The City of Salt

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The City of Salt has been found. The late, much-lamented Pesach Bar-Adon identified it. Bar-Adon died in 1985 at the age of 77.

The City of Salt, I should say at the outset, has nothing to do with Lot’s wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when, contrary to instructions, she looked back as the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24–26). Nor do we propose to locate Sodom and Gomorrah.

The City of Salt that we are talking about is mentioned in a not-very-familiar passage in Joshua 15 that describes the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah and sets forth its boundaries. Modern scholars agree that this long list of cities and sites does not reflect conditions in Joshua’s time, say about 1200 B.C.E., but rather the situation about 500 years later (during the period archaeologists call Iron Age II), when the northern kingdom of Israel had already been conquered by the Assyrians and the southern kingdom of Judah was still flourishing.

The passage from Joshua comes at the very end of the list of places assigned to Judah:

“This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah. … In the wilderness: Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah, Nibshan, the City of Salt, and Ein-Gedi; six cites with their villages” (Joshua 15:20, 61–62).

The Wilderness (midbar in Hebrew, meaning “driving the herds,” sometimes less accurately translated “desert”) of Judah is a most unusual area, hardly a place where you would expect to find six cities. It is a narrow strip of land 50 miles long and about 12 to 15 miles wide. From west to east it extends from just east of Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. The northern border of the Judean wilderness is the Wadi^a el ‘Auja, which feeds into the Jordan River near Jericho. The southern border lies in the area of Mt. Sodom near the southern end of the Dead Sea. Within this long, 034narrow belt is an extraordinary range of climatic conditions. In a little over 12 miles, it descends about 4,000 feet to the Dead Sea, the lowest spot on the face of the earth. This unusual descent creates enormous climatic variations. The area just east of Jerusalem experiences an annual precipitation of over 25 inches. Near the Dead Sea, the annual precipitation is only 2 inches and often less. In the Jerusalem area, the average temperature is 64 degrees, Fahrenheit; near the Dead Sea it is 78 degrees.

The Wilderness of Judah is important for a number of reasons. It connects Transjordan with Cisjordan, especially Jerusalem. Both salt and asphalt (sometimes referred to as bitumen or pitch) were important products obtained from the Dead Sea. In Hebrew, the name of the sea is Yam ha-Melech (Sea of Salt). From time immemorial, salt merchants and asphalt miners passed through the Wilderness of Judah on their way to Jerusalem and elsewhere.

The oases and therapeutic springs along the western coast of the Dead Sea gave the area added significance. The oases had major economic importance because of the crops that could be grown there, especially persimmons¹ and dates²—both of which were highly valued.

Thus, despite the harshness of the topographical and climatic conditions, the area was populated in certain periods, including Iron II, by many permanent settlements with a stable base of economic support.

In addition to the permanent settlements, the Wilderness of Judah was home to nomads whose economic base was pastoral, that is, who seasonally drove their herds through the desertlike pasture. They acquired water from waterholes in the wadi floors and from cisterns cut into the rock to collect the rare rainwater, and for pasture they relied on the scruffy vegetation that grows in the wadis throughout the year.

In the Six-Day War of 1967, the part of the Judean wilderness that had been controlled by Jordan fell to Israel. For more than a decade, Bar-Adon (see the sidebar “From Shepherd to Archaelogist”) worked nearly alone investigating, surveying and excavating sites there. It was he who almost single-handedly identified most of the cities mentioned in Joshua 15:61–62 with Iron Age sites on the western shore of the Dead Sea. He excavated most of them, although some had been previously excavated by others.

One of the six cities on the list, Ein Gedi (the last named), has long been known as a major oasis on the shore of the Dead Sea and is today a popular tourist site.³ But the other five cities—Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah, Nibshan and the City of Salt (Ir ha-Melech in Hebrew)—have been somewhat of a puzzle.

The order in which the cities are listed—from Beth Arabah to Ein Gedi—provides a vital clue to their identification. The first, Beth Arabah, belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, according to Joshua 18:22. The territory allotted to Benjamin is north of the territory of Judah. As noted, Ein Gedi is midway down the western shore of the Dead Sea. This indicates that the list of cities was written in order from north to south.

The next step is to identify archaeological sites in the area with remains from the Iron II period (1000–586 B.C.E.).

Until the 1950s, no archaeological remains from the Iron II period that fit the Biblical narrative were known. Suggestions as to the location of these six 035cities were speculatively based on considerations of historical geography.⁴ The archaeological investigation of the area really began with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Early on, Pere Roland de Vaux of the École Biblique in Jerusalem undertook excavations at the Qumran settlement adjacent to the caves where the scrolls had been found. He also excavated another nearby site known as Ein Feshkha, an oasis a few miles south of Qumran. At both sites he uncovered pottery that could be dated from the eighth to the sixth centuries B.C.E.

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De Vaux’s finds fit nicely with the Biblical description of the reign of Uzziah (770–739 B.C.E.). In 2 Chronicles 26:10 we learn that Uzziah “built towers in the wilderness.”

Based on the pottery finds and historical-geographical considerations, de Vaux identified Qumran as the City of Salt (Ir ha-Melech).⁵

At the same time, J. T. Milik and Frank M. Cross were investigating three other sites in a small and isolated wadi west of the steep escarpment above Qumran and the Dead Sea.⁶ At all three sites they found architectural remains that date to the Iron II period and only to this period. Close to the settlements they found remnants of complex irrigation systems that supported an agricultural economy.

Cross and Milik identified these sites with three of the six cities listed in Joshua 15:61–62 as allotted to Judah.⁷ They also accepted de Vaux’s identification of Qumran as the City of Salt.

These identifications proved to be false. But the important point is that they demonstrated that there was an organized system of settlement in the area during the Iron II period. This must have been supervised by a centralized political authority. Again the Biblical evidence suggests the reign of Uzziah as a likely time for this to have occurred.

After the Six-Day War in 1967, when this area fell 041into Israeli hands, an Emergency Survey was conducted of the West Bank. Pesach Bar-Adon was the natural choice to lead the unit assigned to the Judean wilderness.

Bar-Adon’s team discovered many previously unknown sites both in the wilderness and in the area near Jericho. In addition, they surveyed a number of forts along the Dead Sea. After the survey ended, he insisted on continuing his own work in the area, primarily along the coast of the Dead Sea, but also in caves and other sites in the mountainous part of the wilderness.

High mountains flank the Dead Sea on both the east and west sides, leaving little space for a flat coastal plain. In addition, significant differences in sea level have existed at various times.⁸ This means that the coastal strip, which is usually narrow, simply disappears under the water in some years. Sometimes, for example, the land passage from Ein Gedi to the mouth of the Kidron Valley (the valley that leads to Jerusalem), in the northern part of the Dead Sea, is covered by water.

In the 20th century the level of the Dead Sea has dropped about 35 feet between 1896 and 1982.⁹ The coastal plain has been relatively wide not only because of the low rainfall but more importantly because of the excessive use of Jordan River water that supplies the Dead Sea. As a result, the sea is drying up. From the archaeologist’s viewpoint, however, this has been a boon: New areas of investigation have been opened up as the water recedes.

There were several sweet-water springs along the western coastal plain of the Dead Sea that enabled agricultural settlements to exist. These settlements also practiced animal husbandry, collected salt and asphalt from the sea and served as strategic bases at the exits of wadis that provided routes inland to other settlements in the mountains of the wilderness and to Jerusalem. As strategic bases controlling wadi routes inland, these coastal settlements were fortified; indeed, they resembled forts more than cities.

The archaeological materials that Bar-Adon collected provided evidence of an organized complex of forts along the western coast of the Dead Sea. These forts were established in the eighth century and were abandoned at the time of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E.

The fortified coastal settlements, together with fortresses on the routes to the hill settlements, reflect a state-organized strategic plan probably undertaken during the reign of Uzziah, who, according to the Bible, built towers in the wilderness.

The character of the buildings in these settlements also reflected central state planning. A great deal of work was invested in the construction of these coastal 042forts. Large ashlar blocks, not found locally, were brought from the mountains and the wadis. The blocks had to be lifted and placed course by course to form walls. The plans of the buildings were well-defined, presupposing a high level of social organization.

When all these sites are plotted on a plan, it is possible to identify more confidently the five cities, in addition to Ein Gedi, mentioned in Joshua 15:61–62.

At the northern end of the Dead Sea is a site known among the local Arabs as Rujm el-Bahr (the Sea Port). All that is left here is the foundation of a large structure. About 2,000 feet northwest of this structure is a freshwater spring, Ein Juheiyir, that supplied water to the inhabitants of the site. The structure and the spring belong to the same settlement. This, I believe, following Bar-Adon, is the northernmost site on the list in Joshua, Beth Arabah.

South of the spring of Ein Feshkha is a large fort the Bedouin call Khirbet Mazin (Ruin of Mazin) or Qasr el-Yahud (Castle of the Jews), which defends the southern side of the spring. It stands close to the mouth of the Kidron Valley and opposite a wadi named Wadi Mazin. The name of the Biblical city of Middin is preserved in altered form in Mazin. This fort then is ancient Middin, the second city on the list.

The Iron II remains of the settlement at Qumran should be identified with the third city mentioned in Joshua 15:61–62, namely Secacah.¹⁰ Were it not for the preservation of the ancient name at Khirbet Mazin, we would reverse the locations of Middin and Secacah.

Farther south is another spring, Ein el-Ghuweir, which has a structure similar to that at Khirbet Mazin and at Qumran. All three sites have stone-built cells and a long retaining wall. Ein el-Ghuweir should be identified with Biblical Nibshan, the fourth city on the list.

The fifth site is south of Ein el-Ghuweir, at a place named Ein el-Turaba. It consists of a square fort containing eight rooms, the entry to which was along a ramp. The fort has a large courtyard fenced with stone and containing two rows of column bases. Two guard rooms defend the entrance into the courtyard. The fort’s external walls are between six and seven feet thick. This thickness, in addition to the guard rooms, emphasizes the fortified nature of the structure. A burnt layer reveals that the fort was destroyed at the end of the Iron II period. The fort was thereafter abandoned, as were the other sites in the area.

This site—Ein el-Turaba—is the City of Salt.

This list of sites follows a north-to-south progression along the coast of the Dead Sea, except that Middin, the second city, lies south of Secacah, the third city.

The fort at the City of Salt served not only for defense, but also undoubtedly as a storage facility for salt. Salt, as we have noted, was an enormously important commodity in ancient times. All offerings at the Temple had to be made with salt (Leviticus 2:13). Indeed, one 043of the six chambers in the Temple court during Second Temple times was used to store salt (Mishnah, Middoth 5:3). Salt, a necessary element in the human diet, also has a symbolic aspect. Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt when, contrary to instructions, she looked back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:26). Salt was apparently the sign of the curse on Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23 [22 in Hebrew]). When Abimelech destroyed the city of Shechem, he sowed it with salt as a sign of its permanent devastation (Judges 9:45).

Perhaps more important to the people living in the City of Salt is the fact that salt was used on a day-to-day basis in the food industry as a preservative for meat and fish. It was used to pickle vegetables and fruit, and for medical purposes (newborn babies were rubbed with salt [see Ezekiel 16:4]). Salt was also used in the tanning of leather.

The salt stored in the City of Salt was gathered by hand during the summer, when the sea level dropped and left layers of salt along the coast. It was collected into boats that brought it to the City of Salt, where it was stored in the fort.

The use of the word “city” may seem a little grandiose for this little fort-settlement. Actually the Hebrew word ir had a multiple significance in the First Temple period. It could indicate what we would regard as a city, but it was also used to designate an agricultural settlement with a defined social and economic structure. In addition, we should not forget that we are dealing with border settlements, which the editor of the Biblical text had an interest in glorifying so as to create the impression of a border composed of large and strong settlements. This too may explain why these fort-settlements were referred to in Joshua as cities.

It is Pesach Bar-Adon’s legacy that this obscure Biblical passage in Joshua now takes on a new life.

The City of Salt has been found. The late, much-lamented Pesach Bar-Adon identified it. Bar-Adon died in 1985 at the age of 77.