Negev Field Trip

On 1/20/12 we took our students to sites in the Negev, the dry desert in the far south of Israel.  A couple of the sites were ones that we visited in our Fall 2011 trip, but we added a couple of sites and did one differently.  First we drove from Jerusalem to Laqiya, a large Bedouin town (B).  We then went to Arad, which features both Canaanite and Israelite ruins (C).  Next we went to a site that was new to me, Advat, which was founded as an important Nabatean City on the Incense Route but later became a Roman and then Byzantine agricultural center (D).  After that we visited the site of Ben Gurion's tomb at Midresehet Ben-Gurion, which we also used as a lookout point to view the biblical Winterness of Zin (E).  Finally, we drove through Be'er Sheva (F), where Abraham and Isaac had both lived.

Here is the trip's highlights video:

One of the reasons we begin our Negev trip with a visit to a Bedouin community is because in this Arab group's traditional nomadic lifestyle one can catch a glimpse of what life must have been for the biblical patriarchs and matriarch.  Today, of course, as many Bedouins live in settled communities as in tents and encampments.  In fact, they are grappling with many of the problems of modernity, including unemployment and challenges in the areas of education and women's rights.  As a result, we like to start with a visit to the Sidreh Foundation, an organization that seeks to increase the literacy and economic status of Bedouin women by helping them develop and market their traditional handicrafts.

A Bedouin woman weaving

Skeins of wool waiting to be dyed

A small shop sells the women's good.  Josh Ludlow falls in love with a snuggly pillow

After we left the Sidreh Foundation in Laqiya, we drove to the site of Tell Arad.  This was a very important, and large, Canaanite city in the Early Bronze Age.  It seems to have been uninhabited in the Late Bronze Age when the Israelites were penetrating the Holy Land, but a regional chieftain still bore the title "King of Arad" (see Numbers 21:1,; Joshua 12:14).   

A deep Canaanite well (or perhaps just a catchment cistern)

Yea, it's deep!

The obligatory group pic.  I wish I had gotten more of these last semester

Here a student models the small size of a Canaanite kitchen.  I meant this to reassure Elaine in regard to the size of our apartment's kitchen

Students in the Canaanite gate

Some latecomers who did not make the last pic!

Canaanite temple complex

In the Iron Age, probably beginning about the time of Solomon, an Israelite fortress was built on the heights above the site of the old Canaanite city.  It is notable for containing the remains of a small Israelite temple, which confirms the existence of such local sanctuaries before the reforms of Hezekiah and later Josiah eliminated them in favor of a central temple in Jerusalem.  We used the setting of that ancient temple to talk about the Tabernacle, the Temple, and temples today, after which we sang, "We Love Thy House, O God" (hymn 247).

In the gate of the Israelite fortress at Arad

My home teacher, Brennan Jernigan, in the small Holy of Holies

Even in the "wet" season, the Negev is pretty barren

Despite the arid looking picture above, we had some light rain off and on today, and it was pretty cold and windy most of the time.  I kept telling the students, however, that they came at the best time, because it was hot when we were here last and is going to be REALLY hot when we come again this summer!

Our next site, Advat, was a new one to me.  It was established by the Nabateans as a fortified way station on the Incense Route, providing a safe way station between the Nabatean capital at Petra and the port of Gaza.  It grew larger and more wealthy with the increasing power and wealth of the Nabateans, and one of the kinds, Oboda II, did much building there and was eventually buried at the site, giving the city his name (Oboda > Avdat).  The Roman Emperor Trajan incorporated Nabatea into the empire as the new province of Arabia, but that did not hurt the prosperity of the region, and Avdat continued to prosper.  The focus of its economy became more agricultural when trade routes shifted, and complex water catchment and cisterns systems were built to support their farming.  

The remains of a Roman villa at Advat

A silhouette camel train recalls the importance of the old Incense Trail

On a Roman tower

Close up of the students on the tower, with Davis Green doing the Titanic move

In the Byzantine period, great churches were built on the platform which was once the Nabatean "temple mount."  This was my first chance to lecture to my students about the wonders of all things Byzantine: Greek-speaking, Christian Romans!  What else could you ask for?

Standing in our first Byzantine church

An orthodox baptistry

It is amazing that such a city could survive, and prosper, in this arid landscape . . .

. . . but it was thanks to a complex water system

Caves below the city served as storerooms, tombs, and even dwellings

Part of the steam piping system of the Byzantine bathhouse

Hypocausts, which held up the floor and allowed hot air and steam to circulate under the calidarium or hot room of the bath

After that we drove quickly to Midresehet Ben-Gurion, which is near the kibbutz where David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, retired.  He felt that the Negev was the future of the new state, and he was buried very near the kibbutz where he spent his last years.  After looking at the graves of Ben Gurion and his wife, we turned around, where the park gave a stunning view of the barren desertscape that comprises the ancient Wildnerness of Zin, where the Children of Israel wandered for 40 years.  Moving a respectful distance away from the tombs and any other visitors, we found another lookout point where we could also sing "Redeemer of Israel" (hymn 6), which provided a moving setting to sing the familiar lines, "How long we have wandered as strangers in sin, And cried in the desert for thee!"

The graves of David and Paula Ben Gurion

Usually on this field trip we stop at Tel Be'er Sheva, where we talk about the history of Abraham and Isaac in this area.  Unfortunately the National Parks close an hour earlier in the winter months because of the shorter days, so we could not make it to the tell in time.  We intended to stop at the "Well of Abraham" in the modern city of Be'er Sheva, because some archaeologists maintain that that is as likely a site of Abraham and Isaac's well (everything in at the tell itself is Solomonic or later).  But double misfortune hit: that site is being developed into a new park and was closed off behind a construction fence.  So we read those accounts for Genesis and talked about those patriarchs on the drive home.

I am not succeeding in making my blog entries shorted this semester, am I?