Digging Down
Six Centuries of Fortresses, One Beneath the Other
Israelites occupied the hill of Arad for about 500 years, building, rebuilding and modifying a series of six walled fortresses. Here we show those fortresses in different ways: Above is a plan on which the remains of the fortresses are shown as archaeologists found them, a jumble of wall fragments, many built at one time and re-used at later periods. Below—reconstructed to show the outer walls complete—the fortresses are lined up with the latest fortress on top and the earliest on the bottom, in the order they were found. Following the reconstruction drawings is a stratigraphic section drawing, showing architectural features as they would appear if the mound were sliced in half vertically.
We have used colors to help relate the six separate fortremes to the plan and also to the section drawing. Blue indicates the last Israelite fortress (VI). Yellow identifies elements in four of the earlier fortresses (VII, VIII, IX and X), and orange identifies the first Israelite fortress (a). A fourth color, brown, appears only in the plan below to show a huge, third-to second-century B.C. Hellenistic tower, about 60 feet square. This tower, built on bedrock, obliterated all earlier remains below it.
Let us now look closely at each reconstructed fortress, starting with the earliest (bottom).
The first Israelite fortress (XI), built in the tenth century B.C., was surrounded by a casemate wall, a double-walled enclosure divided into rooms. In the fortress’s northwest corner stood a small temple, with a Holy of Holies as well as a sacrificial altar. A grey tint in this drawing and others shows the area occupied by the temple. Note on the plan that the large gateway on the northeast corner and the protruding tower (both colored orange) are part of the stratum XI fortress. After the destruction of fortress XI by Pharaoh Shishak, a modified fortress (X) followed in the ninth century. The casemate wall of XI became a solid wall with sawtooth insets on its outer face; the gateway shifted south to the center of the eastern wall, and the temple was enlarged.
The early eighth century B.C. saw additional modifications (IX), including dwelling quarters along the southern wall and new chambers in the temple precinct. Toward the end of the eighth century (VIII), the sacrificial altar was covered with fill, and rooms began to encroach on the temple area. At the end of the eighth century, this fortress was destroyed—either by the Assyrian Sennacherib, or by his Edomite or Philistine allies. Rebuilt again in the late seventh century, the Arad citadel (VII) seems to have lost all signs of its earlier temple; to strengthen the southern wall an additional wall was built parallel to it on the inside, creating a series of casemate rooms. A tower was built on the west.
The last Israelite fortress at Arad (VI) stood during the early sixth century. Once again we see a full casemate construction. A major modification was made—the gate was moved to the northern wall, where it opened near the area formerly occupied by the temple. A tower projected from the western wall; here excavators found early sixth-century B.C. vessels. In one of the rooms along the southern side of fortress VI archaeologists discovered an impressive archive (see “The Saga of Eliashib,” in this issue).
Israelite occupation of Arad finally ended in 587 B.C. when the Babylonians or their Edomite allies destroyed the fortified Israelite citadel.