Wadi Fidan 40 and Mortuary Archaeology in the Edom Lowlands

Beherec, Marc A.; Najjar, Mohammad; Levy, Thomas E.

doi:10.2307/j.ctvdjrq5c.19

Cited by 11 publications

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“…Here, a large Iron Age nomadic cemetery with a total of 245 cist graves was excavated in the Wadi Fidan 40 site, and dozens of more graves were left untouched. The graves were accompanied by standing stones, some aniconic (unworked or smoothed) and other anthropomorphic (shaped and smoothed) (figure 10) (Beherec, Najjar, and Levy 2014).…”

Section: Early Contact Period: From the Tenth To The Mid-eighth Centumentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology of Cult of Ancient Israel’s Southern Neighbors and the Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis

Tebes

2021

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The Midianite-Kenite hypothesis, the idea that the pre-Israelite roots of Yahwism can be traced back to the areas south and southeast of Palestine, has a long pedigree in biblical scholarship. Analyses supporting this view generally agree in three main points. First, they assume that the influence of the southern cultic practices on Yahwism occurred during a restricted period of time, traditionally dated to the Early Iron Age. Second, they see the origins of Yahwism through the lenses of diffusionist perspectives, characterizing this process as a movement or migration of one or a few determined groups to Canaan. And third, adequate analyses of the archaeological evidence of the arid areas to the south of Palestine are few. In this article I will turn the interpretation of the epigraphic and archaeological evidence upside down. Instead of looking to the (mostly biblical) evidence on the origins of the cult of Yahweh and assuming its genesis lies in movements of people from the southern regions to Canaan in the Early Iron Age, I will focus attention on the history of the cultic practices in the Negev, southern Transjordan, and northern Hejaz during the entire Iron Age, and how this information is related to the religious practices known in Judah and Israel during the biblical period, shedding new light on the prehistory of the cult of Yahweh. I will evaluate the evidence not as a single, exceptional event, but as a long-term process within the several-millennia history of cultic practices and beliefs of the local peoples.

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Section: Early Contact Period: From the Tenth To The Mid-eighth Centumentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology of Cult of Ancient Israel’s Southern Neighbors and the Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis

Tebes

2021

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“…81 In addition, the huge cemetery at Faynan (Fidan 40), where 287 tombs were excavated (out of approx. 7000), is attributed to the Edomite Shasu, based on the site's context, on the grave goods, mortuary practices, the cemetery's egalitarian nature and the absence of nearby contemporary stone-built habitations (Levy, Adams, and Muniz 2004;Levy 2009;Beherec, Najjar, and Levy 2014;Beherec et al 2016). It is even suggested that the organization of the Shasu around the copper industry brought them to a level of "tribal kingdom" (Ben-Yosef 2019) which was actually the base for the rise of the Edomite Kingdom (e.g., Levy, Adams, and Muniz 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Desert’s Role in the Formation of Early Israel and the Origin of Yhwh

Avner¹

2021

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The origin of ancient Israel has been questioned and intensively discussed for almost two centuries by many researchers, from two main schools of thought. One believes the early Israelites came from outside the Land of Cana‘an and conquered it, while the other believes they rose from within Cana‘an, forming a new polity and culture. Scholars are likewise divided whether the Israelite God, Yhwh, originated from the Near Eastern cultural environment or from the desert. A multitude of studies has been dedicated to these two themes, usually separately. This article attempts to examine the connection between the two through several themes: desert roots in the culture of ancient Israel, the origin of Yhwh, Asiatics in Sinai and the Negev, desert tribes and the copper industry, the location of biblical Paran, Nabataean data from Sinai which illuminate biblical issues, and others. By including materials which were previously underutilized or overlooked, these themes may be integrated to form a reasonable scenario of a chapter in the history of early Israel.

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Theoretical and Methodological Comments on Social Complexity and State Formation in Biblical Archaeology

Ben‐Yosef

Thomas

2023

Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology

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Wadi Fidan 40 and Mortuary Archaeology in the Edom Lowlands

Cited by 11 publications

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The Archaeology of Cult of Ancient Israel’s Southern Neighbors and the Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis

The Archaeology of Cult of Ancient Israel’s Southern Neighbors and the Midianite-Kenite Hypothesis

The Desert’s Role in the Formation of Early Israel and the Origin of Yhwh

Theoretical and Methodological Comments on Social Complexity and State Formation in Biblical Archaeology

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