I was somewhat alarmed by a person I came across on Twitter the other day - someone who bases their criticism of Israel and the idea that Jewish people are indigenous to the area (which I understand is a semi-contentious idea) on a denial that ancient Israel existed at all. I provided examples of the four known Iron Age inscriptions that mention Israel or its nobles houses, which they would find some article of some random person or screenshot a footnote somewhere of someone some anecdotal disagreement of the consensus view. I share a lot of views that are not favorable to contemporary Israel, but this whole exchange seemed rife with a new form of denialism I've never before encountered.
The view that was asserted was that the overwhelming majority, if not all, of ancient Israelite history is from religious texts alone (with nothing to corroborate it) -- which seems quite obviously untrue. What archaeological sites are there, what historical text is there that confirms ancient Israel's existence, especially as an established state?
Not wanting political comments, I'm purely interested in the historical aspect.
I really do seem to have written about this a lot lately and each answer makes the next one a little easier to just link the old ones.
I collated a bunch of answers together for How much of The Biblical account of Ancient Israel accepted by modern historians?
I did a comparison of 2 Kings to the records of Assyria and Babylon
Perhaps most importantly in this context I wrote an answer for Can the bible be considered a reliable or even usable source in non religious historical writings?
It's far more than just four inscriptions that mention a few nobles. If you go through those answers, I reference not just the the two or three references to the House of David and the vague "Israel" or the Merneptah Stele, but the consistent undeniable references to Israel and Judah in the records of Assyria and Babylon. The Assyrian Annals in particular reference regular contact and conflict with both kingdoms and the Babylonian Chronicles do the same during their much shorter stint in power. There are also things like the Black Obelisk of Shalmeneser III that seemingly refer to events not even referenced by the Bible or the Lachish Reliefs from Nineveh that make an even larger issue out of events the Bible glosses over.