It was under King Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, that Israel split into two kingdoms Judah and Israel in 930 BC. The reason for the breakup is that people were fed up with Rehoboam’s decision to continue the high tax policies of his father, despite being advised not to.

In fact, when people complained Rehoboam threatened to increase the taxes even more resulting in a rebellion, led by Jeroboam an official under Solomon, that saw the northern tribes split off to form Israel, while Rehoboam ruled Judah.

The unified nation of Israel, which existed under King Saul, King David, and King Solomon between 1047 BC and 930 BC, would never be seen again.

But despite the Biblical record, some believe the three kings of unified Israel were little more than local warlords who ruled a single city and never amounted to much.

However, in a recent study published in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, Professor Yosef Garfinkel of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University has found evidence that Israel under King David was an extensive kingdom that matched the Biblical record, Charisma News reports.

By default, that would also include King Saul’s and Solomon’s kingdoms

Garfinkel came to this conclusion after analyzing the archaeological work being done at five sites including Elah Fortress, also called Khirbet Qeiyafa, one of King David’s forts that overlooked the Elah Valley, 20 miles (ca. 32 km) southwest of Jerusalem. The city encompassed six acres and had a 2,300-foot-long wall.

According to Garfinkel, the fives sites, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tell en-Naṣbeh, Beth Shemesh 4, Lachish V, and Khirbet ed-Dawwara, represented cities in David’s kingdom that had been built along Israel’s border.

They formed an extensive network of fortifications protecting Israel’s outer borders that were connected by an elaborate road and communication system.

Garfinkel noted that the five cities had similar layouts. They were also surrounded by two walls, instead of just one, and actually had people living between the walls. If attacked, the defenders would quickly fill in the gap between the two walls, to create a massive single defensive structure.

The five sites had been excavated independently of each other, and Garfinkel was the first to look at the five sites together and see the connection.

“If you take all these sites, they have the same urban concept, they are all sitting on the border of the kingdom and sitting where you have a main road leading to the kingdom,” Garfinkel explained. “These cities aren’t located in the middle of nowhere. It’s a pattern of urbanism with the same urban concept.”

Garfinkel was also quick to point out that he did not set out to prove or disprove the Bible, but was just looking at the archaeological evidence.

READ: Kingdom of King David Identified Using Ancient Fortress AND Web of biblical cities depicts King David as major ruler, says Israeli archaeologist