See, for details, Israel Finkelstein, “The Iron Age Fortresses of the Negev Highlands—Sedentarization of Desert Nomads,” Tel Aviv 11 (1984), pp. 189–209. The first scholar who expressed the view that the Negev sites were not Israelite fortresses was Beno Rothenberg, Archaeology in the Negev and the Arabah (Ramat Gan, 1967), pp. 88–92 (in Hebrew).