 The first appearance of the name "Israel" in the non-Biblical historic record is the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, "circa" 1200 BCE.During the biblical period, two kingdoms occupied the highland zone, the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire ("circa" 722 BCE), and the Kingdom of Judah by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (586 BCE).