We set out early in the morning to see Arad. [I have to add that it was one of the most beautiful mornings I've seen at Arad - the sun rising on the Judean hills with the clouds and mist still clinging to them - spectacular.] A temple complex sits at
the top of a large mound of Eocene, a mound surrounded by loess soil in the
middle of the eastern most bowl of the Negev. It is here that a small town
survived through outside support, some of the trade from the east-west spice
route that runs through the Negev, and by digging cisterns into the Eocene
bedrock. The town itself is nearly shaped like a slightly bowled and warped
saucer [the Early Bronze town], channeling the rainwater into the cistern for collection. In support of
this, all the major roads head straight toward this central point, or around
it. Looking like a wheel with spokes.
The people [who manned the Israelite Iron-Age fort] had a temple built according to the specifications given in
the Pentateuch, but there were two incense altars and 3 standing stones in and
near the holy of holies. An indication of multiple deity worship [possibly]. [The picture above is taken from the back of the "Holy of Holies" area, and the two incense altars are visible, along with the sacrificial altar.] Initiating a
conversation on henotheism, the believing in one god out of many as “your” god,
the choosing of one god above all others, but not denying the existence of
other Gods. This lead to a point where no student could think of a passage in
the Pentateuch that clearly said “there are no other gods.” An interesting
point considering that there are other powers in this world, evil ones, and at
no point does God encourage us to deny that fact, but rather tells us to fear
the devil.
Also, there were lizards.
Next we donned hard hats at Beer Sheba. And looked at a Terebinth tree
and a cut, stone altar found there. (The stones in [an altar] weren’t to be cut
stones, so the prescriptions weren’t followed for this particular altar.)
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| [Learning about space syntax in a four-room house.] |
Then we went up to the city and noted that the well was outside the
gate. Odd since the people inside the gate wouldn’t want to have to go farther
than necessary to draw water. But this was a practical thing to do, and in many
cases wells were left purposely outside the city gate. Why? Because when
shepherds, travelers, merchants, etc. come to town, they need to water their
flocks/camels/donkeys and if you have the well in the middle of town, you also
have a poop ridden walkway between the well and the gate, and poop all around
the well, and sheep blocking your roads, and camels belching in your window.
Something not highly thought of. SO the wells were outside.
We also talked about how the well was at least 40 feet deep present
day [the current brochure for Tel Beer Sheva says that it's 69 m to water level], and its dry on the bottom and that’s because it was filled in long ago and
when the location was excavated, digging down another 40 feet or more through
dirt and rocks didn’t seem like fun, especially when there likely weren't any
archaeological finds down there. (some suggest the well was 80 METERS deep, but
that may be rather excessive) So imagine dropping a 1 to 3 gallon jar, on a
rope, over a pulley, down an 80 (or 200 if you want to go that far) foot hole,
letting it fill up, then cranking it up 80 feet, and pouring out the water into
a trough for a camel. Now imagine the camel slurps that up reeeal quick like,
and looks at you for more. Because a camel can drink 30-55 gallons at a time.
Imagine that Rebekah, walks with her water jar down to the well amongst
the other women in the cool of the day, the evening, going there to fetch a jar
full of water, and take it back to the house, maybe a few times. And when she
approaches the well, here is a stranger, someone who is required by middle
eastern hospitality, to take care of, to welcome into your home and provide
for. In fact, to do so much that it’s a dishonor and shame on you to have your
guest ever once ask for something that was not provided them. (see Jesus and
his foot washing being neglected as an example)
Now imagine said person came riding a camel, or worse, he came with
more than one (which is extremely likely) and all the women who are drawing
water at the well, waiting their turn, are praying and hoping not to make eye
contact with this stranger lest they need to help water all his camels.
But Rebekah sees all this immense work, and (likely after waiting for
most of the other women to have their turn) goes and draws water for his
camels.
This is the woman chosen to be Isaac’s wife. This is a working woman,
and a serving woman. Maybe the well was only 80 feet deep, maybe the camels
were small, not entirely thirsty, and there were only two. But that’s still way
more work than anyone would ever want to do. Pulling 60 gallons of water up a
grand total of 2400 feet. (80 feet, per 2 gallons, 30 times)
Now, Rebekah didn’t use this particular well, she didn’t live in Beer
Sheba, but like I pointed out, only 80 feet, for only two camels, and only
drinking 30 gallons a piece would be an immense amount of extra work.
Women didn’t sit at home. They worked, hard. And Rebekah took up the
gauntlet to go above and beyond. No wonder she was chosen.
That aside, while at Beer Sheva (Sheba and Sheva are interchangeable in
this case because we aren’t sure which was the intended pronunciation in the
ancient Hebrew) we talked about the bent access gate. Meaning the gate to the
town was set up so that immediately upon entering you had to turn left and go a
short ways before you could turn right and enter the main of the city. Why?
Because if your enemy has a shield in their left hand, and have to move into
your gate then turn left, their unprotected on their right side, where you can
have men with arrows shooting at them as they enter. It also keeps the enemy
from having a straight shot into town, with either a sprint on foot, a racing
war horse or an arrow. Either way you need to slow down to enter and do battle.
A clever defensive technique.
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| [Learning about bent-access gates at Tel Beer Sheva with our lovely hard hats.] |
Then we used our hard hats and went through the underground tunnel that
composed the huge cisterns hewn out for the city’s use.
Next we took a short little hike, and saw some Ibex, and a deep wadi
canyon.
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| [Climbing out of Wadi Zin.] |
Then Av Dat (spelling?) ask Alana for info on that, she’s got a video
series going.
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| [Using the baptismal in one of the churches at Avdat.] |
[Avdat (or Oboda) is a Nabatean city. The most famous Nabatean city is, of course, Petra, in southern Jordan. There are Nabatean ruins to be found all over southern Jordan, the Negev of Israel, and even the Sinai peninsula. (Quite possibly other places too, but those are the only place I've personally seen.) The Nabateans controlled the spice trade for a number of years until the Romans decided that was too lucrative a trade to not have a finger in the pie. So Nabatea became subject to the Romans. Around the same time, the Nabateans themselves converted to Christianity (at least many of them.) Some of the most spectacular ancient church ruins in Israel today are to be found in Nabatean cities.]
Then lastly an outlook point over the biggest erosion crater down
south. Kind of like a grand canyon, only round, not… snakey. [Makhtesh Ramon - the largest erosion crater in Israel, and in the world.]
Then we went back
to the youth hostel for the night. The end!
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| [Enjoying the hike together.] |
