Unveiling the Kings of Israel
| Ein Hatzeva | 30 47 52.43N 35 14 47.76E | The coordinates are for the moshav where we stayed. I could not identify the ecavation site in the picture. |
| Kadesh Barnea | 30 38 50.28N 34 25 39.82E | The coordinates are for a spring which provided water for the Israelites. The excavations are not visible. Tilt the image and "fly" down the valley to discover the extensive plain where the Israelites could have camped. |
| Kadesh Barnea | 30 38 40.00N 34 29 06.06E | I don't know what this regular pattern of stripes is, but it looks like the water-harvesting techniques described by Nelson Glueck in his Rivers in the Desert book. These were underground dams, so they would not be affected by flooding but would trap ground water, resulting in an area where crops could grow. (You need to get down to around 4,000 feet eye altitude to see the markings.) |
This is an extended quote from the book Unveiling the Kings of Israel by David Down, ISBN-13: 978-0-89051-609-6.
Two million people staying in Kadesh Barnea for so long would have left a lot of broken pottery, which archaeologists should be able to find. They have!
Dr Rudolph Cohen, for many years head of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, exavated here when Israel was in possession of the Sinai Peninsula following the Six Day WAr in 1967. He made some interesting discoveries. He was impressed with the large amount of pottery from the Middle Bronze I period he found there and concluded that this was indicative of the Israelites who stayed there.
He wrote an article for the Biblical Archaeology Review in which he stated:
One of the most obscure periods in the history of Palestine is the Middle Bronze I period (commonly referred to as MBI) which extended from about 220 BC to about 2000 BC. Who were the MBI people? We really don't know. ... In fact, these MBI people may be the Israelites whose famous journey from Egypt to Canaan is called the Exodus.
On one thing scholas are agreed. The pottery, the settlements and other aspects of the material culture of the MBI people that have been uncovered over the last fifty years differ significantly from what went before in the Early Bronze period and from what followed inthe Middle Bronze II period. The Early Bronze Age (c. 3150 BC-2200 BC) was characterised by a flourishing urban civilisation. The same was true of the Middle Bronze Age II (c. 2000 BC-1550 BC). In MBI, however, there was a notable absence of urban settlements.
I have been studying the MBI sites in the Central Negev for almost two decades now. The results of this study can, I beleive, elucidate some of the outstanding issues. ... New aspects of MBI culture, including burial customs and social structure, imply a new ethnic element. Thus the MBI culture is also intrusive; migrating people who destroyed the existing urban centres must be involved. ... In my view, the new MBI population come from the south and the Sinai, the route of the Israelites on that journey known as the Exodus. ... Literally hundreds of MBI site shave been surveyed in the Central Negev.
On the basis of my own excavations and surveys in the Central Negev, however, I believe that the MBI people did not come from the north or north-east; on the contrary, there is evidence pointing to their origins in the south or south-west.
This migratory drift, as I have reconstructed it, bears a striking similarity to that of the Israelites' flight from Egypt to the Promised Land, as recorded in the Book of Exodus. The concentration of MBI sites in the relatively fertile district east of Kadesh Barnea recalls the tradition that the Israelis camped near this oasis for 38 of their 40 years of wandering after leaving Egypt. (Deuteronomy 1:46)
The establisment of the MBI settlements directly over the ruins of the EBII-EBIII sites in the Central Negev is consistent with the tradition that the Israelites dwelled in the area previously inhabited by their Amalekite foes (Deuteronomy 25:17-19). The north-eastward migration of the MBI population into Transjordan has parallels in the Biblical recollection that the Israelites remained in Moab before crossing the Jordan River and laying siege to Jericho. (Deuteronomy 3:29) In this connection too it is interesting to note that Early Bronze Age Jericho was destroyed by a violent conflagration and the site was thinly reoccupied by MBI newcomers, who were apparently unaccustomed to urban dwellings. ... God specifically instructed that these cities should not be rebuilt. Interestingly enough, after the EBIII destruction of Jericho and Ai, both cities lay in ruins for hundreds of years.
The similarity between the course of the MBI migration and the route of the Exodus seems too close to be coincidental. The Late Bronze Age (1550 BC-1200 BC) - the period usually associated with the Israelites' flight from Egypt - is archaeologically unattested in the Kadesh Barnea area (as elsewhere in the Central Negev, for that matter) but the MBI remains abound and seem to provide a concrete background for the traditions of settlement. Whether the Israelies' trek from Egypt actually occurred in this period or was based on a dim memory of an earlier migration and conquest along ths route canot be detrmined with certainmty. But the background of the journey seems clearly to be related to that mysterious archaeologyical period we so dryly call MBI.
Rudolph Cohen, "The Mysterious MBI People", Biblical Archaelogy Review pp. 16-29
Cohen did not conclude that the dates were wrong but that the Bible date for the occupation of Canaan was wrong and that the period of the Judges was centuries longer than indicated in the Bible.
I first met Rudolph Cohen in 1992. At the time I was involved in excavations at Ein Yael, a few kilometres out of Jerusalem. I happened to pick up a piece of pottery with concentric lines on it and showed it to Gershon Edelstein, the Israeli archaeologist with whom I was excavating. "Look, Gershon," I said. "MBI pottery."
"Yes, Canaanite," he responded.
"Not Canaanite," I replied. "Israelite."
"Yes, I know your views," he said in good humour. "For that matter, Rudolph Cohen believes the same."
I pricked up my ears. I knew Rudolph Cohen was head of the Israel Antiquities Authority and that afternoon I visited his office. That was the beginnning of a long friendship. In fact, when that first interview was over I said to him, "Rudolph, I bring a group of Australian volunteers here every year and next year I would like them to work on your excvations."
He readily agreed and the following year we worked at Ein Hatzeva, 19 miles (30 km) south of the Dead Sea. One day while we were at the work site Egal Israel, supervisor at the dig on the other side of the tel, came to visit us. We had a nice conversation and I concluded by asking him a question. "Egal, Rudolph Cohen believes that the MBI people were the invading Israelites. Do you agree with that?"
"Of course I do," he replied. "All of us down here believe the same thing."
I said, "The archaeologists up north don't believe that."
"They do not have the experience in the Negev that we have," he replied.
Unveiling the Kings of Israel pp.60-62
© David Down 2011
