Was the City-Wall of ʿAroer in the Negev of Judah Built in the Early Roman Period?

Abstract

Tel ʿAroer, situated in the eastern Negev, was excavated by Avraham Biran and Rudolph Cohen, and the excavation report was published by Yifat Thareani. The excavators dated the city-wall that surrounded the site to the Iron II, concluding that ʿAroer was a fortified stronghold in the border of the Judahite kingdom. A fortified tower was built there in the Early Roman period. This paper argues that the city-wall dates to the Early Roman period and that the city-wall and the fortified tower both formed integral parts of the fortifications of the Early Roman settlement.

Keywords:

• ʿAroer
• Iron II
• Biblical archaeology
• Negev of Judah
• Iron Age fortifications

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Yifat Thareani and Itamar Taxel, as well as to the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology, Hebrew Union College—Jewish School of Religion, for their kind permission to reproduce and adjust the photographs and plans originally published in Thareani 2011.