Rehovot-in-the-Negev
Rehovot-in-the-Negev (English), from Rehovot ba-Negev (רחובות בנגב, modern Hebrew name), derived from Khirbet Ruheibeh (Arabic, 'Ruheibeh Ruins'), is an archaeological site in the Wadi er-Ruheibeh area of the central Negev in Israel, containing the remains of an ancient town. Apparently founded in the first century CE by the Nabateans, it was a thriving city by the fifth century during the Byzantine period, when it grew to more than 10,000 inhabitants, thanks to its being on the Arabian incense trade route.
By population, Rehovot-in-the-Negev was the second largest of the Byzantine-period "Negev towns".
The city was repeatedly hit by earthquakes, the major 7th-century seismic event which destroyed Avdat also leading to the abandonment of this city.
No biblical connection
Easton's Bible Dictionary, published in 1893-97, tentatively associated the well dug by Isaac in Gerar and called by him Rehoboth (see Genesis 26:22) with a site "in Wady er-Ruheibeh, some 20 miles south of Beersheba." Modern archaeology, however, dismisses the identification of Ruheibeh (Rehovot-in-the-Negev) with Isaac's Rehoboth, because the site contains no remains older than the Roman period.
See also
References
- ^ Negev, Avraham; Gibson, Shimon, eds. (2001). "Rehoboth". Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land. New York and London: Continuum. p. 433. ISBN 0826413161. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ Nagar, Yossi (January 1999). Anthropology of Rehovot-in-the-Negev Population as an Example of a Large Byzantine Settlement in the Negev (Ph.D. thesis). Tel Aviv University. Retrieved 12 May 2024 – via researchgate.net (unpublished abstract, English and Hebrew).
- ^ Korzhenkov, Andrey M.; Mazor, Emanuel (2014). "Archaeoseismical Damage Patterns at the Ancient Ruins at Rehovot-ba-Negev, Israel". Archäologischer Anzeiger (1). Ernst Wasmuth Verlag for the German Archaeological Institute: 75-92 (87). Retrieved 12 May 2024.
- ^ Easton's Bible Dictionary, entry for "Rehoboth".