[Magazine] The Biblical Archaeologist. Vol. 39. No 1

43 Pages·1976·12.55 MB·English

ISSN 0003-097X
BIBLICAL
OF
ARCHEOLOGIST
MARCH 1976 Volume 39 Number I
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"And Manasseh placed an image of Asherah in the
temple of the Lord." 2 Kings 21
Biblical Archeologist is published quarterly
Biblical Archaeologist Reader, 1 (March, May, September, December) by the
American Schools of Oriental Research in
cooperation with Scholars Press. Its purpose is
to provide the general reader, whether
~J ~i ~i ~ :?:~~..,.t Christian or Jew, believer or non-believer,
.i.t1 with an interpretation of the meaning of new
The reprint of a unique
archeological discoveries for the biblical
and widely used
NN , S; heritage of the West. Unsolicited mss. are
anthology in which .~=&~H L. #4 welcome but should be accompanied by a
separate studies of the -. ovii stamped, self-addressed envelope. Address all
temple in Egypt, ;,r U'lst - editorial correspondence to Biblical
Mesopotamia, and Syria- Archeologist, 1053 LSA Building, University
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form the setpiece. Contributors include Copyright @ 1976 American Schools of Orien-
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Nelson Glueck, John Bright, W. F. Albright, ASOR is a member of the tal Research. Annual Subscription: $10.00.
F. M. Cross, A. Leo Oppenheim, Floyd Center for Scholarly Current single issues: $2.50. Printed in the
Filson, and others. Edited by G. Ernest Publishing and Services. United States of America, Printing Depart-
Wright and David Noel Freedman. ment, University of Montana, Missoula,
352 pages Montana 59812.
Orderf rom:
Editor:
SCHOLARPRS ESS
David Noel Freedman, University of
POB ox 5207 Michigan
AMissouMla,o ntana 59806
Managing editor pro tem:
John A. Miles, Jr., Doubleday and Company
Editorial board:
.U Frank M. Cross, Harvard University
Edward F. Campbell, McCormick
Theological Seminary
William G. Dever, University of Arizona
John S. Holladay, Jr., University of Toronto
H. Darrell Lance, Colgate-Rochester Divinity
School
?4 '
Production Manager:
.." James Eisenbraun, University of Michigan
CREDITS
"Letters to the Readers":p hoto of Edward F.
Campbell, c/o Edward F. Campbell; photo of
H. Darrell Lance, c / o H. Darrell Lance; photo
of Floyd Filson, c/o McCormick School of
Theology; photo of Lee C. Ellenberger, c/o
Lee C. Ellenberger. "Excavating Ai": figs. 1,4,
5, 7, 10, Joseph A. Callaway; figs. 3, 6, 8, 9,
Richard Cleave. "The Search for Maccabean
Gezer":f igs. 1,3 , R. A. Lyons, Jr.; fig. 2, Susan
Moddel. "The Persistence of Canaanite
Religion": fig. 1, J. B. Pritchard, The Ancient
Near East in Pictures (1969), no. 826, by
permission of the publisher; fig. 3 c/o
Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences;
fig. 4, Anna Maria Bisi, Le Stele Puniche, pl.
Cover
36, by permission of the publisher; fig. 5, c/o
Journal of Near Eastern Studies and
Punic stele with the sign of the
Winchester College; "The Prophet Balaam in a
goddess Tannit. Tannit's
6th-Century Aramaic Inscription," photo c/o
symbol holds a so-called Overdr. Z. W. O-Jaarboek 1973. "Field and
caduceus in her "hand." Below Lab: Aerial Photography," photo by Richard
the sign of Tannit is a W. Cleave. "The Name of God in the
representation of a dolphin or a Wilderness of Zin": fig. 1, Avraham Hay; fig.
fish. 2, Yehuda Dagan; figs. 3 and 4, David Davis.
"Archaeology," copyright ? 1974 by The
Estate of W. H. Auden, reprinted by
permission.
OFic
BIBLICAL
ARCHEOLOGIST
Ze'ev Meshel and Carol Meyers 6 THE NAME OF GOD IN THE WILDERNESS OF ZIN
2700-year-oldp omegranatesa nd an
inscription:" Givenb y Ovadiah,s on
of Adanah,m ay he be blessedb y YHW."
Jacob Hoftijzer 11 THE PROPHET BALAAM IN A 6TH-CENTURY
ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION
"O my enemies,c onsider,c onsider
"Consider, consider, O my . . ."
Joseph A. Callaway 18 EXCAVATING AI (ET-TELL): 1964-1972
New evidences uggestst hat
the Son of Nun's majorc hallenge
may have been a housing shortage.
Robert A. Oden 31 THE PERSISTENCE OF CANAANITE RELIGION
Atargatis,t he goddess of Greco-
SyrianH ierapolis,i s Aramaic
cAtarcata, who is a fusion of the
Ugaritic cAshtart and cAnat. Nothing
changesb ut the names.
A LETTER TO THE READERS 2 FIELD AND LAB: 37
Aerial Photography
NEWS FROM THE FIELD 4 Colophon 40
A LETTER TO THE READERS
Publisher Martin Gross calls them "the new The new Biblical Archeologist will provide the
literates." Others refer to them as "the invisible general reader, whether Christian or Jew, with what the
university." Dropping College Board scores old Biblical Archeologist set out to provide; namely, an
notwithstanding, the boom in college enrollment during interpretation of the meaning of new archeological
the 1960's has left the United States with a population discoveries for the biblical heritage which Jews and
whose curiosity is not exhausted by television and the Christians share. When Biblical Archeologist was
funnies. For them, weekends and holidays are a time for founded in 1938, it was thought that scholars with more
National Geographic and Smithsonian, Saturday Review highly technical and exhaustively documented reports
and Harper's, even Daedalus and Scientific American. would turn to other publications, particularly to the
And since many of them, in what Eric Hoffer has called Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research,
the highest mass culture in history, look back to college the same group that sponsors Biblical Archeologist. But
years that included the fascination of archeology, Bible as it happened, the extraordinary pace of archeological
history, the Hebrew and Greek languages, theology, discovery during the past generation - the generation of
anthropology, and ancient iconography, there is reason the Dead Sea Scrolls - led to a kind of scholarly inflation
to think that Biblical Archeologist may soon be added to at Biblical Archeologist. Topics grew more specialized,
their list. documentation more exhaustive, reader prerequisites
Floyd Filson. Ted Campbell. Lee C. Ellenberger.
more daunting. Biblical Archeologist began to lose its
identity and to become a second Bulletin. The changes
apparent in the current issue, then, are not so much a
revolution as they are a reform.
A time of stock-taking and change is a time, also,
for recollection and gratitude. Biblical Archeologist is
deeply indebted to Floyd Filson, formerly of McCormick IP
,
Theological Seminary, for the breadth and judgment of
his years as New Testament consultant; to Robert
Johnston of the Rochester Institute of Technology for his , I
,L
work as art editor; and to Lee Ellenberger, who will
remain as photo archivist, for labors of love which should
long since have received their meed of praise. Most of all,
Biblical Archeologist is indebted to its outgoing co-
editors, Edward F. Campbell of McCormick Theological
Seminary and H. Darrell Lance of Colgate-Rochester
Divinity School, for maintaining at no small cost the
highest standards of archeological accuracy and
objectivity. Drs. Lance and Campbell will nowjoin Frank
M. Cross of Harvard University, William G. Dever of the
University of Arizona, and John S. Holladay, Jr., of the i(cid:127) ? "
University of Toronto as members of the editorial board. .
Impetus for the change of format has come from 4. "(cid:127)
ASOR's president, Frank M. Cross, and from its vice-
president in charge of publications, David Noel
Freedman, who will now assume the general editorship.
John A. Miles, Jr., who completed his Ph.D. at Harvard
in 1971 and is now associate editor for religion at
Doubleday, Inc., will help out as managing editor pro
tem. Jim Eisenbraun and Ron Guengerich, graduate
assistants at the University of Michigan, will assist in
copy-editing and composition. t..
While Biblical Archeologist will continue to report
on archeological discoveries as such, its new format also
? ?
calls for the introduction of "backgrounders."T hus, in w(cid:127),4-o"
the September issue, which will be devoted to 2 - '" v (cid:127)
.. . . . .:. . ...
extraordinary new finds at Tell Mardikh in Syria, there
will be a profile of Sargon the Great and a primer in the
Sumerian language; for without some knowledge of
Sargon and of Sumerian, the non-professional can
scarcely appreciate the importance of the new finds. Such
knowledge, however, is not itself as new as the finds: it can
be "written up" from reference works. Biblical
Archeologist is interested, then, in locating writers
(whether scholars, graduate students, or others) willing to
write on assignment and able to write in a fresh and
accurate style for the non-professional. Biblical
Archeologist's core audience, needless to say, will
continue to be the scholars of the American Schools of
Oriental Research and their colleagues around the world.
But it will need the assistance of its core audience to reach
its largera udience. Those interested in writing for Biblical
Archeologist on assignment are invited to contact the H. DarrellL ance (right)w ith Werner Lemkea t Gezer.
managing editor at their earliest convenience. Prospective
book reviewers are also welcome. The thing is begun:
pmti' ppn enr ptnnr m
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST 3
Michael Evenari of the Hebrew University selected
Avedat for the experiment because presses found there
indicated that the Nabateans had grown grapes and olives
without irrigation. In the experiment, rainwater (only
three inches annually) is trapped in channels that lead to a
system of pipes. The pipes carry the water into the fields.
Results in peach and almond cultivation are promising
NEWS FROM THE FIELD
enough that a kibbutz near Avedat will try the
"Nabatean" experiment soon.
Qatar Museum Proposed.
The Middle East of London reports that the Emir and
Government of Qatar are creating an archeological and
15,000 Tablets in "Paleo-Canaanite." anthropological museum. Of particular importance are
Excavations at Tell-Mardikh (ancient Ebla) in Syria have 2,000-year-old rock carvings outside Doha, the capital of
unearthed "one of the most important archeological Qatar. It is hoped that the carvings, which have recently
discoveries of all time," an archive of tablets written in suffered at the hands of vandals, will now be transported
cuneiform but representing a language closer to biblical to the museum for safe keeping.
Hebrew than any yet discovered. Under the direction of
Drs. Paolo Matthiae and Giovanni Pettinato, both of the The Archeology of Agriculture.
University of Rome, excavations at Ebla have been in
Under the sponsorship of the Albright Institute of
progress for ten years. Only during the 1975 season,
however, did the excavators penetrate to the levels of Archaeological Research and the Nelson Glueck School
occupation from the third millennium B.C., when it of Biblical Archaeology, excavations will begin this
summer at the double site of Tell Halif-Hurvat Rimon,
appears that Ebla was the seat of a vast empire including
most of Palestine. It was at this level, contemporary with identified variously as biblical En-Rimmon, Ziklag, or
the era of Sargon the Great and the first dynasty at Akkad Goshen. According to M. E. Shutler in "Lahav
Newsletter," the project is designed
(ca. 2350-2260 B.C.), that the tablets were found.
In February, 1976, Dr. David Noel Freedman, to see the ancient city - Tell Halif - as a locus in an
editor-designate of Biblical Archeologist, flew to Rome ecnhvainrgoen.I mn tehneta enxdca svoactiiaoln on fe tthweo trekll w itsheilcfht h wisab sr souabdjeervc ite two
for conversations with Matthiae and Pettinato. A special will be maintained through careful study of "non-
report on the significance of the find, prepared from artifactual remains:"p ollen, macro-floral and faunal
Freedman's report and from other materials forwarded remains,l ithic eebitage,s edimentation,e tc. In addition,
from Rome, will appear in the September Biblical extra-tells tudieso f geology,w aterr esourcesm, odernf lora
Archeologist. Briefly, the new finds may be said to have and fauna will be pursued,i ncludinga n archaeological
completed the "discovery"o f Syria which began with the surveyo f the areaa nd studyo f the presentc ulturagl roups,
excavation of Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in the 1930's. settleda nd nomadic,a nd theira daptationst o the area.
These data will help to determineh ow people of
Although even the most casual reader of the Bible knows differentw ays of life havea daptedo r failedt o adaptt o an
that "the Canaanites"w ere the nation whose culture and arid and changing environment. . . . The Project will
religion were Israel's most constant temptation, Near generateh ypothesesa nd theoriesa bout man'su se of arid
Eastern archeology had its earliest successes in Egypt and land and about the developmento f urbanismv ital to
Mesopotamia. Biblical scholarship tended as a result to planners of social development and to other social
scientists.
discuss the religion of Israel against an Egyptian or, more
often, a Mesopotamian background. But with the
discovery of Ugarit and the decipherment of its language, The Temple Mount and the Messiah.
Canaan came to life. Scholars could now see the face of
the rival with whom Israel had had such a protracted Any report on the worsening "Temple Mount
struggle. Ebla, it now appears, is another city of controversy" in Jerusalem will be outdated by the time
Canaanite culture;b ut where Ugarit was a relatively small this issue of Biblical Archeologist goes to press. The
coastal town, Ebla - in western Syria, the heartland of following excerpt from the Jerusalem Post may serve,
ancient Canaan -was an imperial capital. If Ugarit however, as a brief statement of the religious background
taught us much, there is every reason to believe that Ebla of the controversy:
will teach us more - an exciting tale and one only now The TempleM ountl ies, symbolicallya t least, at the very
ready to be told. heart of the Israeli-Arabc ontroversyT. he destructiono f
the SecondT emple1 ,900y earsa go has not diminishedit s
A "Nabatean" Experiment. position as the most holy site of the Jews. Since the
constructiono n the Mounto f the Dome of the Rock and
Science Digest (March, 1976) reports an agricultural Al-Aksa Mosque,i n the seventhc entury,i t has been the
experiment near Nabatean Avedat in the Negev. Prof. thirdm ost holy site in Islam.
4 MARCH 1976
What has preventedt he two rival claims for the Fish Story.
Mountf romc omingt o a headf ollowingt he Israeliv ictory
in the Six Day Warh asb eenp oliticalc autiono n thep arto f The recent vogue of Velikovskian "catastrophism" is
the Israelia nthoritiesa nd JewishH alacha( religiousl aw), waxing or waning, depending on which omens are read
whichf orbidsJ ewsf roms ettingf oot on the TempleM ount more seriously. Pacific Meridian Publishing Company
until the Messiah'sr eturnh eraldst he rebuildingo f the has just published The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch
Temple. and The Long Day of Joshua and Six Other Post- Flood
... Some Orthodox Jews, however, have main- Catastrophes, both by Velikovskian Donald W. Patten.
tainedt hat Halachaf orbidsJ ewso nlyf roms tandingw here On the other hand, the Velikovskian journal Pensce has
theT empleh ads tooda ndt hatt herea rep artso f the Temple
Mount which cannot have been part of the Temples ite. just announced suspension of publication.
Amongt hose who have maintainedt his in the past is the Speculation of the Chariots of the Gods variety is
presentA shkenaziC hief Rabbi Shlomo Goren. likely to bubble a bit faster thanks to The Sirius Miystery,
Nationalist groups which have been attempting a new study of the religious beliefs of the Dogon, a tribe
pray-inso n the Mount periodicallys ince 1967 are less near Timbuktu in Mali. According to a Reuters report,
inhibitedb y religiousc onsiderations. astronomer-orientalist Robert Semple, who spent eight
years studying the Dogon, discovered that the object of
Dogon worship is a tiny star orbiting around Sirius. This
In Memoriam Yohanan Aharoni.
star exists but is invisible without the most powerful
Biblical archeology lost a major figure last Februaryw ith telescopes. It is, Semple maintains, Sirius B, a "white
the untimely death of Yohanan Aharoni. Biblical dwarf"; i.e., a star in the early stages of collapse, so dense
Archeologist was in close contact with the Israeli expert that a matchbox of it would weigh about 50 tons. Dogon
until only weeks before his death regarding his beautifully priests claim that a single cupful of the material of their
illustrated historical survey of the Negev, our May cover star "is heavier than all the grains of sand on earth" and
story. The condolences of all students of the Bible and of provide details of its orbit that check out to the last detail
biblical archeology are extended to his widow, Miriam. against the orbit of Sirius B. The hypothesis of The Sirius
May his memory become a blessing. Mystery',d escribed by Reuters as "a scholarly book," is
that the Dogon learned of Sirius B from extraterrestrial
How to Sing the Bible. visitors of fishlike appearance (an inference from Dogon
Musicologist Suzanne Hayek Ventura claims to have art). The visit occurred, however, not in Mali but
deciphered the chant notations (ta'amei mikra) printed in somewhere in the ancient near east, perhaps in Babylonia,
the Hebrew Bible. A French firm is planning to issue a before migrations brought the ancestors of the Dogon to
record on which parts of the Psalms and the Song of their present home. What drew the fishy visitors to earth?
Songs will be chanted according to her method. Alas, Strangely like Semple himself, they were interested in
according to Israel Adler of the Hebrew University's primitive civilizations.
musicology department (Jerusalem Post, February 3,
1976), the Ventura method is quite without historical or New Qumran Film.
scientific basis. The melodies are lovely, he says, but they "Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls" is a twenty-two-
are "an achievement of the imagination." minute color documentary film featuring Dr. Charles T.
Fritsch, Professor of Hebrew Languages and Literature
Bulldozer Archeology. at Princeton Theological Seminary, and Dr. Yigael Yadin
"Looks like it was done with a bulldozer" is the sort of of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. There are pictures
not-for-publication comment sometimes made by arche- of Cave I and Cave 4, now almost inaccessible, detailed
ologist A about the sloppy stratigraphy of archeologist B. views of the ruins of Qumran, and views of the Isaiah
Last February the comment could have been made with scroll in the Shrine of the Book. One of the major features
literal accuracy as a bulldozer accidentally broke open a in the film is an interview with Yadin in the study of his
home. He describes his work on the Temple Scroll and
necropolis near Shechem. The contents of the opened
reveals some of his views about the influence of the
graves were removed for safe-keepirig. No further news
Essenes on the early Christians.
has reached Biblical Archeologist.
The documentary was produced by Charles
Ruins on the Road. Brackbill and filmed by Capitol Films, Jerusalem. Those
interested in purchasing or renting a print should contact
A Palestinian archeological exhibit will tour the United Mr. Brackbill at Box 2019, Princeton, New Jersey 08540.
States in late 1976. Funded by the Ambassador
International Cultural Foundation, a group that has
supported projects in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan
as well as in Israel, and arranged in cooperation with the
Hebrew University and the Israel Exploration Society,
the exhibit will open in Los Angeles and move to Chicago,
Washington, New York, several European cities, and Reader contributions to
finally Japan. "News from the Field" are welcome.
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST 5
THE NAME OF GOD
IN THE WILDERNESSOF ZIN
ZE'EV MESHELA ND CAROL MEYERS
When the Israelites encamped at Kadesh Barnea (Numbers
20), were they within the borders of the future Kingdom of
Judah or still in No Man's Land, between Judah and Egypt?
Fifty kilometers south of Kadesh Barnea, a majorfind of 8th-
century Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions argues the former but
leaves a mystery behind.
On a solitary hill rising in the wide valley of the into existence at a seemingly remote desert post, an
Wadi Quraiyah in northern Sinai can be seen the tumbled investigation of the natural conditions in the area
stone walls of an ancient ruin (fig. 1). The Sinai is full of indicates rather clearly why this particular place was
ruins - way-stations and settlements of all periods from chosen for inhabitation in the first place.
prehistoric times to the present. What makes this site Known as Kuntilet cAjrud (or Kuntilet Quraiyah)
special is, first, that it has yielded a collection of on most maps, the site is some 50 km. south of the large
inscriptional materials; second, that these inscriptions are oasis of Kadesh Barnea. The crucial factor about its
not ostraca, or sherds inscribed with administrative location is that it is situated not far from the main north-
details, the usual run of epigraphic remains, but literary south route from Gaza and Kadesh Barnea in the north to
and religious texts, some of considerable length, written Eilat and Ezion-geber in the south. This ancient highway
on a variety of materials - on wall plaster, on pottery from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Aqaba is known as
jars, and on stone vessels; and third, that these texts date the Darb el-Ghazzeh, or Way to Gaza. Not only is cAjrud
from the time of the Judean monarchy itself. Such a located at a fairly central point near this roadway, but
collection is without parallel in Palestinian archeology, also it is situated at a crossroads of sorts. Camel tracks
and the tremendous significance of these finds for can be found going off in all directions, including towards
religious, historical, and geopolitical studies is only the mountains of southern Sinai. Evidently, the existence
beginning to be ascertained. of water in a series of wells below the hill on which the
While it may be years before scholars can ruins are found contributed to the establishment of this
understand why and how this group of inscriptions came place as a station for desert travelers and traders.
The modern history of cAjrud began just over 100
This report on the sensational finds at CAjrud is years ago when Edward Henry Palmer of the British
communicated by Carol Meyers of the A lbright Institute of Ordnance Survey Expedition to the Peninsula of Sinai
Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. All of the was led to this site by his Bedouin guides. Palmer, after
information and materials in this article have been kindly the main work of his mission was completed in 1868-69,
provided by Dr. Ze'ev Meshel of TelA viv Universitya nd are returned to Sinai with a few of his companions to search
theproduct of his researcho f the excavations he has directed. for signs of the Exodus and the Route of the Children of
The results of his work were first made public at a special Israel through the desert. When Palmer's guides led him
meeting of the Israel Exploration Society held at the home of to cAjrud, he immediately recognized the importance of
the President of Israel on November 30, 1975. its location in relation to the desert highway. He also
6 MARCH 1976
?00. sC -Ott -
?"(cid:127). ? -..? - _ 4b?.. "." . ?...Y ~(cid:127)... ..oil.: (cid:127) .. ? (cid:127) ...,'.. ' .- :. ? .;,! , . ??
? .? . ,; ? .(cid:127) . . ,
. . T_.4 JA
?., i,(cid:127).(cid:127)
? ;
, , (cid:127).
'Irv., ...W. .
rrt
,j ., .oo .
~..(cid:127) ,
'
.. (cid:127)
OF If. . -
0 . .
APO,, o"AL
Fig. 1. Generalv iew of the ruinso f Kuntilet'Ajrudl,o oking west, after two seasonso f excavation.O n the northa nd westc an be
seens toreroomsa; n openc ourtyardis in thec enter.A t theb ottomo f the pictureo, n the east,a ppearst he entrywayw ith flagstone
approacha nd plasteredb enches.T he entry is into a long room with plasteredw alls and benches.
picked up numerous sherds, including a fragment of comes in 1967, with the Sinai researchesa nd explorations
pottery with the letter 'alep inscribed on it in ancient of Benno Rothenberg. Although Rothenberg spent only a
Paleo-Hebrew script. short time examining this site, he was able to recognize
Palmer identified this site with a place called that the pottery was exclusively from the Iron II period,
Gypsaria, a station on the Roman road to Aila (Eilat). from the time of the divided monarchy.
However, the knowledge of pottery in his day was not The Ecology of the Past. The true importance of
sufficient for him to establish that this could not have the site has now been revealed, some hundred years after
been a Roman site, since there was no Roman pottery. Palmer discovered it, because of the interests and efforts
Furthermore, the existence of the Paleo-Hebrew writing of a young archeologist from Tel Aviv University, Ze'ev
did not interfere with his desire to find the stations listed Meshel. In dealing with a study of the Negev in the time of
the Judean kings, Meshel became aware of the
Meshel was attempting to grasp the concept significance of environmental factors which determined
the fate of the southern territories of the Judean kingdom.
of borders in antiquity, of what marked the Natural conditions such as water, climate, and terrain
end of Judean territory and the beginning of affected the pattern of settlement and rule. Meshel does
the no man's land that separated Judea from not separate the study of political history from the
the Shur Mitzraim, or Egyptian boundary, environmental history; for him, the "ecology of the past"
is integral to an understanding of events which transpired
further to the west.
in the past.
In order to pursue his interests in Negev
on the Roman map. Consequently, some maps even to conditions, Meshel carred out many surveys, including
this day carry his mistaken identification of the site, one in 1969-70 on the Darb el-Ghazzeh as it skirts the
Gypsaria. western edges of the Negev mountains. He was
The next chapter in the modern history of cAjrud attempting to grasp the concept of borders in antiquity, of
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGIST 7
The variety and content of the inscriptions was totally unexpected. As the magnitude of
their discoveries became apparent, the workers nearly had to be dragged away from their
trenches when it was time for food or rest.
what marked the end of Judean territory and the 8th century B.c. Finally, in the course of his brief
beginning of the no man's land that separated Judea from exploration of the site, Meshel picked up three pieces of
the Shur Mitzraim, or Egyptian boundary, further to the pottery which had been inscribed before firing with the
west. letter 'alep. These sherds were nearly identical to the one
When Meshel came to Kuntilet CAjrud,h e knew found by Palmer a century earlier.
immediately that this place was different from any of the The unique character of the place was thus firmly
desert outposts or highway stations that he had already established by Meshel's survey. It was surely not a Roman
explored. Whereas pottery tends to be scarce at many station, and it was certainly not an average border or
desert sites, in a few minutes at cAjrud he collected more highway outpost. Many such sites had been surveyed but
than he could carry. Furthermore, Meshel recognized never had such inscriptions been discovered nor had such
that this abundant pottery is not the typical, rather a complete absence of local hand-made pottery been
primitive-looking handmade pottery that is found in the found.
Negev. As a matter of fact, Meshel did not pick up a single It is not surprising, then, that cAjrud was chosen
piece of Negev pottery! On the contrary, the sherds for excavation despite its relative inaccessibility - it is at
looked exactly like those known from Judean sites of the least a three-hour drive over desert tracks to the nearest
Fig. 2. Stone bowl ca. 1 m. in diameter, with inscription. The full inscription reads inl tnll TnI ~~
I1[(cid:127)=p~y
This picture shows all but the first four letters, these letters having been inscribed on a fragment of the bowl
which had not yet been restored when the photo was made.
i
saii-i_
Iin
- : - --:g
i:
jii r:
::-i- i-
:"r :?:-?li:i i?~;!?$
;? .. ": -- *
iii ?i-d _ t r ?.P ::1 i ::L
id r 'i if? :'f ~:4*~ ?ii~:i-i i
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8 MARCH 1976