Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

gradual, prestige, urban, minimal, trade, benches, abandoned, empty, measuring, identity, drastically, Babylonian, excavations, economic, Hellenistic, four, pillar, disappears, clans, discontinuity, Aegean, unoccupied, Greek, Persian, material, urban, tenth

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Judea after the Babylonian conquest

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Biblical text suggests that the area of Judah remained in an           empty state of ruins during the exile

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almost every urban and military installation from the 7th century in Judah was destroyed or                   abandoned

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with few exceptions these remained                     unoccupied until well into the Persian period

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scholars seem to agree on the point that there was an           urban discontinuity in the 7th century

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the sites more on the perimeter, however, the           urban rural sites are more in question

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have not been subjected to intensive                       excavations as have the urban sites

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the rural sector in Judah probably experienced               minimal destruction

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a large part of Judah's population before the Babylonian onslaught lived in the rural sector

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Judah's society could be said to be characterized during this time with more continuity than                           discontinuity

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problems with this view

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small sites in the rural sector in most cases did not continue into the               Persian period

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the rural sector depended on the urban sector in many ways

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and so it could not have persisted in the same way when the major sites were destroyed

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there are many items of                 material culture from the Judah (late Iron Age) which did not continue into the Persian period

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e.g. a new type of burial which emerged in Judah: tombs that were hewn into rock with               benches, called bench tombs

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probably used by families or           clans for generations

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became important spaces for their clan identity

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this type of burial                     disappears in the Persian period

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the same is true of the         four-roomed house

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common throughout the Iron Age within Israel and Judah

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these exist up until the Babylonian destruction, but are not attested in the Persian period

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similarly with the Judahite             pillar figurines

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very widespread throughout Judah up to the                     Babylonian conquest

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so widespread throughout the Judahite territories that they are understood to represent a Judahite                 identity

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all of this shows that something in the material culture had                       drastically changed

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the epigraphical and linguistic evidence also changes significantly with the Babylonian destruction

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the                   measuring weights, widely attested like the Judahite pillar figurines

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they disappear with the Babylonian conquest

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suggesting a collapse in the                 economic structure

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we don't see           Greek pottery in Judah after the Babylonian conquest

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international wares that are brought from the East             Aegean throughout the Mediterranean

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suggesting a collapse in economy and           trade

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life had radically changed, no more a market or a demand for international                 prestige objects

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the demographic change from the late Iron Age to the                       Hellenistic Age is highly debated

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but it is safe to say that the level of prosperity that Judah achieved in the 7th century sank precipitously with the end of the Iron Age.

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recovery was extremely slow and               gradual

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it was not until the Hellenistic period, which comes after the Persian period that conditions returned to an economic level of how they were

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the population after the destruction was probably only one           tenth of what it was during the monarchy period