Archaeological Evidence for the Relations between Persian Period Yehud and Nehemiah

Surveys and site excavations add important elements to the discussion of the numerous lists in the book, which are sometimes taken to represent communities or settlement groups (Carter, Emergence of Yehud; Edelman, Origins of the “Second” Temple, chaps. 4 and 5; Lipschits, “Persian Period Finds”). Bullae, seals, and stamps help illuminate Nehemiah’s relations with longer term trends in the administration of Yehud (Avigad, Bullae and Seals; Lipschits and Vanderhooft, “Yehud Stamp Impressions”; Williamson, Studies, 46–63). Stern provides a useful overview of Persian period archaeology in Samaria and Yehud (Ephraim Stern, Material Culture, 29–40, 229–55). Although the historicity of Nehemiah’s wall building is typically accepted, Finkelstein rejects the historicity of Nehemiah’s walls altogether, on the basis of archaeology (Finkelstein, “Jerusalem,” 509; “Persian Period Jerusalem,” 6–7).