Every division of the country between the Jordan and the sea, c. 1200 BC – AD 135 — and what each rests on.
The thirteen divisions, mapped ↓ · Who Ruled the Land — the memo →
Thirteen divisions of the same country. Click a map to jump to its entry in the register below; the memo carries the full account of each. The maps are schematic — boundaries in the east and the south were vague in antiquity and are argued over now, and the coastline and the two lakes are drawn for orientation rather than to survey accuracy.
Who Ruled the Land — the companion memo, with each division set out in full and what it rests on.
The divisions are mapped in the companion memo, Who Ruled the Land.
Every entry carries its source and its attestation grade. One amber dot means a single text channel with no external corroboration; two green means independent sources cross; three green means a contemporary inscription or material evidence. The grades are not evenly spread, and where they fall is part of what this page shows.
| # | Date | Lane | Event | Att. | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | c. 1208 BC | EMPIRES | Merneptah Stele names ‘Israel’. The earliest surviving mention of Israel by name, on an Egyptian victory stele — written with the determinative for a people, not a place. | Merneptah Stele, Cairo Museum JE 31408 | |
| 2 | c. 1175 BC | NEIGHBOURS | Philistines settle the coast. Egyptian reliefs at Medinet Habu record the Sea Peoples repulsed by Ramesses III; the archaeology shows a new material culture at Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath and Gaza. | Medinet Habu reliefs; excavations at Tel Miqne-Ekron and Ashkelon | |
| 3 | c. 1200–1020 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The tribal allotments. Joshua 13–21 describes twelve territories drawn by lot, Levi holding none, two and a half tribes east of the Jordan. A kinship map. No external corroboration exists. | Joshua 13–21; Judges 1 | |
| 4 | c. 1020 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Saul. The first king, over a territory the text does not define. Text only. | 1 Samuel 9–31 | |
| 5 | c. 1010–1003 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | THE FIRST SPLIT. Abner makes Saul’s son Ish-bosheth king over Israel at Mahanaim while the men of Judah anoint David at Hebron. Two kings at war for about seven years, divided on the line Judah against Israel — the same line the kingdom splits along again in 931. | 2 Samuel 2–4 | |
| 6 | c. 1003 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | David takes Jerusalem. The houses reconcile and all the tribes come to David at Hebron. He takes Jerusalem, a Jebusite city on the seam between north and south belonging to no tribe — which is why it works as a capital for both. | 2 Samuel 5 | |
| 7 | c. 970 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Solomon’s twelve districts. 1 Kings 4:7–19: twelve officers, each victualling the royal household one month a year. A revenue map, and it does not follow the tribal boundaries. | 1 Kings 4:7–19 | |
| 8 | c. 931 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | THE KINGDOM SPLITS. Rehoboam refuses to lighten the burden. Ten tribes go with Jeroboam as Israel; Judah and Benjamin remain. One land, two states, for two hundred years. | 1 Kings 12 | |
| 9 | c. 925 BC | EMPIRES | Shoshenq I campaigns north. The Karnak relief lists towns taken in the Levant — the first external record touching the divided kingdoms. | Bubastite Portal, Karnak | |
| 10 | 853 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Ahab at Qarqar. Shalmaneser III’s monolith names Ahab the Israelite among the coalition against Assyria, with two thousand chariots. | Kurkh Monolith, BM 118884 | |
| 11 | c. 840 BC | NEIGHBOURS | Mesha of Moab. A Moabite king’s own inscription, naming Omri king of Israel and claiming the recovery of Moabite land. The neighbours speak for themselves here, and only here. | Mesha Stele, Louvre AO 5066 | |
| 12 | 841 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Jehu pays tribute. The Black Obelisk shows an Israelite king prostrate before Shalmaneser III — the only contemporary image of a named ruler of Israel or Judah. | Black Obelisk, BM 118885 | |
| 13 | c. 835 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The House of David named. An Aramaic victory stele from Tel Dan refers to the ‘House of David’ — the earliest external attestation of the dynasty. | Tel Dan Stele, Israel Museum | |
| 14 | 734–732 BC | EMPIRES | Assyria takes the north. Tiglath-Pileser III annexes Galilee, Gilead and the coast, and reduces Israel to Samaria and its hills. | Tiglath-Pileser III, Annals | |
| 15 | 722 BC | EMPIRES | Samaria falls. Sargon II’s annals record the deportation of 27,290 people and the resettlement of the province with others. Israel ends as a state. | Sargon II, Khorsabad Annals | |
| 16 | 701 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Sennacherib in Judah. Forty-six walled towns taken; Hezekiah shut up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage. Judah survives as a tributary. | Sennacherib Prism, BM 91032; Lachish reliefs | |
| 17 | c. 700 BC | NEIGHBOURS | Ekron names its king. A dedicatory inscription from Tel Miqne names Padi and four generations of Philistine rulers — the Philistines in their own words. | Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription | |
| 18 | 597 BC | EMPIRES | The first deportation. Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem and removes Jehoiachin. The Babylonian Chronicle dates it to the second day of Adar. | Babylonian Chronicle, BM 21946 | |
| 19 | 587 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Jerusalem destroyed. The Temple burned, the monarchy ended, the population deported. Judah becomes Babylonian territory. | 2 Kings 25; Lachish Letters | |
| 20 | 539 BC | EMPIRES | Cyrus takes Babylon. The Persian conquest, and a policy of returning deported peoples and restoring their sanctuaries. | Cyrus Cylinder, BM 90920 | |
| 21 | c. 538–332 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Yehud, a Persian province. A small territory around Jerusalem under a governor, striking its own small silver coins inscribed YHD. | Yehud coinage; Ezra–Nehemiah; Elephantine papyri | |
| 22 | 332 BC | EMPIRES | Alexander. Macedonian conquest of the whole Levant. The land changes hands without a battle in it. | Arrian, Anabasis 2; Josephus, Ant. 11 | |
| 23 | 301 BC | EMPIRES | Ptolemaic rule. After Ipsus the land is administered from Alexandria for a century. | Zenon Papyri; Diodorus 20 | |
| 24 | 200 BC | EMPIRES | Seleucid rule. Antiochus III defeats the Ptolemies at Panion; the land passes to Antioch. | Polybius 16; Josephus, Ant. 12 | |
| 25 | 167 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The Temple desecrated. Antiochus IV proscribes Jewish practice and rededicates the Temple to Olympian Zeus. Revolt follows. | 1 Maccabees 1; Daniel 11; Josephus, Ant. 12 | |
| 26 | 142 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Independence. Simon Maccabee wins remission of tribute. A Jewish state again, for the first time since 587. | 1 Maccabees 13; Josephus, Ant. 13 | |
| 27 | c. 112–107 BC | NEIGHBOURS | Idumaea absorbed. John Hyrcanus conquers Edom’s successor territory; the Idumaeans adopt Jewish law and are counted Jews thereafter. Herod’s family among them. | Josephus, Ant. 13.257–258; Strabo 16.2.34 | |
| 28 | c. 111 BC | NEIGHBOURS | The Gerizim temple destroyed. Hyrcanus razes the Samaritan sanctuary. Excavation on Mount Gerizim confirms a large sacred precinct destroyed at this date. | Josephus, Ant. 13.255–256; Magen, Mt Gerizim excavations | |
| 29 | 104 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The title of king resumed. Aristobulus I takes the diadem — the first Jewish king since 587 — and annexes Galilee. | Josephus, Ant. 13.301; Strabo 16.2.40 | |
| 30 | 103–76 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The greatest Hasmonean extent. Under Alexander Jannaeus the kingdom reaches from Galilee to the Negev and across the Jordan — the largest Jewish state since the united monarchy. | Josephus, Ant. 13.320–404; War 1.85–106 | |
| 31 | 63 BC | EMPIRES | Pompey. Rome intervenes in a Hasmonean civil war and takes Jerusalem. The coastal cities and the Decapolis are detached and freed; the Jewish state loses the sea. | Josephus, Ant. 14.34–79; Cassius Dio 37 | |
| 32 | 57 BC | EMPIRES | Gabinius divides it in five. The proconsul breaks the territory into five councils, at Jerusalem, Jericho, Gadara, Amathus and Sepphoris. The arrangement does not hold. | Josephus, Ant. 14.90–91; War 1.169–170 | |
| 33 | 40 BC | EMPIRES | The Parthians install Antigonus. The last Hasmonean king, placed by Rome’s enemy. Herod flees; the Senate votes him king of a kingdom he does not hold. | Josephus, Ant. 14.330–385; Cassius Dio 48 | |
| 34 | 37 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Herod takes Jerusalem. Three years of war end the Hasmonean state. The territory is reunified under one king and then enlarged by Augustus in 23 and 20 BC. | Josephus, Ant. 14.465–491 | |
| 35 | 4 BC | ISRAEL/JUDAH | THE FOUR-WAY DIVISION. Augustus splits the kingdom: Archelaus ethnarch of Judaea, Samaria and Idumaea; Antipas tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea; Philip tetrarch of the north-east; Salome three towns. The title of king passes to no one. | Josephus, Ant. 17.317–323; War 2.93–100 | |
| 36 | AD 6 | EMPIRES | Judaea becomes a province. Archelaus is deposed on his subjects’ complaint and exiled to Gaul. His third passes to direct Roman rule and a census. | Josephus, Ant. 17.342–344, 18.1–10; Cassius Dio 55 | |
| 37 | AD 34 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Philip dies. The best-governed of the three tetrarchies, held thirty-seven years, reverts briefly to the province of Syria. | Josephus, Ant. 18.106–108 | |
| 38 | AD 37–41 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Agrippa I gathers it back. Caligula gives him Philip’s tetrarchy, then Antipas’s after the tetrarch is exiled to Gaul. | Josephus, Ant. 18.237, 18.252; Cassius Dio 59 | |
| 39 | AD 41 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The kingdom whole again. Claudius adds Judaea and Samaria. For three years one man rules everything Herod ruled. | Josephus, Ant. 19.274–275; Cassius Dio 60 | |
| 40 | AD 44 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | And gone again. Agrippa I dies at Caesarea. The whole territory reverts to Roman administration. | Josephus, Ant. 19.343–352; Acts 12 | |
| 41 | AD 66 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The revolt. War across the whole territory. Nabataean troops serve with the Roman force. | Josephus, War 2.284–456; Tacitus, Histories 5 | |
| 42 | AD 70 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | The Temple burned. Titus takes Jerusalem. The arch in Rome shows the spoils carried in triumph. | Josephus, War 6; Arch of Titus, Rome | |
| 43 | AD 73 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Masada. The last stronghold falls. The Roman siege works survive on the ground. | Josephus, War 7.252–406; Yadin excavations | |
| 44 | AD 132–135 | ISRAEL/JUDAH | Bar Kokhba, and the name changed. A second revolt, its administration attested in its own letters and coinage. After it the province is renamed Syria Palaestina. | Bar Kokhba letters, Cave of Letters; Cassius Dio 69.12–14 |