Is there any evidence for the biblical land of Edom? I have been told that this is just a figment of Israelite archaeological imagination.
"Critics of the Bible try very hard to discount any historical reference they find. Biblical passages claim that the Edomites were major players with statements that claim that Edomite kings ruled in before there was any king in Israel (Genesis 36:31). There are also conflicts between Saul and David and the Edomites (see Numbers 20:18, 1 Samuel 14; 2 Kings 14; and 2 Samuel 8:12-14). All of these have been targets of skeptics for years with claims that no significant states existed in the region until the eighth century B.C.
Thomas Levy has discovered in smelting sites in Jordan strong evidence of Edomite communities flourishing during the twelfth century B.C. The site is Khirbat en-Nahas and has four layers, including a fortress. The lesson of the past is that eventually archaeological evidence supports most of the biblical historical account, and this is another example of that."
Source: Bible Review, Spring 2005, p.8. Cited in Does God Exist? (Sept/Oct 2005), with permission.
