Footnote 3 – The Fortresses King Solomon Built to Protect His Southern Border

With regard to Esdar, Kochavi has incorrectly (in my opinion) separated Strata III and II, assigning the former to the 11th century, the latter to the beginning of the tenth. I contend that they form a single level, and that, together with Masos I and Beer-Sheva VII, they were contemporaneous with the Central Negev strongholds—and that they all subsisted during the period of the United Kingdom.