[sumuam]

Interesting. Thank you.

[Cronos]

np, but also note that:

1. The "lost tribes" were never quite "lost en masse" -- ilke other ethnicities that were moved around by the Assyrians, they tended to assimilate with the locals. This wasn't such a big deal considering that the northerners moved away from monotheism well before the Assyrian conquest, and they were Semitic speakers, speaking languages similar to Akkadian and Babylonian, so easy to assimilate (like the Germanics in America)
   
   
2. Many Jews of today also include a lot of blood from Edomites/Idumeans -- the Maccabean kings conquered Edom and forcibly converted them to Judaism. They assimilated into Jewish society and were known as Idumean until the 3nd century AD -- Herod the great's family was Idumean. in an ironic twist of faith, the Idumeans died in the Bar Kochkba revolt. The ones who survived became fully assimilated