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High-rise settlements in Edom: definition, characteristics and possible functions Although Glueck wanted to see this biblical Shela in Umm al Biyara, the impressive sandstone promontory that towers over Petra, he could not help but recognize the regional dimension of the phenomenon: “they must have existed during the First Iron Age in eastern Palestine numerous settlements built on more or less isolated prominences known by the name 'Sela'” (Glueck 1939: 26). In fact, since the mid-1980s, several scholars have discovered and studied similar sites in both the Petra area and northern Edom. Not long ago, Chaim Ben David (2015) added a few more places to the expanding list, and photos of most of them can be found on the APAAME website . However, with the exception of Umm al-Biyara, few of these sites have been studied in depth or published in detail. In any case, different authors (Lindner and Knauf 1997; Bienkowski 2013; Ben David 2015) have noted a series of common characteristics between them that we will summarize here.
Table with Edomite mountain sites (Da Riva, from Bienkowski 2013 and Ben David 2015) Fig. 1. Table with Edomite mountain sites (Da Riva, from Bienkowski 2013 and Ben David 2015) First, the chronology . Most of these settlements were occupied for the first (in some cases only) time at the end of the Iron Age II (8th-6th centuries BC), a time of dense BTC Users Number Data settlement in the Edom region. As Lindner and Knauf (1997) already pointed out, the expansion of agriculture and pressure on fertile lands forced groups of pastoralists to move to more marginal areas. This process took place at the same time that Edom was politically configured as a kind of tribal confederation in the form of a kingdom based in Busayra. Was this a simple coincidence? Secondly, its location . Almost all of them are located in the highlands, at altitudes of 1200 to 1600 m above sea level, and all are built on steep promontories that are difficult to access. Thus, one of the main characteristics of these sites is the degree of protection they provide by virtue of their location in the mountains.
Were they selected precisely because of their impregnable situation? If so, why was so much protection necessary? Third, water management . Although they are not far from water sources (springs, 'wadis'), in most cases there is no water supply in the settlement itself, and rainwater had to be collected and stored using canals, tanks and cisterns especially made for this purpose. Many of these structures are still visible today, for example, more than 100 hydraulic structures have been documented at the Sela site, although their chronology is a matter of debate, as we will see below. The creation of these structures shows a significant investment of energy, resources and labor. Who controlled such works and how were they organized? Fourthly, the communal houses . A notable feature of these settlements is the presence of a series of buildings, called “long houses”, which would have served as communal storage areas to protect food and other goods obtained elsewhere and transported to these remote mountain strongholds. How was said transportation and storage carried out? Who organized it? Fifth, the land .
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發表於 2024-3-9 18:20:31