This situation, however, was not to last. The catastrophic events of the Assyrian conquest and deportation of the northern tribes, followed by the later Babylonian victory and deportation of the southern tribes, laid the groundwork for significant changes in Israelite or Jewish self-identification.5 The original tribal basis structure of society had been seriously ruptured, and those who returned from Babylon placed less emphasis on their tribal ancestry and more on their status as Priests, Levites