At Arad in the Negev desert Israelite kings early on built a fortress to protect the trade route between Philistia and Elath on the Red Sea. Destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries, the fortress suffered a massive destruction in the sixth century B.C. when the Babylonians overran and destroyed Judah. When archaeologists excavated the series of fortresses, each built atop the prior one, they found an archive of Hebrew letters from the files of one of the last commanders of the fortress. The letters vividly reflect life at the time and the precarious situation of the threatened fortress. The […]