State transformations in Transjordan
a brief formative journey of the kingdoms of Ammon, Moab, and Edom
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24220/2447-6803v50a2025e14824Keywords:
Ammon, Near Eastern civilizations, Edom, Moab, TransjordanAbstract
This paper aims to provide a historical overview of the unification of tribes and cities in Transjordan around centralized political systems between the 10th and 8th centuries BCE. The contexts of the emergence of the kingdoms will be addressed, based on epigraphic sources. The hypothesis is that two historical realities caused the cities of the region – without political ties and their transhumant populations with different economic sources – to organize themselves in a confederated form: the expansion of neighboring kingdoms, in the case of Ammon and Moab, and the economy, in the case of Edom. The main objective, therefore, is to understand this strategic organizational form and the emergence of the ethno-monarchical kingdoms of Ammon, Moab, and Edom in the shadow of the NeoAssyrian empire. The historical investigation aims to shed light on the phenomenon of nationalization in its social time, but it has a comparative character insofar as it includes the regional economy, the forms of politics, the evidence on religion, and the expansion of Assyria in its operational spheres.
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