Tel Arad ( he, תל ערד), in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Tell 'Arad (تل عراد), is an archaeological tell, or mound, located west of the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

, about west of the modern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i city of Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Plain. The site is divided into a lower city and an upper section on a hill. The lower Canaanite settlement and the upper Israelite citadel are now part of the Tel Arad

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

, which has begun projects to restore the walls of the upper and lower sites.

Proposed identification

It was first identified in modern literature in 1841 by Edward Robinson in his ''

Biblical Researches in Palestine ''Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea'' (1841 edition), also ''Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions'' (1856 edition), was a travelogue of 19th-century Palestine and the magnum opus of the "Father ...

'', on account of the similarity of the Arabic place name, Tell 'Arad, with the ''Harad'' in the

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua ( he, סֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ ', Tiberian: ''Sēp̄er Yŏhōšūaʿ'') is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Isra ...

. See also Tell Arad in Robinson'
name list
/ref>

Archaeology

Tell Arad in the Survey of Western Palestine 1880

The upper and lower areas of Tel Arad were excavated during 18 seasons by

Ruth Amiran Ruth Amiran ( he, רות עמירן; 1914 – December 14, 2005), née Brandstetter, was an Israeli archaeologist whose book ''Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age'' which was p ...

and

Yohanan Aharoni Yohanan Aharoni (Hebrew:יוחנן אהרוני)(7 June 1919 – 9 February 1976) was an Israeli archaeologist and historical geographer, chairman of the Department of Near East Studies and chairman of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel-Aviv Unive ...

between 1962 and 1984.An additional 8 seasons were done on the Iron Age water system.

History

Chalcolithic

The lower area was first settled during the

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

period, around 4000 BCE.

Early Bronze Age: Canaanite settlements

In the Early Bronze, Tel Arad was occupied in the Early Bronze I-II and took part in the Beersheba Valley copper trade. The Early Bronze I saw Tel Arad Stratum III. The Early Bronze II saw rich remains at Tel Arad Stratum II. It was abandoned in the EB III with the rise of central trading sites in the Negev Highlands related to the copper industry in the

Arabah The Arabah, Araba or Aravah ( he, הָעֲרָבָה, ''hāʿĂrāḇā''; ar, وادي عربة, ''Wādī ʿAraba''; lit. "desolate and dry area") is a loosely defined geographic area south of the Dead Sea basin, which forms part of the borde ...

and trade towards Egypt in the

Old Kingdom In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...

Iron Age: Israelite settlement

The site was only resettled by

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

from the 11th century BCE onwards, initially as an unwalled area defined as an official or sacred domain was established on the upper hill, and then later as a garrison-town or citadel.

Israelite fort ostraca

In the 3rd season of excavation, over 100 ostraca (inscribed pottery shards) written in Hebrew, dated to the 7th century BC were found in stratum VI of the fort at Arad. Most of these consist of everyday military correspondence between the commanders of the fort and are addressed to Eliashib, thought to be the fort's

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In m ...

. One

ostracon An ostracon (Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ston ...

mentions " house of YHWH" which some scholars believe is a reference to the

Jerusalem temple The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusa ...

. With them was found a partial, hieratic ostracon, similarly dated. The supplies listed included south-Egyptian barley and animal fats (vs the wheat and olive oil in the Hebrew ostraca). Later an ostracon was found with text in both hieratic and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

- Phoenician

signary A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...

, both not a bilingual text.

Israelite temple

The temple at Arad was uncovered by archaeologist

in 1962 who spent the rest of his life investigating it, dying there in the mid-1970s. In the holy of holies of this temple two incense altars and two possible

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

standing stones A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be foun ...

were found. Unidentified dark material preserved on their upper surfaces was submitted for organic residue analysis and traces of

cannabinoid Cannabinoids () are several structural classes of compounds found in the cannabis plant primarily and most animal organisms (although insects lack such receptors) or as synthetic compounds. The most notable cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid tet ...

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

boswellic acid Boswellic acids are a series of pentacyclic terpenoid molecules that are produced by plants in the genus ''Boswellia''. Like many other terpenes, boswellic acids appear in the resin of the plant that exudes them; it is estimated that they mak ...

, and norursatriene (which derives from frankincense) were detected. While the use of frankincense for cultic purposes is well-known, this finding is of especial importance insofar as it represents the "first known evidence of

hallucinogenic Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized ...

substance found in the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah ( he, , ''Yəhūdā''; akk, 𒅀𒌑𒁕𒀀𒀀 ''Ya'údâ'' 'ia-ú-da-a-a'' arc, 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃 ''Bēyt Dāwīḏ'', " House of David") was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Ce ...

Hellenistic and Roman periods

It is believed that several citadels were built one upon the other and existed in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Herod even reconstructed the lower city for the purpose of making bread. The site lasted until the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt 135 CE.

Muslim conquest to Abbasid period

Tel Arad lay in ruins for 500 years until the Early Islamic period, when the former Roman citadel was rebuilt and remodeled by some prosperous clan in the area and functioned for 200 years until around 861, when there was a breakdown of central authority and a period of widespread rebellion and unrest. The citadel was destroyed and no more structures were built on the site.

References

Sources

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External links

Tel Arad National Park

Pictures of Tel aradBrief pictorial compendium of the Arad Judean Temple
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arad National parks of Israel Hebrew Bible cities Torah cities Ancient sites in Israel Prehistoric sites in Israel Former populated places in Southwest Asia Bronze Age sites in Israel Iron Age sites in Israel Former populated places in Israel Protected areas of Southern District (Israel) Buildings and structures in Southern District (Israel) Tells (archaeology) Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea 1962 archaeological discoveries 1962 in Israel