Tell Arad, Israel
“And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad, and they went and settled with the people.”
Judges 1:16
We spent one day of our recent trip to Israel in the northern Negev region and visited a site we hadn’t seen before - Tel Arad. It is located about 6 miles from the modern city of Arad, on the Arad plain, overlooking an ancient east- west trade route. It is about 25 miles west of Tel Be’er Sheva. Both the ancient Bronze Age fortified city Arad and the “newer” Iron Age Arad fortress had brilliantly engineered water management in the desert. Massive water reservoirs to capture rain water and to tap into ground water, aqueducts underground and wells.
Arad’s lower settlement remains date approximately to 2950–2650 BCE—long before the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. This ancient city would have been in ruins when Joshua and Caleb were scouting out the promised land. They likely would have seen the remains of the city wall and towers as we see it today. The walls were nearly 8 feet thick made of an inner and outer face with rubble in between. The reason it was abandoned has not been determined. Residential areas and religious areas have been identified in the remains. There was evidence found of trade with Egypt during this era.
Because of the long abandonment prior to the United Kingdom fortress, Biblical scholars think that when Arad is mentioned in Joshua / Judges / Numbers it probably refers to the general area; the Arad plain, and nomadic people that lived here.
This is a huge site. The lower city is 74 acres plus the hilltop fortress - so of course there is never enough time! Next week we will have photos from the fortress and the Israelite temple in the fortress - time of Solomon until the time of Hezekiah.
Tell Arad, Iron Age fortress
