Ten Lost Tribes

The ten lost tribes refers to the ten of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel that were said to have been deported from the Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire circa 722 BCE. Claims of descent from the lost tribes have been proposed in relation to many groups, and some religions espouse a messianic view that the tribes will return.The motif of ""the lost tribes"" first appeared in the post-biblical era, and was subsequently elaborated upon in a number of apocryphal texts. In the 7th and 8th centuries CE, the return of the lost tribes was associated with the concept of the coming of the messiah.Recorded history is at variance with the legends elaborated in apocryphal texts. Historian Tudor Parfitt has declared that ""the Lost Tribes are indeed nothing but a myth"", and writes that, ""...this myth is a vital feature of colonial discourse throughout the long period of European overseas empires, from the beginning of the fifteenth century, until the later half of the twentieth."" Zvi Ben-Dor Benite states that ""The fascination with the tribes has generated, alongside ostensibly nonfictional scholarly studies, a massive body of fictional literature and folktale"". Anthropologist Shalva Weil has documented differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to the Lost Tribes throughout the world.Some DNA studies have refuted any connection between modern-day ethnic Jews and most of the ethnic groups discussed below as possible Lost Tribe candidates.