Biblical archeology - findings and maps

A citadel from the Iron Age in the area of ​​Nahal Heroe near Sde Boker. Part of the Iron Negev fortress chain. The site is one of the largest citadel sites in the Negev and inside it is a citadel with a closing wall and many residential buildings next to it, one of which is in the style of a house of four spaces. Excavated and studied by Rudolf Cohen.

The site was discovered in 1975 and surveyed by Zeev Mashal in 1977. An excavation was carried out in 1981 by Ze'ev Mashal before the return of Sinai to Egypt.

The site is located on a peak at an altitude of 390 m above sea level and rises about 140 m above the surrounding plain. The citadel has an excellent view in three directions. Among the most prominent points are the oasis of Kadesh Barnea (Kudirat) and the small oasis of Kusima. The shape of the citadel was varied because they adapted to the topography of the top of the hill to maximize the defensive array and the field of vision. The retaining wall usually surrounded the entire summit and the outer enclosing wall was built right at the edge of the summit on the cliff, so that it directly overlooks the slope. If the summit was oval, so was the wall, as in the Citadel of Ein Cadiz and elsewhere.

The citadel and the village of Cosima are at the intersection of two main ancient roads: Derech Shur and Derech Gaza, and near them are four nearby water springs: the two smaller springs in Cosima and Ein Movila and the largest springs in Cadiz and Kudirat.

In terms of typology, no tools were found at the site that might imply a date earlier than Iron Age 1. The exact construction date could be anywhere between the end of the 11th century and the middle of the 10th century. Zeev Herzog suggests a date of the 11th century, and Finkelstein extends the construction to the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 10th century. This means that the elliptical forts were built in the 11th century, with the smaller forts and settlements coming slightly later and this means that they are dated by these two researchers to pre-United Kingdom times. The main finds were pottery. Similar to other Negev sites, the pottery was of two types: made of stones typical of the Iron Age and hand-made vessels of the "Negev ware" type.

Meshel, Z. (1994). The" Aharoni Fortress" near Quseima and the" Israelite Fortresses" in the Negev. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 294(1), 39-67.

The shepherd's site or the shepherd's ruin is an archaeological site in the Negev Mountains near the shepherd's stream about 5 kilometers from Sde Boker. The site is located on a hill dominating an ancient road at a height of 550 meters above sea level. Further down the road to the south you can find a parallel site called Horvat Halukim. In 1965, the shepherd site was surveyed for the first time by a survey team led by Rudolf Cohen, and in the same year an excavation was conducted at the site together with Midrash Sde Boker. 1967 excavated the site again on behalf of the Antiquities and Museums Division which later became the Antiquities Authority.

The site, like other sites in the Negev Mountains, is the site of a settlement from the Iron Age, and is part of the chain of Israeli citadels in the Negev, citadels attributed to the Kingdom of Judah.

The site was a fortress as well as smaller residential sites. The citadel is large and has an elliptical shape. The longest diameter is 50 meters and the shortest diameter is 42 meters. The citadel is built in such a way that its outer wall consists of rooms that form a wall of enclosures. The walls are made of roughly hewn flint stones, and are about half a meter thick. They were preserved to a height of about a meter. In the enclosure wall there are about 17 rooms with an average size of about 2.5 meters and their length ranges from 5 to 10 meters. According to the findings in the rooms, the excavator of the site speculates that they were used as the rooms of the soldiers who served in the citadel, which protected the road that passed through the area.

Apart from the citadel, another 12 buildings were surveyed and excavated, most of which have between one and four rooms. One building that has five spaces stands out. The building was probably built in the four-room house plan common throughout the country during the Iron Age, but an additional room was added to this building. Rudolf Cohen chose a theory that says that those houses were used as the residences of the regional commander to describe the structure, which is different from the rest of the settlement's buildings.

Cohen, R. (1970). Atar Haro'a/Site of the Shepherd. Atiqot: Hebrew Series, 6-24

One of the Negev fortresses from the Iron Age. from an oval-shaped side that was erected on a flat hill between Wadi Kudais and Wadi Kudair, south of Kadesh Barnea, close to the border with Israel and about 3 km south of the spring of the same name. The site was surveyed by Yohanan Aharoni, and the excavations were conducted in 1976 by Rudolf Cohen. Diameter The battlement is about 50 m, and the gate 5 meters. The wall encloses about 20 rooms. The walls are about 0.60 m high and about 1.70 m wide. In some of the entrances to the closed rooms, the lintels have been preserved. On the side, a possible entrance was found that included two small guard rooms (about 2 m wide and 3 m long). Pottery found in the layer of ash that covered the soil in the walled rooms are of two basic types: pottery made of stone, which is typical of the 10th century BC, and handmade pottery called "Negaveim potteries". On the other side, one living phase was identified, but to the northwest of the hill, the remains of a small settlement were found.

Cohen, R. (1979). The Iron Age fortresses in the central Negev. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 236(1), 61-79.

Tel Ertal is a high mound on the banks of the Jordan near the village of Rupin in the Beit Shan Valley. The site controls the crossings of the Jordan. According to the amount of mounds in the vicinity of this passage, which is well documented in the British survey as el esh Sheikh Daud, it was particularly important, especially during the Bronze, Iron and Persian periods. The mound was not excavated but was surveyed in the past. Evidence of settlement from the periods: Early Bronze, Intermediate Bronze, Middle Bronze II, Late Bronze, Iron I, Iron II, Persian, and Hellenistic periods were found in the mound. The settlement in the Tel was probably used for administrative, state or military purposes.

Arial View

Tel al-Manshiya / Tel Neshem - Nisha is a medium-sized picturesque mound located to the east of highway 200 - from the direction of Ein Hanziv towards Neve Eitan. The mound is very well preserved and has not suffered destruction. Pottery from the Early Bronze Age I, Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I-II was discovered in the mound. Today, a large part of the ceramics on the mound is from the Iron Age II. It is recommended to go up and view the entire Beit Shan valley towards the Jordan.

A mound with the remains of an Iron Age citadel on it in the Ein al-Kudirat valley in northeastern Sinai, near the Israeli border. The mound is identified with the biblical Kadesh Barnea. The citadel that was discovered at the beginning of this century and its plan has since been used as a classic example of an Israeli citadel. Tel al-Kudirat is one of the dozens of permanent settlements that were in the Iron Age in the Negev Mountains.

Arial View

Khirbat a-Rasem, located south of Tel Azkah in Britannia Park, is a rural site on the edge of the Judean Lowlands. A few artifacts from the Iron Age I (12th-10th centuries BC) were discovered at the site. Towards the end of the Iron Age, during the Kingdom of Judah, a large building with several rooms was erected on the site, which may have been used as a state mansion. A few remains of use from the Persian period (332-539 BC) "S"), but it is not clear if later directly, or if the site was first Nitsch. The site was restored at the beginning of the Hellenistic century (4th century) and probabl

Yisrael Finkelstein identifies Yavesh Gilead with Tell al-Maklub while Nelson Glick and others identify it with Tell Abu al-Kharaz Both sites lie near the Wadi Yabs stream, which may have preserved the ancient name of the city.