For award-winning geographer, ancient Israel doesn’t count

According to National Geography’s education blog, Matt Rosenberg is an expert:

Matt is an award-winning professional geographer who has covered the field of geography … for more than a decade. He is a former adjunct university faculty member in geography, city planning and GIS intern for local government, newspaper columnist, and a disaster manager for the American Red Cross.

This gives him an aura of authority.

There are two articles I want to critique here. I do not know when the first was written, but it was last updated 2 Aug 2024. Entitled, “The Oldest Country in the World,” I anticipated Israel at least being on the short list.

The second, “Palestine is not a Country,” was last updated 3 Jul 2019 and is discussed here.

Part I – “The Oldest Country in the World”

Before presenting his assessment of the oldest country in the world, Rosenberg distinguishes between country and empire. He defines countries as “sovereign states with their own territory, population, and governments,” generally arising in the 19th Century and empires as “agglomerations of city-states or fiefdoms whose jurisdictions overlapped that of the imperial government.”

Then he lists what he views as the oldest countries: San Marino (1631 CE), Japan (660 BCE), and China (221 BCE), adding:

Modern countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Greece, and India bear so little resemblance to their ancient counterparts that their founding is technically considered recent. Many of these countries trace their modern roots only as far back as the 19th century and that is why their names do not appear in lists of the oldest countries in the world.

Where is Israel? I was confused. I wondered if my understanding of ancient history is so seriously lacking that I erroneously thought Israel was one of those modern countries bearing “little resemblance to their ancient counterparts” and at least merits honourable mention in Rosenberg’s list.

It was my understanding that the first Kingdom of Israel was established in about 1047 BCE. That date falls mid-way between dates of establishment of the ancient versions of Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Greece, and India listed above. I cannot imagine why Israel is not listed alongside them. I queried the editor of the website in an email and never received a response.

Edward Weller, The Kingdoms of Judah and Israel (FL36012236 3897579)

Unwilling to rely on my own limited knowledge, I turned to archaeologist Ilana Fine Bar-Hai,

Odd that the Israel/Judea United Monarchy is not even mentioned. His definitions are very biased, arrogant even, not even remotely taking into account the option that ancient peoples living in ancient lands possibly had their own definitions. In general, I hate when western mindsets are so easily applied to anything ancient. It is WEIRD, that is, a Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic mindset. And even if we go by his definitions, he needs to at least debate and raise the possibility of ancient “countries” as having been in existence thousands of years ago.

Interesting, but lacking a lot in my humble opinion.

Unfortunately, this appears in an award winning educational website. They describe themselves as:

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ThoughtCo articles are meticulously fact-checked, and writers are required to support all statements and claims with reputable sources.

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The news-not-educational site, USA Today, does a more thorough job of discussing this topic, while I recognize that more thorough does not necessarily mean accurate. Here is just one piece of information they provide on the topic of oldest countries:

Here are the countries World Population Review lists as the oldest in the world by date of earliest known organized government:

Iran: 3200 BCE
Egypt: 3100 BCE
Vietnam: 2879 BCE
Armenia: 2492 BCE
North Korea: 2333 BCE
China: 2070 BCE
India: 2000 BCE
Georgia: 1300 BCE
Israel: 1300 BCE
Sudan: 1070 BCE
Afghanistan: 678 BCE

Perhaps readers would like to take up Thoughtco’s invitation:

If you notice something in one of our articles that needs to be corrected, please send us an email at contact@thoughtco.com. We review all reader feedback and make updates to our content as needed.

Maybe if enough people write to them, they will not be able to ignore them all as they ignored me.