Gorer Tower and the Biblical Edom Road

ABSTRACT

The existence of an ancient road linking Edom and Judea, the Edom Road (Derech Edom), is documented in the biblical text. To date the most comprehensive research on the Edom Road was carried out by B. Rothenberg and Y. Aharoni, who suggested its likely route based on archaeological sites dating to Iron Age II in the Southern Judean Desert, along the northern bank of Nahal Heimar. In this article we will examine a site near Nahal Gorer, and analyse its spatial context in order to learn about the road network in the southern Judean Desert during the Iron Age II period.

KEYWORDS:

• Ancient Roads
• Iron Age
• Judean Desert
• Edom
• ViewShed

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eli Cohen-Sasson

Dr Eli Cohen-Sasson is a lecturer in archaeology at Ben-Gurion University. His research focuses on the archaeology of arid regions, utilization of geographic information systems in archaeological research and landscape archaeology. He has worked on excavations of numerous sites in the Negev.

Oz. Varoner

Oz Varoner is an MA graduate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His postgraduate research dealt with provisioning strategies at the Middle Palaeolithic open-air site of Nesher-Ramla, Israel. In recent years he has focused on lithic technology and land-use strategies during the Middle Palaeolithic. Currently he is the co-director of excavations at Tinshemet Cave, Israel, dating to that period, alongside Dr Yossi Zaidner and Prof. Israel Hershkovitz.

Eyal Frieman

Eyal Freiman is a District Archaeologist at the IAA (Israel Antiquities Authority). His research focuses on the spatial analysis of Iron Age settlements throughout the southern Levant—particularly the Judean highlands. He is currently investigating digital methods of obtaining more accurate data in archaeological survey. This includes high-precision GPS devices, drones, and photogrammetry.

Conn Herriott

Dr Conn Herriott works at the intersection of prehistoric archaeology and social anthropology, focusing on links between religion and socioeconomics. He employs digital humanities methods to identify cross-cultural patterns in religion among modern-era indigenous societies, which he applies as interpretive frameworks for archaeological research of cult and ontologies in the Mesolithic/Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic transition period in Southwest Asia and Europe. He is an editor of the Database of Religious History (University of British Columbia, Vancouver).