This paper examines the formation of states during the Iron Age of the eastern Mediterranean, with particular emphasis on the Levantine states of Israel, Judah, Ammon, and Moab. Using archaeology and texts it proposes that the formation of secondary states was fundamentally different from that of early states such as in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Secondary states in the Levant needed to create not new bureaucratic methods, but new social identities, novel ethnic categories and boundaries. New ideologies were disseminated through material culture which was saturated with symbols of identity, from royal architecture through personal emblems.Cet article examine la formation des tats pendant lÕ‰ge de fer du m diterran en oriental, avec lÕemphase particuli re sur des tats de Levantine de lÕIsrael, du Judah, de lÕAmmon, et du Moab. En utilisant lÕarch ologie et les textes il propose que la formation des tats secondaires ait t fondamentalement diff rente de celle des tats t™t comme dans Mesopotamia et lÕEgypte. Les tats secondaires dans le Levant ont d ne pas cr er des m thodes bureaucratiques nouvelles, mais de nouvelles identit s sociales, des cat gories de roman et des bornes ethniques. De nouvelles id ologies ont t diffus es par la culture mat rielle qui a t satur e avec des symboles dÕidentit , de lÕarchitecture royale par les embl mes personnels.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONSThis paper addresses two questions in the archaeology of the Southern Levant, the nature of the rise of states during the rst millennium BCE, and the organization of both state and society. It attempts to delineate the external context and internal dynamics of secondary state formation, demonstrating that polities emerged by interacting with more developed neighbors but employed new methods of integration based on collective identity which combined elite and local concepts. The paper proposes that archaeology can, to a surprising extent, demonstrate the © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2002 JESHO 45,4 Also available online -www.brill.nl