Ancient Palestine (1968)

[Music] modern palestine does not exist today the nation of israel on the west and jordan to the east occupy most of the area known historically as palestine the region is a holy land to three major religious groups jews christians and muslims this is the palestine archaeological museum in jerusalem in its courtyard our sculptures reminders of the civilizations whose histories form part of the story of ancient palestine the muslim civilization byzantine roman greek assyrian phoenician hebrew canaanite many cultures left their imprint on ancient palestine the land was much as it is today a generally hot dry land ordered by deserts on the east and south and rugged mountains on the north in the midst of this arid ruggedness lay watered valleys and oases and fertile sea coast plains ancient palestine lay at the western tip of the fertile crescent a cradle of ancient civilizations stretching from the tigris euphrates valley on the east to the mediterranean coast because of its position palestine became a strategic part of trade routes connecting africa and asia minor the great civilizations of egypt assyria and babylonia were also linked however there is evidence of life in ancient palestine long before these civilizations began this is mount carmel near the northern mediterranean coast of israel caves dot the mountainside about eight thousand bc during the stone age men lived in these caves archaeologists explored them and found remains of these prehistoric men they called natopians living where they did the stone age cave dwellers of mount carmel could have established a simple community based on food gathered in the mountain valley below the modern city of jericho takes its name from the first city culture of ancient palestine nearby are these ruins of ancient jericho one of the oldest cities in the world beginning in the late stone age it was inhabited continuously for nearly twenty five hundred years these are the ruins of high stone walls that protected the city this was a great fortified tower within the walls were the buildings of the city ancient jericho lay buried for thousands of years until it was rediscovered in the late 19th century with it were uncovered objects that showed something of its people and their way of life these are primitive hunting and agricultural tools that indicate a firmly established community ancient jericho flourished around forty five hundred bc but declined during the next two thousand years these are the ruins of neighboring megiddo cities of ancient palestine were occupied by wave after wave of pastoral nomads bits of pottery found as the cities were unearthed have helped archaeologists learn something about these people their tools and weapons are clues to their level of civilization in the period around 3000 bc ancient palestine was again the target of nomadic invasions bringing destruction to many cities these are the ruins of the ancient fortified city of hazor established about 2500 bc it was built by a new people who swept into ancient palestine the canaanites from syria who built many walled cities and divided palestine into city-states the establishment of hazor by the canaanites and the construction and resettlement of other cities in ancient palestine marked a rebirth of city culture in unearthing these ancient cities archaeologists also uncovered figurines that suggest the weapons of the canaanites pottery that shows both egyptian and minoan influences representations of many gods and goddesses which indicate a polytheistic religion inscriptions on vases and tablets show a written language cuneiform a system of writing developed by babylonians when the canaanite civilization was approaching its height the hebrews wandering tribes from sumer moved up the tigris euphrates valley and then down into palestine in about 2000 bc in many ways these ancient nomadic hebrews were similar to the bedouins of modern israel the ancient hebrews had wandered across the fertile crescent in search of pasture for their animals they found new pasture lands in ancient palestine one encampment they built outside the canaanite city of beersheba was established by the hebrew patriarch abraham the hebrew women may have spun thread like these bedouin women swinging wool in wide circles around their heads the men may have wondered about the future of their people the story of the hebrew people who played a leading role in the history of ancient palestine forms part of a unique chronicle the old testament of the bible with their studies of ancient manuscripts discovered by archaeologists bible scholars have added to our knowledge of biblical times these ancient writings also show that the old testament story of abraham and his people has not changed much in the thousands of years during which the bible was translated from language to language possibly no single archaeological find has better indicated this than the dead sea scrolls after they arrived in 2000 bc some of the hebrew tribes left ancient palestine and wandered into egypt an ancient egyptian wall painting gives us an idea of how these nomads might have looked the hebrews remained in egypt for several hundred years and then a leader arose moses moses led his people out of egypt across the sea of reeds and into the sinai peninsula this was the exodus it took place about 1200 bc the bible tells that at mount sinai moses received the ten commandments from god then the bible tells how the hebrews wandered in the rugged and bleak wilderness of the sinai desert for forty years they moved from oasis to oasis across the plains of moab lay mount nebo from its summit moses looked out upon the promised land the land of the canaanites he died but his people continued their journey without him according to both biblical and historical evidence the hebrews crossed the jordan river into palestine probably in this area near jericho and then the invading hebrew stood before jericho the canaanites were confronted by more than the hebrews kanan at about the same time about 1200 bc had also been invaded by another people the philistines the philistines had taken control of the fertile southern coastal plains this ancient bar relief shows an egyptian leading two philistine captives the philistines were sea going people who emigrated to the middle east probably from crete palestine was ravaged by war for about 200 years as the hebrews made steady inroads against both canaanites and philistines about 1000 bc the various hebrew tribes united their holdings as the kingdom of israel the reign of king saul began a hundred year period that might be called the golden age of the hebrews many of the achievements of that golden age stemmed from jerusalem saul's successor king david made jerusalem his capital it was an ancient city even in david's time this is the old section of jerusalem today perhaps not much changed from those early times solomon was david's son and successor to the throne in jerusalem under him israel flourished extensive irrigation projects provided water for agriculture in the arid land and in what is now called the timnah valley copper was mined helping to make ancient israel a rich and powerful nation modern archaeologists using the bible as a guidebook found solomon's actual minds mountains with rich veins of copper that had not been worked for three thousand years much of the ancient world supply of copper came from here israel's copper and other products were shipped from solomon's kingdom along trade route to distant markets about 950 bc in jerusalem solomon undertook his greatest project the temple this is a model of a temple built many centuries later whose design was based on the plan followed by king solomon solomon's temple was meant to be an eternal monument to the hebrews belief in a single god but the magnificent temple and the ancient kingdom of israel were doomed solomon died and for the next 600 years from about 900 to 300 bc ancient palestine was ravaged by warfare a civil war divided israel into two kingdoms israel and judah politically weakened the land then fell prey to a series of invasions the assyrians conquered the land and then the babylonians and then the persians under darius the great and then the persians were conquered by the greek armies of alexander the great in 63 bc the roman general pompey and his legions brought palestine under rome's control nearly a century later in 70 a.d the roman emperor titus put down a rebellion by the hebrews against his rule to punish the hebrew rebels roman soldiers ransacked jerusalem and carried off religious treasures and slaves to rome some hebrews fled to the mountains of masada but their guerrilla war against the romans was futile the age of eastern cultures in palestine came to an end as the romans assumed control of the land but this ancient land of palestine its people and their ideas would in the centuries to come exert a major influence on the history of the world [Music]