17.05.2011                      13.Ijar, 5771                      Tag 28 des Omer

Besichtigungen:

Sights and Insights: Tel Arad—An oasis of archaeology

No doubt, Tel Arad offers the most abundant, biblical archaeological site in the Negev; no visit to the desert should miss it.

Standing on the ruins of Tel Arad, I gazed across the vast basin of the eastern Negev. It’s no surprise that Arad was continually occupied and resettled through the centuries. As travellers brought bitumen from the Dead Sea or copper from Sinai, they would traverse the main trade route that stretched from Judah to Edom. The ancient city of Arad controlled this highway. 
As I walked among the ruins, I was amazed to learn that Arad’s lower area of occupation represented a thirty-acre settlement from the Early Bronze period (3000-2300 B.C.). That is centuries before Abraham! What’s more, because this section of Arad was never rebuilt upon, it offers magnificent insights for archaeologists who need only to remove the topsoil in order to study ruins from the Early Bronze age….