Tel Arad

Tel Arad (תל ערד) or Tell 'Arad (تل عراد) is an archaeological tell, or mound, located west of the Dead Sea, about 10 km west of the modern Israeli city of Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Plain.

The lower Canaanite settlement and the upper Israelite citadel are now part of the Tel Arad National Park, which has begun projects to restore the walls of the upper and lower sites.

Proposed identification
It was first identified in modern literature in 1841 by Edward Robinson in his Biblical Researches in Palestine, on account of the similarity of the Arabic place name, Tell 'Arad, with the Harad in the Book of Joshua.

Elitsur observes that although the site remained uninhabited for 1,100 years, the name has endured, preserved by nomads.

Archaeology
The upper and lower areas of Tel Arad were excavated during 18 seasons by Ruth Amiran and Yohanan Aharoni between 1962 and 1984. An additional 8 seasons were done on the Iron Age water system.

Chalcolithic
The site is divided into a lower city and an upper section on a hill. In the Late Chalcolithic (c. 4000 BCE), the lower city was settled for the first time.

Early Bronze Age: Canaanite settlements


In the Early Bronze Age, Tel Arad was occupied in the Early Bronze I–II and took part in the Beersheba Valley copper trade. In general Tel Arad lies in a drier region where frequencies of human activity depended upon oscillations toward wetter climate conditions.

The Early Bronze IB (c. 3300-3000 BCE) the city of Tel Arad Stratum III flourished. The Southern Levant during the EB IB was dominated by very humid climate conditions. In the northern part of the Southern Levant there were higher levels of arboreal Mediterranean tree pollen and olive pollen. This was a proto-urban period where settlements spread and population grew, also spreding human activity into the Negev region.

The Early Bronze II (c. 3050/3000-2750/2700 BCE) saw rich remains at Tel Arad Stratum II.

The Early Bronze III (c. 2750-2350 BCE) saw Arad abandoned. This may have been associated with the rise of central trading sites in the Negev Highlands related to the copper industry in the Arabah and trade towards Egypt in the Old Kingdom.

Iron Age
With the Collapse of the Late Bronze Age, the Fall of the Egyptian New Kingdom saw its control over polities in the Southern Levant decline.

Iron Age I
The site was only resettled by Israelites from the 11th century BCE onwards, initially as an unwalled area defined as an official or sacred domain was established on the upper hill, and then later as a garrison-town or citadel.

Iron Age II
In the 3rd season of excavation, over 100 ostraca (inscribed pottery shards) written in Hebrew, dated to the 7th century BC were found in stratum VI of the fort at Arad. Most of these consist of everyday military correspondence between the commanders of the fort and are addressed to Eliashib, thought to be the fort's quartermaster. One ostracon mentions "house of YHWH" which some scholars believe is a reference to the Jerusalem temple. With them was found a partial, hieratic ostracon, similarly dated. The supplies listed included south-Egyptian barley and animal fats (vs the wheat and olive oil in the Hebrew ostraca). Later an ostracon was found with text in both hieratic and Hebrew-Phoenician signary, both not a bilingual text.

Temple and Cannabis use


The temple at Arad was uncovered by archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni in 1962 who spent the rest of his life investigating it, dying there in the mid-1970s.

In the holy of holies of this temple two incense altars and two possible stele or massebot or standing stones were found. Unidentified dark material preserved on their upper surfaces was submitted for organic residue analysis and THC, CBD, and CBN (which derive from cannabis) were detected on the smaller altar. The large one had many chemicals associated with frankincense. While the use of frankincense for cultic purposes is well-known, the presence of cannabis was novel, if not shocking. It represents the "first known evidence of hallucinogenic substance found in the Kingdom of Judah." Cannabis has been found at another religious archaeological site, Deir Alla, as hemp fibre.

Hellenistic and Roman periods
It is believed that several citadels were built one upon the other and existed in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Herod even reconstructed the lower city for the purpose of making bread. The site lasted until the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt 135 CE.

Muslim conquest to Abbasid period
Tel Arad lay in ruins for 500 years until the Early Islamic period, when the former Roman citadel was rebuilt and remodeled by some prosperous clan in the area and functioned for 200 years until around 861, when there was a breakdown of central authority and a period of widespread rebellion and unrest. The citadel was destroyed and no more structures were built on the site.