The permanent settlements in the Negev, which is the southern part of the land of Israel, depend for their living mainly on water sources. From the watershed of the Negev Mountains and to the east, the country is arid, with very little precipitation. In the Arava Valley, where the main longitudinal trade route of the Negev passed, settlements were established to serve the trade caravans. These settlements were established only at sites and junctions where springs of water exited.
For example, Ezion Geber and Eilat on the shore of the Red Sea, Khirbat Faynan, known by the Romans as Phaino in the east side of the Jordan river where there were large copper mines, and near Ein Hatzeva is the Biblical settlement of Tamar which was the important junction of the trade convoys in the Arava valley and was fed by the local spring.
We are a kilometer north of Ein Hatzeva, in the biblical town of Tamar or Tamara as it was called in the Roman period, 1000 years after its establishment during the time of King Solomon. The place is also named Hatzeva Fortress. The settlement here existed throughout the period of Judah & Israel kingdoms and in total for approximately 1500 years, from the time of King Solomon until the end of the Byzantine period. Today I will focus on Hetzeva Fortress during the Nabatean period in the 1st century BCE, and in the Roman-Byzantine period.
The site is located at an important crossroads: from here, the road north goes to the Dead Sea and Ein Bokek and continues to Ein Gedi and Jerusalem. To the south, the road reaches Yotveta and then Eilat. The road from the southeast also passes here, from the copper mines in Phaino to the west through Ma’ale Akrabim, which means in English the Scorpions Ascent, and then continues to Mamshit in the north of the Negev.
Access to water – the site is located near Ein Hatzeva Spring, in Arabic named Ein Husub which means the spring of abundance, which was one of the abundant springs in the central Arava. In the 1960s, drilling for water sources in the area caused the groundwater to drop and the spring to dry. Today only the ancient jujube tree, several hundred years old, indicates the place of the spring. It is difficult to determine with certainty the age of the tree because the jujube tree does not form annual rings in the trunk. According to the findings, the site was used throughout the kingdom era from the 10th century BCE until the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, also during the Nabatean period in the 1st century BCE and during the Roman and Byzantine periods. The site was excavated by archaeologists over several decades and discovered findings from the 10th century BCE, the period of King Solomon, to the end of the Byzantine period or the beginning of the Arab period.
Today we will focus on the periods associated with the Nabataean kingdom, and the Byzantine Roman period. According to most scholars, the site is identified with the biblical settlement of Tamar, which is mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 14:7, Ezekiel 19:19) as one of the cities built by King Solomon (1 Kings 19:18).
In the Nabatean period and the Roman period, an important road passed here connecting Hatzeva Fortress with Eilat or Ayala as it was named by the Romans. To the north, the road as I mentioned, passed through Ein Gedi to Jerusalem. And now a view on the Incense trade route.
The Incense trade route was part of a network of trade routes between Europe and the East where luxury goods were transported, mainly perfumes, precious stones, special spices and other special goods. The principle being products of high value in small volume or weight.
This road, which started in the Far East, crossed the Arabian Peninsula and continued to Petra and Gaza. This trade route and the involvement of the Nabateans in the Incense trade are mentioned in the writings of historians. Pliny the Elder describes in the first century the routes along which the goods were transported west to the Mediterranean coast.
After the annexation of the Nabatean kingdom to the Roman Empire in 106, the Roman authorities continued to own the trading stations of the Nabateans along the Incense trade route. These stations and a chain of fortresses established by the Romans along the way, existed until the middle of the 3rd century. The main route passed through Moa, Nahal Nekarot and Ma’ale Mahmal, and from there continued to Avdat. It seems that in the second half of the 3rd century, the route was diverted and passed through Hatzeva Fortress, Ma’ale Akrabim or Scorpions Ascent in English and Mamshit and from there continued to Gaza.
In the second half of the 3rd century, a square fortress was built. Its sides are 46m long each. At the end of the century, probably during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, four prominent towers were added. The large find of pottery and coins shows that the fortress was destroyed in the middle of the 4th century, probably by an earthquake in 344 and was rebuilt again afterwards.
Coins and various pottery were found in the fortress’s rooms. The final destruction of the fortress was apparently in the earthquake of the year 363 in which Petra was also destroyed and has not been restored since then.
A Roman bathhouse was discovered, the remains of which were found several tens of meters southeast of the Roman fortress. Roman baths were a central element of everyday reality in ancient times.
Not only from the functional aspect, as a place where you bath, but mainly as a significant factor in the cultural-social framework of those days. The concept seems simple, but the implementation requires in-depth engineering knowledge. In a bathhouse, the room had a double floor. On top of the lower floor were pillars about 50 to 60 cm’ high and on them stone slabs that formed the floor of the hot room. Adjacent to the walls of the hot room, at the level of the lower floor, a fire was burning.
The flames and the hot air created by the fire, passed through the space between the lower and upper floors and between the pillars. The remains of this double floor are the most distinct archaeological hallmark of a Roman bathhouse.
A typical Roman bath house included a system of rooms with different heat levels, a lukewarm room (tepidarium), a hot room (caldarium), and a cold room (frigidarium). The order of rooms to bath varied from place to place, yet a common order was entering the lukewarm room first, then the warm room, returning to the lukewarm room and finishing in the cold room. The bathrooms were accompanied by other rooms such as the wardrobes, a room for body exercises and an oil massage room.
The Roman fortress in Hatzeva was the largest fortress built by the Romans in the Arava region. It seems that it was of utmost importance in the array of strongholds that were established in this area during the time of Emperor Diocletian for the protection of the borders of the Roman Empire. This system included fortresses, forts and towers that were deployed along roads of strategic importance.
The formation was designed to protect the trade routes close to the desert from the inhabitants of the desert. Their livelihood was based on the booty they took from caravans of merchants and travelers who wanted to cross the deserts on their way to the major trading centers in the east of the empire, such as Jerusalem and Gaza.
Settlement on the site for a short period of time also occurred later in the 6th-7th centuries at the end of the Byzantine period and the beginning of the Arab period. And to conclude as usual I have a question for you, in the Roman period, in the territory of the Kingdom of Judah, they grew a plant from which they produced a valuable perfume. What is the name of the perfume? The answer will appear at the end of the video.
