Tel Arad is an archaeological tel, or mound, located west of the Dead Sea, about west of the modern Israeli city of Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Plain. The site is divided into a lower city and an upper hill which holds the only ever discovered "House of Yahweh" in the land of Israel. Tel Arad was excavated during 18 seasons by Ruth Amiran and Yohanan Aharoni.
Excavations at the site have unearthed an extensive Bronze Age Canaanite settlement which was in place until approximately 2650 BCE. The site was then apparently deserted for over 1500 years.
The site was only resettled by Israelites from the 11th century BCE onwards, initially as an unwalled area defined as an official or sacred domain was established on the upper hill, and then later as a garrison-town or citadel. The citadel and sanctuary were constructed at the time associated in the biblical narrative with King David and Solomon. Artifacts found within the sanctuary of the citadel mostly reflect offerings of oil, wine, wheat, etc. brought there by numerous people throughout the reign of the kings of Judah until the kingdom's fall to the Babylonians. However, during the Persian, Maccabean, Roman, and Early Muslim periods, locals continued to bring these items to the sacred precinct of the upper hill. Markers of these ancient Israelite rituals remain to this day, with broken pottery littering the entire site. Under the Judaean kings, the citadel was periodically refortified, remodelled and rebuilt, until being ultimately destroyed between 597-577 BCE, whilst Jerusalem was under siege by Babylonian kingNebuchadnezzar II.
Among the most significant artifacts unearthed at Tel Arad are 91 ostraca, known as the Arad ostraca, written in Palaeo-Hebrew script, referring to the citadel as the House of Yahweh. They are mostly orders to the quartermaster, commands and lists of names. The Eliyashiv Ostraca, all found in the same room, are addressed to a person named Eliyashiv, ordering him to deliver a specific quantity of wine, flour, etc.
Hellenistic and Roman periods
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 Romans destroyed Jerusalem and completely expelled the Jews in 135 AD.
Tel Arad lay in ruins for 500 years until the Early Islamic 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 AD, 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.
Sanctuary at Arad
The temple at Arad was uncovered by archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni in 1962 who spent the rest of his life considering its mysteries, dying there in the mid-1970s. In the holy of holies of this temple two incense altars and a standing stone were found, probably having been dedicated to Yahweh. Unidentified dark material preserved on their upper surfaces was submitted for organic residue analysis and traces of cannabinoids, boswellic acid and norursatriene were detected. An inscription was found on the site by Aharoni mentioning a "House of Yahweh", which William G. Dever suggests may have referred to the temple at Arad or the temple at Jerusalem. The lower settlement and the upper Israelite citadel are now part of the Tel Arad National Park which have begun projects to restore the walls of the upper and lower sites.
