Tel es Seba' in the northern Negev is believed to be the site of the biblical
city of the Beersheba
was a market town in the military and administrative center
the remains we'll be focusing on are the iron-age ones from the Israelite period
we'll start around the gate and the square and administrative buildings that stand
behind it
this outer gate was built in the tenth century, stratum five
unlike the main gate it was not rebuilt after the city was destroyed probably
when Pharaoh Sishak led a punitive expedition against Israel
the walls of the gate are of mud brick on and uncut stone base
just outside the gate the remains of a well over twenty eight meters deep were found
it was also used as a cistern to store runoff from the city
it takes at least the period of the judges but despite the stories of Isaac and the
well at Beersheba in Genesis twenty-six
there's no evidence of this well can be dated back to the period of the patriarchs
between this gate and the main gate was a small open space
the gates will offset from each other to make attack difficult
main drain for the city runs down the middle of the roadway
to the well outside
the main gate was constructed with six piers giving four rooms, two on each side
later Israelite gates have six chambers
notice the cobblestones paving the entire gate complex
because this gate is constructed to a different pattern from those in other
Israelite cities from this period Aharoni dated this one to the time of
David
and the six chamber gates elsewhere to the time of Solomon
inside the gate there's a large square
with barracks, storage, and the governor's house surrounding it
the fact that there are store houses in two different places around the square
suggests that
one had military and the other a civil use
moving over to the left of the square will look at the military storehouse and
the governor's house
and then we'll follow the road round to look more typical Israelite homes
long narrow construction of this building is typical of store houses
this one's assumed it had a military function because it was close to the barracks
and to the governor's house
at the corner where the square and the road join
this oddly-shaped large room in the governor's house was a kitchen
it's size suggests the relative wealth of the governor
at this corner of the square becomes a street following the line of the city wall
with one row of homes between it and the wall
we'll follow the street ground and look at some typical houses
many of the homes in Beersheba are what's called three-roomed houses
here the typical planet of a three-roomed house has been extended into the casemate wall
of the city
a casemate his two walls joined by buttresses with a gap between the walls
here the gap has been used to make extra rooms for the home
these houses also had open alleys running beside them allowing access to the wall
area labeled one is the room which opened to the street
had stairs to the roof and contained an oven, it was likely a kitchen
rooms 2 and 3 were separated by columns
were used for storage and animals
the rooms labeled four of the rooms in the casemate
and they were likely used by the family
this view of such a home taken from above
says the casemate construction of the city wall very clearly
the other typical home in ancient Israel was called a four-roomed house
this example is not from Beersheba but it gives a good plan of what they were like
notice the two rows of pillars
typical of the four-roomed house
during excavations a number of stones were found with an obviously different
origin from the rest
three of these have an odd shape
when fitted together they formed an altar
Amos 5:5 reminds us how Beersheba was a cultic center
before the reforms of Hezekiah
it seems that at Beersheba unlike at Arad
rather than covering the altar
it was dismantled and the blocks used in other buildings
so it seems at Tel es Seba', Beersheba
tells the story of Israel and Judah
from the patriarchs through the monarchy
to the time of the reforms of Hezekiah or Josiah