samaria occurred during his campaign to the west in 720 BCE.

 If some Israelites were indeed deported to the 'cities of Media' as 2 Kings 17:6 suggests, this could not have been until 716 BCE, when Sargon II captured the region of Media called Har-harar, which he renamed Kar-arruken.
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8. Arabs and Samaritans
In addition to the more general description of bidirectional deportations found in the Nimrud Prism, Sargon II elsewhere speaks of repopulating Samaria with a number of specific Arabian tribes:

This general picture is supported by 2 Kings 17:24,

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9. Assyrian Exile Policy in General

According to Bustenay Oded ("Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire," 1979), 19-21., the Assyrian sources that have survived mention deportations throughout the empire 157 times. Only 43 contain actual numbers, for a total of 1,210,928 deportees. Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II were vigorous deporters, deporting 368,543 exiles and 217,635 exiles respectively. In total, Oded posits that if the Assyrian kings are to be believed they may have exiled upwards of four and a half million people.
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10. Archaeological Evidence in Israel of Assyrian Exile

The physical results of the events of 732-720 BCE can be seen in the handful of archaeological surveys of Manasseh that distinguish between the Iron II (pre-732 BCE) and Iron III periods (post 732 BCE). The settlements in the Sharon plains dropped 90% from 39Iron II sites to 4 Iron III sites.

 In the Samaria hills they dropped 67% from 223 sites in the Iron II to 73 sites in the Iron III.

 In the Jordan Valley, there was an 83% drop from 93 Iron II sites to 16 Iron III sites.

 The Golan saw the most significant reduction of all, a 97% drop from 85 Iron II sites to 3 Iron III sites. The widespread destruction can also be seen in the excavations of specific sites in the northern kingdom and its Aramaean neighbors, e.g., at Dan, Hazor, Chinnereth, Bethsaida, Tel Hadar, En Gev, Beth Shean, Kedesh, Megiddo,Jokneam, Qiri, Acco, Keisan, Shiqmona, Dor, Taanach, Dothan, Samaria, Tirzah, Gezer, Shechem, and Bethel.

 All of these data suggest that the region of Manasseh was ravaged by the Assyrians and that a significant portion of the population was either deported or killed.The ones who survived would have had to adapt to the new circumstances of the Iron III period, either in their homeland or abroad.
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11. Fate of the Exiles

As K. Lawson Younger points out, there is a surprising amount of documentation for the Israelites who were exiled to Assyria. Sargon II wrote about the Samarian exiles, 'I formed a unit with 200 of [their] chariots for my royal force,' and an Assyrian 'horse list' from the period Sargon II contains two Yahwistic... names (ia-u-ga-a, perhaps 'Yah... is proud,' and ahi-i-?, perhaps 'brother of Yah....') amongst a group of thirteen charioteer officers, many of whom have Semitic names.159
 A Nimrud wine list records that Samarian lamentation priests were allotted 4 1/3 qa [2 sutu= 2 seah] per person per day, which roughly corresponds to four loaves of bread, whereas Hittite lamentation priests only received 1 qa per day.160
 Apparently one Samarian named Shama (note another in 1 Chronicles 11:44) gained favor in Sargon II's court; in addition to being a charioteer with a high legal status, he was known as 'trainer to the king's son.'
 The exiles who were sent to Halah were probably put to work on Sargon II's new capital, Dur-arruken, which was located in the region.
 The deportees who were sent to Gozan/Guzana were probably treated especially poorly; one letter describes the rations for a deportee as 1 qa of barley (= one loaf) per day, the minimum nutritional dosage needed for survival.163
 While the lack of evidence is not evidence itself, it is highly likely that the exiles to Assyria did not maintain the tribal structures of Manasseh. In fact, the 'assyrianization' of exiles was an important part of the exilic experience, as Sargon II wrote:

The process of assyrianization is perhaps reflected in the onomasticon of the Assyrian sources. As Frederick M. Fales notes, the vast amount of West-Semitic names in the 8th century  trend toward Assyrian names by the 7th century BCE.

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12  Israelite Refugees in Jerusalem

According to Yigal Shiloh, the excavator of Jerusalem's City of David between 1978-1985:In the eighth century BCE (stratum 12), the city [of Jerusalem] reached the peak of its development. It seems that refugees flocked to Jerusalem from Samaria and the surrounding countryside, which was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE...Presently available excavation results provide ample evidence for the growth of Jerusalem's population and concomitant increase in area: the city's residential section spread to the western hill; the fortifications around both the old and new areas of settlement were rebuilt on a large scale; and the water-supply system was reinforced by the digging of Hezekiah's Tunnel to supplement the existing water system - Warren's Shaft and the Siloam Tunnel.
Yigal Shiloh, 'Jerusalem', in "The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land," Vol. 2
 (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1993), 701-712, esp. 706. According to a recent study, this process may have begun as early as the 9th century BCE. See Joseph Uziel and Nahshon Szanton, "Recent Excavations Near the Gihon Spring and their Reflection on the Character of Iron II Jerusalem," Tel Aviv 42.2(2015), 233-250.

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Manasseh-2.

Manasseh-3. Five Ways to Map Manasseh.