Chalcolithic: open settlement Stratum V: The site is divided into a lower section and an upper section on a hill. In the Late
Chalcolithic (c. 4000 BCE), the lower section was settled for the first time. It was an open settlement, i.e., lacking fortifications. 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 spreading human activity into the Negev region.
Early Bronze II "
Arad house" type, Tel Arad, c. 3,000–2,650 BCE.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem. In Early Bronze II (c. 3050/3000–2750/2700 BCE) Arad was a large fortified city, • Stratum III (EB IIA) was an urban town with city wall, palace, sacred precinct, public buildings, and reservoir. It was destroyed around 2800 BCE. • Stratum II (EB IIB) saw Tel Arad quickly rebuilt. The material culture was the same as Stratum III.
Early Bronze III 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. • Stratum I: a sparse settlement in the ruins of the city of Stratum II. Abandoned by around 2650 BCE.
Iron Age Herzog's 2002 interim report adopts the now better accepted "low chronology", lowering by a century most of the dates previously proposed for the Iron Age by adherents of the "
biblical archaeology" approach: this is also the base chosen here for this section. With the
Late Bronze Age collapse, the fall of the Egyptian
New Kingdom during the
20th Dynasty saw its control over polities in the Southern Levant decline. After a 1,500-years-long period of abandonement, the northeastern hill, the highest elevation on the margin of the destroyed Bronze Age city, was settled again during the 10th-9th centuries BCE (
Iron Age IIA). The village there made use of
broadroom Bronze Age house remains, while also building
new dwellings. • Strata XI-VI (Iron Age IIB-IIC, 9th-6th centuries BCE), during the
Kingdom of Judah): a fortress going through six (re)construction phases The enclosure only had one exit on the east, toward the depression in the earlier "Lower City" which again served for collecting water.
Iron Age II Judahite fortress; temple, ostraca, reservoir Tel Arad became a fortified stronghold of the
Kingdom of Judah. • Stratum XI: A Judahite casemate fortress is built (2nd half of 9th century BCE), the first in a series of six. • Stratum X: The fortress sees improvements with solid walls and a towering gate (mid-8th century BCE). 107 of them are in ancient Hebrew, written using the
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet and dated to circa 600 BCE (Stratum VI). Of the ostraca dated to later periods, the bulk are written in
Aramaic and a few in
Greek and
Arabic. Most of the Hebrew ostraca 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 a "
house of YHWH", which some scholars believe is a reference to the
Jerusalem temple. With them was found a partial ostracon inscribed in
hieratic Egyptian script, similarly dated. The supplies listed included south-Egyptian
barley and animal fats (vs the wheat and olive oil in the Hebrew ostraca). In 1967 an ostracon was found with text written in a combination of intermingled hieratic and
Hebrew-
Phoenician signary, without being a
bilingual text . ;Temple of temple, with two incense pillars and two stele, one dedicated to Yahweh, and one most likely to
Asherah The Tel Arad temple was uncovered by archaeologist
Yohanan Aharoni during the first excavation season in 1962. He spent the rest of his life investigating it, and died prematurely in 1976 before publishing the excavation results. 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 the upper surface of the two altars was submitted for
organic residue analysis, with several
cannabis derivates being detected on the smaller altar:
THC,
CBD, and
CBN. The residue on the large altar contained 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."
The Reservoir This 10-meter-deep reservoir was carved out of the rock beneath the temple courtyard. It has a volume of about 400 cubic meters. It is divided into two chambers, each of which has layers of plaster on its walls. The first chamber is vast and has a tiny room. The medium-sized second chamber has a plastered staircase that offers easy access for maintenance and water draws. The water was meant to be used by the fort's occupants both during peacetime and during a siege. and was employed in temple ceremonies as well. The reservoir was utilized during the eighth and ninth centuries.
Persian period Stratum V: The settlement belonging to the Persian period.
Hellenistic and Roman periods: citadels Stratum IV (Hellenistic): 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 Muslim 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. ==Excavations==