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Recent scholarship based on typological studies suggests that the dating of the prosperous Beersheba settlement system should be raised from the 7th to the last third of the 8th century BCE. This change in timeframe offers a new understanding of demographics and presents a number of socio-historical implications. It sheds new light on the nature of Assyrian hegemony in the region during the late 8th century and the beginning of the 7th century and affects the understanding of Judean internal affairs, such as aspects of the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, and the archaeology of the reign of Manasseh.The period between the 8th and the beginning of the 6th century bce (Iron Age IIb) in the Beersheba Valley is characterised by an intensive settlement system significantly different from that of previous centuries, both in number of settlements and scope. Traditionally, the sudden growth spurt in the Beersheba Valley has been linked to the Assyrian retreat from Palestine in the 620s bce and the expansion of Josiah's Judean kingdom to the coastal plain (

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