Late Iron I Jacob

Called it. In Finkelstein’s (2013) Chapter 6, on the Jacob and Exodus traditions, he lists some arguments for dating the core of the Jacob cycle in Genesis:

1. “A fundamental myth of the northern kingdom“; before the 720s BCE (destruction of the northern kingdom).
2. “Bethel. The emergence of the Bethel myth in Genesis should be sought in one of the two periods of prosperity at the site: the Iron I and the Iron IIB (Finkelstein and Singer-Avitz 2009).”
3. “The settlement boundary in the Gilead.” Based on Lemaire’s identification of Mizpah (the one in Gilead) “near the village of Suf, northwest of Jerash”, followed by Finkelstein, we’re looking for a period before Israel controlled the plateau of Ramoth-Gilead, from the ninth century onwards (sometimes losing it to Aram-Damascus).
4. “No mention of Shiloh. … As I have already indicated, the memory of an important cult place at Shiloh is a genuine one. According to the radiocarbon evidence, Shiloh was destroyed in the second half of the eleventh century B.C.E., probably around the transition from the early to late Iron I.”
5. “No mention of the northern territories of Israel“, such as the Valley of Jezreel.

Summing up:

Going from late to early, these considerations seem to eliminate the first half of the eighth century (Israelite expansion in the northwestern Gilead), the second half of the ninth century (weak activity at Bethel), the days of the Omrides (Israelite expansion to the plateau northwest of Mizpah and weak activity at Bethel), the early days of the northern kingdom (probably no activity at Bethel), and probably the early Iron I (no mention of Shiloh). Also, starting with the beginning of expansion to the northern valleys in the early Iron IIA, such a text may have been expected to include a signal of affiliation of these territories with the Jacob story. The most probable (but far from certain) origin of the core of the Jacob cycle is therefore in the late Iron I (the tenth century B.C.E.), when identities in the future core territory of the northern kingdom were shaped, settlement boundaries formed, and shrines erected.

(Finkelstein 2013: 144)

And that’s when Finkelstein dates the formation of the first kingdom of Israel, under the house of Saul. Q.E.D.