3 March 2022
After the Edomites deserted the Negev and moved into the Judaean plains, in the 6th century BCE, the Nabataeans―an ancient Arabian, nomadic people who developed a striking civilisation after they developed agriculture and settled in cities in the 4th century BCE―occupied the area. Gradually their semi-nomadic lifestyle became Hellenised, with considerable organized government and bureaucracy. In time, the Nabataean Kingdom controlled many of the trade routes of the region, amassing large wealth and drawing the envy of its neighbours. The kingdom stretched south along the Red Sea coast into the Hejaz, up as far north as Damascus.
In the Negev, four main cities―Avdat (Ovdat), Haluza (Eluza), Mamshit (Memphis), and Shivta (Subeita)―and numerous waystations, caravanserai, and strongholds, flourished during the period from 300 BCE to 200 CE. They were linked directly with the Mediterranean terminus of the east-west Incense and Spice Route (from India and further east to Arabia, and thence to the Levant and north Africa), with great wealth coming especially from the lucrative trade in the transport of frankincense and myrrh from Yemen to the port of Gaza. The towns were supported by extremely sophisticated systems of water collection and irrigation that allowed large-scale agriculture. These included dams, channelling, cisterns and reservoirs.
The Nabataean kingdom was annexed into the Roman Empire by Emperor Trajan in 106 CE, and renamed Arabia Petraea. Nabataean culture was subsumed into the wider Greco-Roman culture, and the people eventually converted to Christianity. However with the Arab invasion in the seventh century CE, the Nabataean cities were mostly deserted. They were not re-inhabited in the main and remain well preserved, with the four main cities―along with associated fortresses and agricultural landscapes in the Negev Desert―now preserved as part of the ‘Incense Route – Desert Cities in the Negev’ UNESCO World Heritage-designated area.
Of the main Nabataean cities, Mamshit―on the trading route from Avdat north to Damascus―was also on a parallel east-west route which crossed the Makhtesh Hagadol. Yeruham fortress―also known as Tel Rakhma―is two-thirds of the way along the route from Avdat to Mamshit, and defended the route into Roman times. Very early one morning, in the bitter cold of the desert wind just after dawn, I went to have a look.
The fortress began as a tower and stables during the Late Roman period, then residential houses were added in the Byzantine period. Survey of the area of the route between Avdat and Yeruham fortress in 1981 revealed little settlement activity in the Nabatean and Late Roman periods, with only eight small Nabatean sites discovered, suggesting that the area was empty apart from travel along the road. Archaeological excavations at the site disclosed pottery shards and ostraca (shards used for writing upon) with Greek inscriptions, as well as the remains of a town, including streets, buildings, a wall and a fortified tower. The citadel has been partially restored.
Just north of the fortress are two wells. Be'er Yeruham (Yeruham Well) is nearer to the road, being a dry shallow well surrounded by a concrete pool. To its west is another well, Ancient Be'er Hagar or Hagar's well, also known in Arabic as Bir Rakhma (the Well of Mercy). According to Arab tradition, this is the well from which Hagar drank. Hagar was Sarah's handmaiden, by whom Abraham was born his firstborn son, Ishmael. Be'er Hagar apparently served as a water source for the fortress. In the time of the mandate, the British refurbished the well for the use of local Bedouins and in 1949, during Operation Ovda, the well served as a meeting point for the Golani brigade on its way to conquering the southern Negev and Eilat, when this was the main route from Be'er Sheva to Eilat.
Left: Be'er Hagar; Right: Be'er Yeruham
The ancient city of Yeruham, at Tel Yeruham just north of the fortress, appears in the list of sites conquered in 924 BCE by Shishak, king of Egypt, inscribed on a wall in his palace in Upper Egypt. The conquest is described in the book of 2 Chronicles. Nabatean remains and pottery dated to the first and second centuries CE were found at this site also.
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