Documentation of First Temple Israel and Judah
All scholars acknowledge First Temple Israel existed due to the Tel Dan stele, Mesha stele, Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, the Tell al-Rimah stele, the Mesha stele, the Sennacherib Prism, Sargon documenting his invasion of Samaria in the Sargon annals and deporting thousands of Israelites, the Karnak stele documents Shoshenq invading Judah during Rehoboam's rule, the City of David bullae with names of First Temple figures in the book of Jeremiah and 2 Kings, the bullae in the Temple Mount soil and other documents.
Nathan-Melech was a footnote in the Old Testament. The city of David bullae write names of figures in the book of Jeremiah and 2 Kings. In the Temple Mount area there were excavations unveiling bullae with names of First Temple figures in the Tanakh and if there were less restrictions in the Temple Mount area experts would probably be able to discover First Temple archives of Israelite history in the tunnels and chambers of the Temple Mount area of the former Temple. Tunnels and chambers underneath the Temple Mount probably have troves of archives and libraries of First Temple Israel since the soil in the Temple Mount area has excavated bullae with names of important First Temple figures in the Old Testament, the House of bullae in the City of David alone has bullae with names of figures in the book of Jeremiah and 2 Kings, and the Temple had the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel as the Bible writes. The Temple Mount sifting project has excavated bullae with names of First Temple figures in the Old Testament in the soil of the Temple Mount area alone. I understand why the Temple Mount cannot be excavated and I am only arguing there is probably archives and libraries underneath.
The Babylonians and Romans systematically destroyed Jerusalem, systematically looted and destroyed national Jewish archives and libraries in the Temple, and ancient cultures practiced damnatio memoriae against defeats. The Philistines did not document King David defeating them since ancient cultures practiced damnatio memoriae against defeats and there are destruction layers in multiple Philistine cities such as Gath matching the timeline of King David's rule. Damnatio memoriae against humiliating defeats was standard practice in ancient cultures. Ancient Egypt practiced damnatio memoriae against Akhenaten and the Amarna era, and Egypt almost succeeded in removing Akhenaten and the Amarna era from documents and human memory until experts in the 20th century rediscovered the Canaanite Amarna tablets. King David having no documentation of defeating his enemies such as the Philistines in enemy documents does not imply he was only a tribal chieftain since ancient kings did not commission monuments celebrating their defeats, they practiced damnatio memoriae against defeats, and Egypt almost succeeded in removing Akhenaten and Akhenaten's kingdom from documents and human memory until the 20th century when experts rediscovered the Canaanite Amarna tablets.
The Babylonian and Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed the perishable parchment, papyrus and scrolls in Jerusalem but the bullae baked in the City of David alone protected bullae with names of First Temple figures such as Jucal son of Shelemiah, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Azariah son of Hilkiah, Gedaliah son of Pashhur and Nathan-Melech, and the Temple Mount area undoubtedly has treasure troves of documentation of First Temple Israel in the tunnels and chambers of the Temple Mount since the excavated soil of the Temple Mount area had the national archives and libraries of Jerusalem and had names of First Temple figures in the Old Testament. Nathan-Melech is a footnote in the Old Testament in 2 Kings but experts discovered a bullae writing about Nathan-Melech.
Assyrian documents write about Israelite and Judahite kings in the Tanakh. The Babylonians, Assyrians and multiple other ancient cultures meticously documented First Temple Israelite kings and Judahite kings, meticulously documented attacking Jewish cities and meticously documented attacking Jerusalem. The bullae in the City of David, the Temple Mount area and other places are documentation of minor First Temple figures, and the tunnels and chambers underneath the Temple Mount undoubtedly have even better documentation of First Temple figures & have the archives and libraries of the former Temple of Jerusalem but excavations there have been restricted. The Babylonian Chronicles and Lachish letters are other documentation of First Temple Jerusalem. The Assyrians documented King Hezekiah the Judahite in the Sennacherib Prism, King Joash of Samaria in the Tell al-Rimah stele, King Jehu and Omri in the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser, multiple Israelite and Judahite kings of the Bible in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser, and multiple other Israelite and Judahite kings.
Jerusalem has been completely destroyed two times, conquered and attacked dozens of times with plunderers looting everything they were able to, and anti-Semites and anti-Zionists in the 19th century and 20th century probably looted and destroyed what they were able to.
Minimalism is not scholarship but ideology. Scholars universally recognize the United Monarchy and the Divided Monarchy existed but they realize they cannot discover the size of the United Monarchy since Jerusalem has been completely destroyed two times, conquered, attacked and plundered dozens of times, and Jerusalem has been vulnerable to centuries of looting. The Babylonians and Romans did more than destroy Jerusalem and the Temple since they systematically looted everything they were able to and they looted graves, tombs and other places.
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https://armstronginstitute.org/232-house-of-bullae-and-the-book-of-jeremiah
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Posted Mar 6, 2026, 9:48 PM UTC