New Dig Reports: Fortified Settlements in the Biblical Negev
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The arid region of the Negev in southern Israel, though largely inhospitable, hosted a thriving civilization in Biblical times. Copious traces of ancient life still await proper exploration—hiding in remote caves and buried in massive archaeological mounds (tells), which accumulated through consecutive human occupations. Tel Malḥata in the northern Negev and Yotvata in the south represent two such recently explored centers.
Yotvata
The 2003–2007 Excavations in the Late Roman Fort at Yotvata
Edited by Gwyn Davies and Jodi Magness (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), xii + 268 pp., color and b&w illustrations, $79.50 (cloth)
This volume reports on five seasons of excavation of the Late Roman fort at Yotvata, a tell at a strategic road junction in the Arava Valley south of the Dead Sea. The site is tentatively identified with Biblical Jotbathah, where the Israelites encamped during their desert wanderings (Deuteronomy 10:7), and with a Roman site dedicated to the Roman goddess Diana. In the immediate vicinity of the fort, other archaeological features have been identified, including what is likely a temple of Diana.
The richly illustrated volume presents the archaeology and finds from the fort, as well as analyses of floral and faunal remains. Among the most exciting finds—attesting to the Roman emperor Diocletian’s reorganization of Arabia and Palaestina—is a monumental Latin inscription indicating that the fort was established in the late third century C.E. by Aufidius Priscus, governor of the province of Palaestina, who is also known from an inscription on a marble column found in Caesarea Maritima.
Tel Malḥata
Tel Malḥata: A Central City in the Biblical Negev, 2 vols.
Edited by Itzhaq Beit-Arieh and Liora Freud (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), xxii + 778 pp., b&w illustrations, $179.50 (cloth)
These two volumes present the results of seven excavation seasons at Tel Malḥata (called also the “Hill of Salt,” in Arabic), possibly to be identified with Biblical Moladah—a city in southern Judah, presumably on the crossroads of two major desert routes (see, e.g., Joshua 19:2). Carried out by a joint expedition of Tel Aviv and Baylor universities between 1990 and 2000, the exploration focused on eight areas of the tell. Included in this final report is also an evaluation of two previous seasons, conducted in 1967 and 1971 by Moshe Kochavi, who dug two trenches across the mound. The combined scope reveals the settlement history at Tel Malḥata from the Chalcolithic period (4500–3300 B.C.E.) to the Early Arab period (to 1100 C.E.).
The volume covers the site’s history, archaeology, architecture, finds, and inscriptions. Also included are analyses of its ancient faunal and floral assemblages that inform our understanding of the site’s historical environment and how past populations interacted with the natural world. The work is conveniently supplemented with maps, plans, photos, drawings, and charts.
The arid region of the Negev in southern Israel, though largely inhospitable, hosted a thriving civilization in Biblical times. Copious traces of ancient life still await proper exploration—hiding in remote caves and buried in massive archaeological mounds (tells), which accumulated through consecutive human occupations. Tel Malḥata in the northern Negev and Yotvata in the south represent two such recently explored centers.
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