TWO LONG-LOST PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS AND THE EMERGENCE OF ANCIENT ISRAEL.

The Hebrew Bible indicates that in the process of settling down in Canaan, the Israelites had engaged militarily with the local inhabitants. On the other hand, archaeological research is showing that the Israelites had settled there mainly in a peaceful manner, without disproving that some military activity had been undertaken at some point. It is useful to examine whether there is any explicit extra-biblical evidence in support of the tradition that what we commonly call Early Israel could indeed have emerged -- at least partially -- on the basis of military operations. Such evidence does exist, and it comes from an unexpected quarter, namely the History of the Wars of Justinian written by Procopius of Caesarea, a Greek historian (deemed by scholars to be reliable) of the sixth century A.D. He mentions two columns (possibly of the sixth century A.D. and which he saw at Tigisis in Numidia) which were inscribed in Phoenician and in which the Canannites who had erected them claim that they had fled from Joshua the son of Nun. These Canaanites were appealing to an age-old tradition that is already found in another extra-biblical source dating to 234 B.C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]