A brief historical account of the city of Beersheba.
The paper examines the ancient city of Beersheba, Beer Sheba, or Bir-al-Saba, that dates back to the days of King David and Solomon and beyond. The paper offers a brief look into the ancient times, including its history, geography, sites, traces of the iron Age and artifacts. The paper also looks at the state of the wells in modern times. The paper includes a color map and several pictures.
“Began at least in Chalcolithic, in Canaan territory, Beersheba is today unexcavated, but nearby suburbs have been. History of the city is probably same as these suburbs. Owing to repeated destruction, there are very few remains of ancient times in Beersheba. From the 7th century CE onwards, Beersheba degenerated into a caravanserai with a Bedouins market. The remains of settlements dating from the Iron Age onwards have been uncovered at an excavation site some 3 miles northeast of the modern town center.
“The culture which existed in south Palestine in the 4th millennium BCE made useof copper, and is known as the Beer Sheva culture because of the finds discovered at Beersheba. It is characterized by copper objects, pet animals, cultivated plants, ivory statuettes and painted pebblestones. Some sixty-three miles separate Beersheba in the northern-most Negev from Punon to the southeast of it, far below in the Arabah, source of it’s copper supply.”
“The culture which existed in south Palestine in the 4th millennium BCE made useof copper, and is known as the Beer Sheva culture because of the finds discovered at Beersheba. It is characterized by copper objects, pet animals, cultivated plants, ivory statuettes and painted pebblestones. Some sixty-three miles separate Beersheba in the northern-most Negev from Punon to the southeast of it, far below in the Arabah, source of it’s copper supply.”