Finkelstein suggests David fought a big guy in latter times (than a Bible timeline ) in Greek amour . And he makes the point there easily could have been a "Habiru " ( outlaws outside of the state infiltrating in to the east ) that knocked out a large armored mercenary with a sling ( look up their power , if you are not familiar with it ) and a hero story passed down about it .
I suppose that is possible. It could have been a completely different story or tradition that got worked into the David mythos.
The archaeology suggests there was not much there either .
Yeah Judah was pretty empty. Which stands to reason as much of it is in the more arid lowlands. Where the land was dry and there was not as much access to water. Cities in Judah like Jerusalem were built on a sort of "acropolis" where they had access to internal wells that were cut into the rock. Jerusalem existed since the Bronze Age, or at least some polity nearby in that general locality. The actual place where Iron Age Jerusalem was located, maybe even Bronze Age Jerusalem, was on the temple mount. Since that is a perfect acropolis, and other ancient cities in the region were dug up in similar locations. But that being the case it does not seem that Jerusalem was a large city at the time at all. Samaria was larger. Hardly the great imperial city of David and Solomon.
Perhaps the north was 'where it was at ' and Judah , much less so. And considering they were not probably united as the Bible claims , they might have been no more than rival neighboring states that both had a variety of beliefs and Gods , with some elements of 'Judaism' ( as it came to be later ) in both as well.
That is basically an accurate claim. Judah was a very underdeveloped state in the lowlands and arid country. It had fewer cities and not very many institutions that could enable a strong kingdom. Judaism was prevalent in both Judah and Israel. But it seems that where as Judah's conversion was more complete, in Israel there were still some pagans and EL worshippers. As alluded to in the Bible with figures like Jezebel and so on. That could just be propaganda though, Judah claiming that their northern rival isn't religious enough. That being said some populations in Israel were still pagan. If you look up the Samarians you will find that there still exist Levantine pagans in Israel.
If the more northern area suffered more from incursions and devastation, it might have 'knocked it down' to be more equal to Judah . Then also perhaps a lot of people fled Israel into Judah , taking the northern myths and stories with them ?
By Josiah's time maybe he wanted to 're-claim' the north as part of a once single kingdom ?
Israel was victim to invasions by Hazael of Damascus, and by the Assyrians multiple times. Finally Sennacherib conquered the kingdom after a century of conflict. Anyway under Ashurbanipal the Israelite state had been annexed by Assyria, and Judah became a vassal state of Assyria. So there was no king of Israel or anyone who could claim the kingdom anymore. Judah realized that Assyria was declining and started plotting to invade and annex northern Canaan from the Assyrians, with help from immigrants that came from Israel, and perhaps people on the inside in Samaria.
I should look into Omri more .
Omri is the actual David in a way. Most of the deeds of David were actually done by Omri. He conquered the Trans-Jordanian kingdoms and took over the area around the Golan Heights. Technically he also subjugated Judah and made them subservient to his kingdom. He is credited as the founder of the most important and final dynasty of Israel and moved the capital to Samaria.
