We are in Moa (Moah), which was a Nabatean settlement located at an important crossroads in ancient times. One road at the crossroads is from Eilat to the Dead Sea, and the road that crosses it is from the east, from Petra to the coast of Gaza. Moa served as a road station for merchant caravans on the Incense Route. Two biblical figures are associated with the Incense Route: Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. How they are related? We will get to the story in a few minutes.
In Moa, special food items and plants were discovered, such as peaches, which were probably imported at the time from the Far East, and also walnuts that grew in the mountains – this probably sounds like another piece of information to you, but for the traders among you, I am sure you will relate to the following: Miles north of here was another road station, so why were the traders able to enjoy these luxuries here, unlike in other places? One explanation could be their commercial acumen. For example, the traders must have noticed the effect of humidity on the weight of their goods. Suppose they bought spices and perfumes in the southern Arabian Peninsula in the spring, where the humidity is 30%. Towards the end of the summer, when they arrived at the Mediterranean ports after months-long journey, they sold the goods when the humidity along the Mediterranean was 70%. The difference in weight due to the high humidity was reflected in the price they received.
These smart people made good money and could afford to buy luxury fruits and plants. Several questions: What were the goods they transported and for what purpose were they used? Where did they come from? And how were they transported? Partial answers can be found in ancient writings and also in the Hebrew Bible. These were exotic goods, mainly perfumes, precious stones and special spices. The principle is: to trade in High-value products that take up little volume or weight.
The bulk of the goods were expensive perfumes. At that time, myrrh and frankincense trees grew naturally in two places in the world: in southern Arabia and northern Somalia due to unique conditions that I will not elaborate on now. I do recommend watching the video “Guy Erlich – Revival of Biblical Agriculture” on the YouTube channel, about the cultivation of such plants in Israel. The product sold from myrrh and frankincense is the resin. The resin was packed in sacks and sent to markets throughout the Ancient East and the Mediterranean Basin. Frankincense was used primarily for incense, that is, to create a fragrance when burned. The use of myrrh and frankincense was widespread among the people of Israel, as evidenced by many verses in the Hebrew Bible, such as Exodus chapter 30, which contains examples of the uses of incense and myrrh, which were mixed with additional ingredients to create a “holy anointing oil.”
Regarding Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon’s palace – what was the purpose of the visit? Before that, who enabled this visit? And the answer is the camel. The appearance of the camel as a vehicle for desert caravans in the Near East in the 11th-13th centuries BCE was a transportation revolution, opening direct routes across the desert, from the Persian Gulf and southern Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea. Camel caravans are a complex operation from an organizational perspective: the number of camels in a caravan ranged from a few to a few hundred. The leader was chosen by the entrepreneur, just as a contractor in our days is chosen by the entrepreneur of a construction project. The leader had overall responsibility: from the organization of the caravan to its dispersal in the destination city. There were many other roles that helped the caravan leader, for example: a guide, camel drivers, as in taxis – they were the owners of the camels or hired drivers. The journey lasted up to two to three months. The route was chosen by the leader based on assessment that took into considerations, seasons, the state of water sources along the way, the state of pastures, the security situation along the various routes, the amount of payment that must be paid for passage, and other factors. Loaded camels – move at a speed of about four kilometers per hour, about 30-40 kilometers per day.
The camel made possible the route from southern Arabia to the Land of Israel in the middle of the 10th century BCE, and the journey of Queen of Sheba to King Solomon (Kings 1:10). It was precisely during this period that the Queen of Sheba’s journey route could be estimated to have been from Ma’rib or Ma’reb, the capital of the Kingdom of Sheba or Saba as the locals called it at the time, to Yathrib, today Medinah in Saudi Arabia, and from there through Dedan, an ancient kingdom in the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula. Dedan, by the way, appears in Abraham’s family tree as Sheba’s brother, see Chapter 25 in the book of Genesis. On her journey from the Arava to Jerusalem, one can only assume that it was the same as the pilgrims’ route via the Scorpions Ascent, and you are welcome to watch the video ‘The Scorpions Ascent’ on this YouTube channel. It is likely that her round trip lasted about four months.
As for the purpose of Queen of Sheba’s journey to king Solomon, then beyond her curiosity about King Solomon’s wisdom, perhaps another purpose was to achieve an agreement for the marketing of South Arabian products to the kingdom of Israel and from there to other countries in the Mediterranean basin. In Kings 1:10 verse 10 it is written thus: “there came no more such abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon”.
Myrrh and frankincense were in great demand in the ancient world because of their many uses. How they were distributed – I will begin by emphasizing that there was always more than one incense route. In all periods, a network of routes was used to transport perfumes, both by sea and/or by land. The route was determined according to geopolitical and economic changes in Arabia, the Ancient East, and the Mediterranean basin. For example, the robbery of merchant ships at sea could cause merchants to move along land routes, and vice versa: heavy taxation on land and raids by desert tribes could force merchants to use ships to transport goods on the Red Sea or through the Straits of Hormuz. The main perfume routes originated in the mountains of southern Arabia, as I have already described through the Arabian Peninsula, and from there through Petra to Gaza, or through Eilat and across Sinai to El-Arish, and again, there were additional routes.
Excavations here revealed six main buildings. The inn is 40 by 40 meters in area. In some rooms, the walls were plastered with colored plaster. In the western room, four stone column bases were found,
and a stone bench along the eastern wall. It seems that the room served as the entrance and dressing room of the bathhouse – the apodyterium, the other rooms of which are located along the western side of the building. The hot room, the caldarium, was also uncovered. At least two phases of construction were discerned in the rooms, the early phase, from the Nabatean period from the late 1st century, and the later phase, in the Roman period, from the early 2nd century.
West of the Caravanserai, on a low hill, a 17 by 17 meters fortress was uncovered, with eleven rooms arranged around a central courtyard with numerous cooking facilities. The walls were preserved to a height of about 3 meters. Many wooden beams were discovered in the rooms, and they appear to have served as a foundation for a clay ceiling. One of the rooms was probably used for making olive oil. Near the northeastern corner of the building, a staircase was exposed, probably leading to the upper floor, to the roof of the building, which served as an observation tower. In most of the rooms of the fort, items such as pottery, candles, glassware, wicker baskets, mats, fabrics, and wooden tools from the period between the 3rd century BCE and the end of the 1st century were found.
At the northwestern edge of the site, a water reservoir measuring approximately 11 by 7 meters was uncovered. Its volume was approximately 150 cubic meters. Sections of an aqueduct that carried water from the pool to the bathhouse in the settlement were also uncovered, indicating a greater flow of the water source during the periods when the site was inhabited.
After the Nabataean Kingdom was annexed to the Roman Empire in 106, from Moa, the caravan route continued westward, to Omar brook, ascended to Khirbet Katzera – to Shaar Ramon – Avdat – Halutza and to Gaza. It seems that at the end of the 3rd century, the Incense Route was diverted towards Hatzeva and from there through Ma’aleh Akrabim to Mamshit – to Beersheba and from there to Gaza. This road has since served as the main trade route, with the roads to its north and south becoming secondary. The trade caravans on the Incense Route were the main source of income for the Nabataeans in the 1st centuries BCE to the 1st century CE, which allowed them, among other things, to build and carve the colorful sandstone city of Petra, which became their capital. And finally, as usual, I have a question for you. Hatzeva that served as a road station on the Incense Route at various times was located where a settlement existed from the time of King Solomon. What is the name of the settlement? The answer will appear at the end of the video.
