Nachal Ze'elim
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Nachal Ze'elim Wadi Seiyal |
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| Data | ||
| location | South District , Israel | |
| River system | Nachal Ze'elim | |
| muzzle | 4 km north of Masada with a delta into the Dead Sea Coordinates: 31 ° 20 ′ 53 " N , 35 ° 24 ′ 28" E 31 ° 20 ′ 53 " N , 35 ° 24 ′ 28" E
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| Left tributaries | Nachal Hardof | |
The Nachal Ze'elim ( Hebrew נַחַל צֶאֱלִים, arab. Wadi Seiyal ) is a west-east running wadi in Israel , on the west bank of the Dead Sea .
Nachal Ze'elim is one of the largest wadis in the Judean Desert and is comparatively rich in water due to four smaller springs that feed their water into the Nachal Ze'elim. There are also two larger water basins to the west of it, Na'ama (ar. Birkat en-Nu'eimiya ) and Zephira (ar. Birkat es-Safariya ), which store water all year round. Halfway along the way, the Nachal Hardof (ar. Wadi Maradif ) joins the Nachal Ze'elim from the north, which finally flows into the Dead Sea about 4 km north of Masada .
archeology
In the course of the manuscript discoveries from the sea , rumors arose that material from unknown caves, which Bedouins were selling in Jordan , came from the Wadi Seiyal, in Hebrew Nachal Ze'elim. However, the area belonged to Israel. As a result, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem undertook two expeditions to the area in 1960 (January 25 to February 2 and March 23 to April 6). The expedition brought rich finds from the Copper Age to the time of the Bar Kochba revolt .
Copper Age and Bronze Age
In addition to individual larger building structures, numerous pottery shards from the Chalcolithic era were found on the surface. These were also found in almost every habitable cave in the investigated area. Four club heads, two of hematite and two of copper, were found in cave 49 . In addition, remains of clothing and mats or baskets were discovered. Also of interest are polished pendants made of bones and shells with holes at the top, some of which are decorated with diagonal lines, as well as numerous pearls.
Iron age
Two fortress-like buildings and two settlements were discovered from the Iron Age . These systems show that there were connecting routes from the area around Hebron through the Nachal to the Dead Sea (and on to Moab) in the Iron Age . However, none of the numerous pottery shards recorded came from the caves. These may have remained unused during the Iron Age.
Roman time
Numerous finds exist from the Roman period. Of importance are u. a. the four Roman forts, which presumably date from the same era and were supposed to control the roads along the Nachal at the time of the Bar Kochba uprising. But there are also four caves with significant finds.
- Cave 31 ( Cave of the Arrows ) was still untouched by Bedouin activity. It contained plenty of pottery, organic remains and a coin from Trajan (98–117). In addition, eleven iron arrowheads and numerous shafts made of wood and cane lay in one corner.
- Cave 32 ( Cave of the Skulls ) was searched by Bedouins before the archaeological expedition. The university's excavations also produced a coin from the time of Trajan and a grave with seven skeletons. Since the skulls were piled up with the rest of the bones next to them, it is obviously a secondary burial. Remnants of clothing were still found on a bone.
- Cave 34 ( Cave of the Scrolls ) contained the only documents found in this area. In a pit near the entrance, fragments of leather and papyrus were found, which were described in Hebrew / Aramaic and Greek. According to the excavators, the scrolls were brought here by refugees who hid in the cave during the Bar Kochba uprising. Among the other finds were a comb and two coins. These date from the time of the Roman emperors Elagabal (218–222) and Severus Alexander (222–235) and are therefore around 100 years younger than the coins from the time of Bar-Kochba, which means that the cave is clearly used after Bar-Kochba is occupied.
- Cave 40 ( Cave of the Reservoir ) contains a water basin, which is partly carved out of the stone, partly bricked and plastered. Apart from Roman ceramics, a bronze coin from the II year of Bar-Kochba was found.
Written finds from cave 34
The writings from cave 34 are the only writings from the Nachal Ze'elim that were found during excavations. They are designated with 34 (for cave 34), Ṣe (for the location) and a consecutive number. The documents in the Seiyâl collection, which are occasionally associated with the Nachal Ze'elim, come from purchases and are of unknown origin. Most of them, however, are likely to come from the Nachal Chever . They are usually designated with XHev / Se (for unsecured origin, presumably from Nachal Chever or Nachal Ze'elim) and a sequential number. Of the texts found in the Nachal Ze'elim, No. 1 (34Ṣe1) consists of two fragments, those with tiny Hebrew letters - the average letter height is about 1 mm! - are described. In fragment 1, parts of the right margin, around 20–35 mm, are missing, whereas in fragment 2 a larger part. Nevertheless, the text can be clearly identified as Ex 13.2–10 and 13.11–16. This is what remains of tefillin . The text corresponds to the Masoretic text except for one variant in Ex 13,6a. The plural form there is also offered by the Septuagint and the Peschitta . No. 2 (34Ṣe2) are leather fragments with only a few surviving letters. It may be the top of a scroll that contained text from the Book of Numbers . No. 3 (34Ṣe 3) is written on papyrus and contains a contract in Aramaic . However, the numerous small fragments cannot be put together into a recognizable text, so that further interpretations are impossible. The eight preserved Greek fragments are combined into two manuscripts by the current editor H. Cotton. No. 4 (34Ṣe 4) contains a list of male, mostly Hebrew names with patronymic, respective age and occasionally the addition "Brother". The first editor B. Lifshitz thought of a brotherhood of fighters of the Bar-Kochba. This interpretation is ruled out, however, because the list includes both 13-year-old children and 67-year-old old people. It is more likely that it is a tax list for collecting poll tax. Finally, fragment No. 5 (34Ṣe 5) contains the remains of an invoice.
literature
- Yohanan Aharoni : Expedition B . In: Israel Exploration Journal 11 (1961), 11-24, pls. 4-11. [the inscription of the finds on pl. 11 is wrong]
- Hannah M. Cotton : E. Naḥal Ṣe'elim 4. 34Ṣe papCensus List from Judaea or Arabia gr. In: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 38. Oxford 2000, 217-225, pl. XXXIV-XXXV.
- Hannah M. Cotton: E. Naḥal Ṣe'elim 5. 34Ṣe papAccount gr. In: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 38. Oxford 2000, 227-228, pl. XXXV.
- Baruch Lifshitz: The Greek Documents from Naḥal Ṣeelim and Naḥal Mishmar. In: Israel Exploration Journal 11 (1961), 53-62, pl. 23.
- Matthew Morgenstern : E. Naḥal Ṣe'elim 2. 34Ṣe Numbers. In: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 38. Oxford 2000, 209, pl. XXXIII.
- Matthew Morgenstern: E. Naḥal Ṣe'elim 3. 34Ṣe papDeed ar. In: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 38. Oxford 2000, 211-214, pl. XXXIV.
- LY Rahmani: The Coins from Naḥal Ṣeelim and Naḥal Hardof. In: Israel Exploration Journal 11 (1961), 63-64, pl. 10.
- Gregor Geiger: The manuscripts from the Judean desert: The texts outside Qumran. Introduction and German translation (= Fontes et Subsidia ad Bibliam Pertinentes. Volume 9). De Gruyter, Berlin, Boston 2019 (pp. 378–506: German translation of all published texts from the Nachal Ze'elim and the Nachal Chever).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Yonatan Adler: Remains of Tefillin from Naḥal Ṣeʾelim (Wadi Seiyal): A Leather Case and Two Inscribed Fragments (34Ṣe1 A – B). With Paleographic Analysis by Ada Yardeni, in: Dead Sea Discoveries 24 (2017), 112-137.