An inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I , probably identical with the biblical Shishak , record a series of campaigns apparently directed at the area immediately north of Jerusalem in the second half of the 10th century BCE . In the central highlands this resulted in unification in a kingdom with the city of Samaria as its capital , possibly by the second half of the 10th century BCE when an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I , the biblical Shishak , records a series of campaigns directed at the area .