Avdat
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Avdat or Ovdat, the remains of a Nabateans road station for their caravans, is located on a mountain in the center of the Negev Desert on the road from Petra and Eilat.
Avdat (in Greek: Oboda) was a seasonal camping ground for Nabataean caravans travelling along the early Petra - Gaza road (the Darb es-Sultan) in the 3rd - late 2nd c. BCE. The town of Avdat was founded at the site in the late 1st century BCE and named after the Nabatean King Obodas who was revered as a deity and, according to tradition, was buried there (hence the name in Arabic: Abdah). Before the end of the 1st c. BCE a temple platform (the acropolis) was created along the western edge of the plataeu. Recent excavations have shown that the town continued to be inhabited by the Nabataeans continiously from this period until its destruction by earthquake in the early seventh century CE.
Sometime towards the end of the 1st c. BCE the Nabataeans began using a new route between the site of Moyat Awad in the Arava Valley and Avdat by way of the Ramon Crater. Nabataean or Roman Nabataean sites have been found at excavated at Moyat Awad (mistakenly called Moa of the 6th c. CE Madeba Map), Qatzra, Har Masa, Mezad Nekarot, Sha'ar Ramon (Khan Saharonim), Mezad Ma'ale Mahmal and Grafon.
Avdat continued to prosper as a major station along the Petra - Gaza road after the Roman annexation of Nabataea in 106 CE. Avdat, like other towns in the Central Negev highlands, adjusted to the cessation of international trade through the region in the early to mid third c. CE by adopting agriculture, and particularly the production of wine, as its means of subsistence. Numerous terraced farms and water channels were built throughout the region in order to collect enough run-off from winter rains to support agriculture in the hyper arid zone of southern Israel. At least five wine presses dated to the Byzantine period have been found at the site.
In the late third or early fourth c. CE (probably during the reign of Diocletian) the Roman army constructed an army camp measuring 100 x 100 m. on the northern side of the plataeu. Elsewhere at the site, an inscription was found in the ruins of a tower describing the date (293/294 CE) and the fact that one of the builders hailed from Petra. Around this time a bath house was constructed on the plain below the site. The bath house was supplied with water by way of a well, tunneled 70 meters through bedrock. Sites along the Petra-Gaza road were apparently used by the Roman army in the 4th and 5th centuries when the road continued to function as an artery between Petra and the Nabataean Negev settlements. Pottery and coins from the late 3rd - early 5th century have been found at Mezad Ma'ale Mahmal, Shar Ramon and Har Masa and Roman milestones line part of the road between Avdat and Shar Ramon. A fort with four corner towers was constructed on the ruins of early Nabataean structures north of Avdat at Horvat Ma'agora. Milestones have been found on along the Petra Gaza road north at Avdat between Avdat and Horvat Ma'agora and further up the road towards Halutza (Elusa).
The early town was heavily damaged by a major (probably local) earthquake, sometime in the early fifth century CE. In the ruins of this destruction a Nabataean inscription, in black ink on plaster, was found bearing a blessing of the Nabataean god, Dushara. The inscription was written by the plasterer, one Ben-Gadya. This is the latest Nabataean inscription ever found in Israel.
A wall was built around the later town, including a large area of man-made caves, some of which were partially inhabited in the Byzantine period. Under Byzantine rule, in fifth and sixth century, a citadel and a monastery with two churches were built on the acropolis of Avdat. Saint Theodore's Church is the most interesting Byzantine relic in Avdat. Marble tombstones inserted in the floor are covered with Greek inscriptions. St. Theodore was a Greek martyr of the fourth century. The Monestery stands next to the church and nearby a lintel is carved with lions and it marks the entrance to the castle.
The town was totally destroyed by a local earthquake in the early seventh century CE and was never reinhabited.
Avdat place is also notable for being the filming location of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Avdat was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on June 2005.
Latitude: 30°47'36.75"N Longitude: 34°46'24.56"E
References
Ben David, H. (2005) ‘The Paved Roman Road from Petra to the Arava’, Cathedra 116: 31-48. (Hebrew)
Cohen, R.(1980) ‘The Excavations in ‘Avdat 1977’, Qadmoniot 49-50:44-46. (Hebrew).
(1982) ‘New Light on the Date of the Petra-Gaza Road’, Biblical Archaeologist 45:240-247.
Cohen, R. and A. Negev (1976) ‘Avdat’, Hadashot Arkheologiyot (Archaeological Newsletter)59-60:55-57. (Hebrew).
Erickson-Gini, T. (2002) ‘Nabataean or Roman? Reconsidering the Date of the Camp at Avdat in Light of Recent Excavations’, in Freeman, P.W.M., Bennett, J., Fiema, Z.T., and Hoffmann, B. (eds., 2002) Limes XVIII – Proceedings of the XVIIIth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies held in Amman, Jordan (September 2000) BAR Int. Ser. Vol. I. Oxford. : 113-130.
Fabian, P. (1996) ‘Evidence of Earthquake Destruction in the Archaeological Record – The Case of Ancient Avdat’, in Big Cities World Conference on Natural Disaster Mitigation in Conjunction with the Tenth International Seminar on Earthquake Prognostics, Abstracts, Jan. 5-10, 1996, Cairo, Egypt: 25.
Korjenkov, A.M., Fabian, P., and Becker, P. (1996) ‘Evidence for 4th and 7th Century AD Earthquakes, Avdat Ruins (Israel): Seismic and Historical Implications’, Annual Meeting of the Israel Geological Society, Eilat, March 18-21, 1996:.52.
Korjenkov, A.M. and Mazor, E. (1999a) ‘Seismogenic Origin of Ancient Avdat Ruins, Negev Desert, Israel’, Natural Hazards 18: 193-226.
Negev. A. (1961) ‘Nabatean Inscriptions from ‘Avdat (Oboda)’, Israel Exploration Journal 11: 127-138.
(1963a) ‘Nabatean Inscriptions from ‘Avdat’, Israel Exploration Journal 13: 113-124.
(1963b) ‘Chapters in the History of ‘Avdat’, Elath: 118-148. (Hebrew).
(1966) Cities of the Desert. Tel Aviv.
(1967) ‘Oboda, Mampsis and Provincia Arabia’, Israel Exploration Journal 17: 46-55.
(1969) ‘The Chronology of the Middle Nabatean Period’, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 101:5-14.
(1974a) The Nabataean Potter’s Workshop at Oboda. Bonn.
(1974b) ‘The Churches of the Central Negev: An Archaeological Survey’, Revue Biblique 81:400-422.
(1977) ‘The Excavations at ‘Avdat 1975-1976’, Qadmoniot 37: 27-29. (Hebrew).
(1978) ‘The Greek Inscriptions from Avdat (Oboda)’, Liber Annus 28: 87-126.
(1981) The Greek Inscriptions from the Negev. Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. Collection Minor N. 25, Jerusalem.
(1986) Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Pottery of Nabatean Oboda. Qedem 22. Jerusalem.
(1996) ‘Oboda: A Major Nabatean Caravan Halt’, ARAM 8:1 & 2: 67-87.
(1997) The Architecture of Oboda, Final Report. Qedem 36. Jerusalem.
