14 NADAV NA’AMAN We have seen that the fundamental Mesopotamian religious concepts, its cult and culture were all born in the south. The repeated Assyrian efforts to shift the centre from the south to its domain might be interpreted as the attempt of an initially marginal and inferior kingdom to take over the heritage of its neighbour 36. The military prowess of the Assyrian empire guaranteed it temporary success during the time of the Sargonids. However, the Babylonians never acknowledged the superiority of Assyrian cult and culture, and as soon as the Assyrian empire collapsed, the centre of gravity reverted to its original owners. II. The Emergence of “Biblical Israel” as a Religious-Cultural Phenomenon Returning to the problem of the emergence of “biblical Israel”, we must first emphasize the overwhelming superiority of the Kingdom of Israel over Judah in all parameters of statehood — population, urbanization, monumental architecture, administration, economy and trade — from the time of its foundation and until its conquest and partial annexation by Tiglath-pileser III in 733/32 BCE. Indeed, most of the territory of Palestine — including all the thickly populated highlands districts (except for the district of Benjamin) — was incorporated into Israel’s territory. These included the Gilead and part of the Mishor, the Upper and Lower Galilee, the Jordan Valley, the northern plains of Jezreel and Beth- shean, the central hill country, the coast between the Carmel and Jarkon River and the northern Shephelah. Included in these districts were the territories of the former late Canaanite cities of the Lower Galilee (Chinnereth), the northern plains (Megiddo, Beth-shean, Rehob and Jokneam), the coast (Dor) and northern Shephelah (Gezer) 37. The territories within the Kingdom of Judah, on the other FRAHM (“ Late Babylonian Copies”, 43, 45 n. 1) suggested that letter 36 No 2 published by FRAME – GEORGE, “Royal Libraries of Nineveh”, 272-277, was sent by Ashurbanipal to the Babylonian scholars. Following his text corrections, line 30 of the letter might be translated as follows: “all the scribal learning from old days onwards is in Assyria as (it was) in Babylon”. For the Iron Age I network of Canaanite city-states and its destruction, 37 see I. FINKELSTEIN, “City-States to State: Polity Dynamics in the 10th-9th Century B.C.E.”, Symbiosis, Symbolism, and the Power of the Past. Canaan,