Researchers have discovered a 2,500-year-old tomb compound with dozens of burial sites in a previously unknown site in the Negev highlands, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday.
The discovery near Tlalim Junction suggests that trade caravans from Arabia, and even from as far away as Yemen, passed through the Land of Israel, according to the IAA.
“The unique concentration of flint artifacts uncovered in the site are unparalleled in Israel and the only source that we know of is Yemen and Oman,” said Jacob Vardi of the IAA. “We found traces of red ochre on some of the artifacts—a substance that was used in ancient cultures to symbolize blood and for other decorative purposes. The presence of ochre on these arrowheads may indicate their religious or cultic significance as having special value.”
The dozens of gravesites raise two possibilities: that the place was used over generations for burial by trade caravans passing by, or that the tombs were built for a mass burial of individuals from a single caravan that came under attack.
“The discovery is unique and points to wide-reaching cultural interchange between southern and northern Arabia, Phoenicia, Egypt and southern Europe,” said excavation director Martin David Pasternak and senior researcher Tali Erickson-Gini.
“A rich variety of artifacts were revealed in the two tombs that we uncovered, which are dated to between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE: copper and silver jewelry, alabaster artifacts for preparing incense, hundreds of beads made from different kinds of colorful stones, rare kinds of shells, an amulet in the shape of the Egyptian god Bes, alabaster vessels that were used to transport incense resins from southern Arabia, and more and more,” continued the researchers.
“The great variety of finds are evidence that this previously unknown site was a place of burial for trade caravans during that period and burial and cultic practices took place here,” they added.
The discovery will be presented to the public for the first time in a new lecture series titled, “Archaeological Mysteries” and conducted by experts from the IAA in the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel.
