An Iron Age kingdom in the rugged highlands south of Moab, controlling the copper-rich Arabah valley and the trade routes to Arabia, until conquered by Babylonia in the 6th century BCE.
Ended as an independent kingdom c. 553–552 BCE when the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus campaigned through Transjordan, destroyed the Edomite royal residence and settlements, and brought the kingdom under Babylonian rule; the Edomites were subsequently displaced westward (becoming the Idumeans) as Nabataean Arabs occupied their former territory by the 4th century BCE.
Iron Age Levantine regional context.
Era/regional study of the rise of the Iron Age Transjordanian kingdoms, focused on Edom and the Arabah copper zone.