Monks and Monasteries in the Negev Desert

Transcription

MONKS AND MONASTERIES IN THE NEGEV DESERT
P. Figueras
This study is a developed version of a paper read at the XVIII International
Congress of Byzantine Studies, celebrated in Moscow on August 1991.1 Its
main purpose is to fill a certain gap existing among scholars, historians and
archaeologists, concerning the monastic history of the Roman province of
Third Palestine, extending from the plain of Beersheva southwards, and
including the Negev desert, most of the Sinai peninsula and the southern
region of Transjordan.
Indeed, those scholars who, led by an abundant monastic literature, have
engaged in a serious research of the archaeological remains of the ancient
Palestinian monks, such as Chariton, Eutymius and Sabas, have not crossed
the limits of the Judean Desert (Vailhé 1889/90; Festugière 1962/63; Hirschfeld 1991 and 1993; Patrich 1993).2 Others, having tracked the Gaza region
in the steps of Hilarion at Thauatha, Sylvanus at Gerar and Seridos near
Maiumas of Gaza, have come back rather frustrated (Chitty 1966b).
On the other hand, a general updated history of the ancient Church of
Palestine is still to be written, though very good tools are today available
to anybody wishing to engage in such a scholarly adventure.3 The chapter
dealing with the southern region, that is, the Negev desert, is consequently
non-existent,4 and nobody has ever tried to follow the traces of a monastic
presence there. It seems as if monks and monastic founders never had the
1. This study has partly been written in collaboration with Mr. Ofer Katz, a former student
of mine at Ben Gurion University, today member of the Israel Antiquities Authority. I wish
to express him my deepest appreciation.
2. For studies made on Palestinian monasticism see the bibliographic references at the end
of the present article.
3. See Bagatti 1972; Id. 1971, The Church from the Circumcision, Jerusalem; Meimaris
1986; Y. Geiger, “Hitpashtut hannatzrut be Eretz Israel mereshitah ad iemei Iulianos” [Expansion of Christianity in Palestine from its Beginning to Julian’s period], in Y. Tsafrir,
ed., 1982, Eretz Israel from the Destruction of the Temple to the Muslim Conquest, Jerusalem, pp. 218-233 (Hebrew); Z. Rubin, “Hitpashtut hannatzrut be Eretz Israel miemei
Iulianos ad tequfat Iustinianos [Expansion of Christianity in Palestine, from Julian to Justinian],” ibid, pp. 234-251 (Hebrew).
4. More than one researcher, however, has recently made valuable efforts in this direction,
not only from the point of view of archaeology and urbanism (Shereshevski 1991), but also
from the point of view of history and sociology (Rubin 1990).
LA 45 (1995) 401-450; Pls. 53-58
402
P. FIGUERAS
Fig. 1 General map of
the monastic sites in the
Negev.
opportunity to cross that extensive desert, although they were well established around it, in the Gaza region, in the Judean Desert and in the Sinai
complex.5 The province of Third Palestine enjoyed Church organisation as
much as any other province in the Roman Empire, and flourishing cities
such as Petra, its capital, Elusa (Óalutza), Zoar, Phaino (Punon) and Aila
possessed their Episcopal Sees. The presence of monks there is therefore
to be expected almost as a matter of fact. If this, therefore, can be illus5. This statement is based on the well-known text of Jerome in his Vita Hilarionis (see be-
low, Elusa). The building of the first Christian churches in the towns existing in the Negev
in that period could be assigned, in the first place, to the official provision of Christian
worship places for the units of the Roman army stationed there since the annexation of the
Nabatean territories to the Empire in A.D. 106. There is no agreement among scholars about
the number, the location and the exact function of those units, that were stationed more in
the towns than in the desert areas (B. Isaac, 1990, The Limits of Empire, Oxford, pp. 132134; but see P. Figueras, 1992, “The Worship of Athena-Allat in the Decapolis and the
Negev,” Aram 4, pp. 173-183 [178-179]).
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trated by some literary or archaeological evidence, then we must logically
think that some kind of relations, and not only purely spiritual ones, existed between those four monastic regional groups, namely the Judean
Desert, the Gaza region, the Sinai mountain and the Negev desert.
It is true that no ancient Church historian left us a particular page with
dramatic events having occurred in southern Palestine, but there is enough
material today, both written and archaeological, to allow us to form a realistic picture of the Negev monasticism. We must admit not only that there
were monks in the Negev since the very beginning of its Christianization,
but we can also start recording on the map the spots where some of the
coenobia, laurae, and urban monasteries were situated. We have references
to abbots, monks and hermits both in the pilgrim records and in local epigraphy. Some of their names are still written on their tombs, we can visit
the remains of coenobitic monasteries and of churches served by monks,
and some hermits’ caves and cells are easily accessible.
Actually, there is also written evidence of relations having existed between monastic centers in the Negev and others outside it. We also know
of some monastic activities such as writing and agriculture. Finally, we can
read the names of monks who, representing monastic regional complexes
in the Negev, placed their signatures on the protocols of the Ecumenical
Synod of Constantinople in 536. This fact alone attests not only to the high
degree of internal organization, but also to the relevance assigned by the
Church authorities to that institution.
In comparison with the importance of their neighbors in the Judean
Desert, the monks from the Negev may have played a very humble role in
the general history of the Church of Palestine. But the picture that we can
trace of their presence and their importance in the general development of
the region during the Byzantine period is not negligible at all. In the following pages we shall proceed to obtain the main lines of that picture
through a rather systematic and analytic review of the data collected from
both groups of existing sources, namely literary and archaeological. This
will be done following a geographic scheme, arbitrarily set in alphabetic
order and illustrated with photographs, plans and drawings. It will therefore be much more than a “monastic gazetteer of the Negev,” our purpose
being to offer a working tool. I am well aware of the fact that, in many a
case, my interpretation of a given datum and some of my guesses will be
received with doubt and caution by scholars. But I am no less certain that
such criticism will lead to a fruitful discussion and to further research.
The sources used for the building-up of the gazetteer according to wellestablished criteria, can be listed in the following way:
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P. FIGUERAS
A. Literary sources:
1. Acts of Church councils or synods6
2. Patristic writings, including monastic literature7
3. Pilgrims’ records8
4. Local epigraphy9
5. The Nessana papyri10
B. Archaeological sources:
1. Caves carved on the walls of a wadi, with Christian symbols11
2. Building complexes including most of the typical elements of a
coenobitic monastery and situated far away from any settlement12
3. Great urban basilicas having a complex of rooms around their
atrium or attached to other parts of the building13
4. A complex of caves and rooms around a central chapel, in a spot
remote from any other settlement14
6. Signatures of monks from the Third Palestine and from other parts of the country are
found in the Acts of the Ecumenical council gathered by Justinian in Constantinople in 536
(Schwartz 1940, 248; see below, Aila). This is a major witness, not only to the existence of
monks and monasteries in the Negev, but especially to their importance as a well-organized
body of the Church of Palestine in the sixth century.
7. Their list includes the names of Jerome (Vita Hilarionis, 25, PL 23), John Moschus (Spiritual Prairie, PG 87/3, 2032: “Abba Victor, hesychastes in the laura of Elusa”), Cyril of
Scythopolis (Life of Theognios, trad. Festugière 1963, p. 66: “Abba Paulos, the hesychastes
of the city of Elusa”), and the same Paul of Elusa (Life of Theognios, ed. Vailhé, AB 10, 73118).
8. Like today, the number of Christian visitors to the Negev was very restricted in comparison with other parts of the country, as no biblical “Holy Places” are there to be venerated.
However, many pilgrims crossed this region on their way to Mount Sinai, as the anonymous Piacenza Pilgrim, who refers to monks and monasteries in the regions of Elusa, Mizpe
Shivta (see below, s.v.) and Zoar, south of the Dead Sea. For a general discussion on the
issue of Byzantine pilgrims in the Negev, see Figueras 1995 (in press).
9. To the collected inscriptions from the region published by Alt (1921), we can add a list
of new publications about inscriptions from 1. Nessana (G.E. Kirk and C.B. Welles, in Colt
1962, 131-197; P. Figueras, “The Inscriptions,” in D. Urman, New Excavations in Nessana,
vol. I [in press]). 2. Oboda, Sobata, Mampsis and Elusa (Negev 1981). 3. Beersheva and its
region (Figueras 1985; id. 1986; Ustinova - Figueras 1995). 4. Ru˙eibeh (Tsafrir 1988). 5.
Beersheva, Elusa, Oboda, Sobata, and other places (Figueras 1995a, in press).
10. Discovered in the course of the expeditions conducted by H. D. Colt in 1935-37 (Colt
1962), and studied and published by Kraemer (1958).
11. See below, ‘Ein ‘Avdat, Wadi Mu’eille˙ and Mampsis.
12. See below, Tel Masos, Tel ‘Ira.
13. See below, Sobata, Oboda, Ru˙eibeh, Nessana.
14. See below, Mitzpe Shivta.
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It will be noticed that the list of monastic sites in the region of our concern does not pretend to be exhaustive. Some of them, like a ruin next to
Tel Sheva, have never been reported as such, though they are commonly
accepted as having been monasteries. I have preferred to list only those that
are available by some literary support.
Aila (near present ‘Aqaba, map ref. 145.884)
Formal excavations have only recently been started in ancient Aila, the
prosperous harbor-city of Nabateans, Romans and Byzantines on the Red
Sea. It is partly identified with the present ruins of Um-Rashrash, on the
northernmost point of the Gulf of Eilat or ‘Aqaba, near the Jordanian city
of the same name (Avi-Yonah 1977, s.v.). Nelson Glueck’s expedition to
the ruins of biblical Etzion-Geber also made sporadic finds from the Byzantine period near the beach. One of them was two sculptured capitals,
obviously belonging to one of the local churches. One shows a Roman soldier holding a sphere with a cross on it, identified with St. Theodore by an
accompanying inscription (Glueck 1939). The other represents another soldier saint in full armor, identified as St. Longinus by an inscription in
Greek (ibid.; Taylor 1987, fig. 3).
Another Christian inscription from the area, the tomb-stone of a certain
Osedos dated to A.D. 555, was published by Schwabe (1953, 51-55). From
the nearby area, Kh. el-Khalde at Wadi el-Yitm, some 25 km to the northeast of Aila, a third Christian inscription was discovered by Glueck (ibid.),
witness to the presence of an ancient Christian settlement in that area.
At Horvat Bodeda (map ref. 140.890), situated 7 north-west of present
Eilat, the remains of a Byzantine complex were found, including a four-room
building and a Christian chapel decorated with wall paintings and inscriptions,
which, as far as I know, have not yet been published. Given the lonely environment of those ruins, one can logically think of the presence of a little monastery in that spot. This, however, is only a suggestion, because it is clear that
in ancient times the place had been exploited as quarry.
According to Woolley and Lawrence (1914/15, 145), Um-Rashrash was
also called Ed-Deir, Arabic for “The Monastery.” Actually, no remains of any
big building have so far been indicated by visitors to the spot. If there is any
historic reason for that term, we can imagine the remains of a rather small
group of monastic cells having later disappeared under the building of the
Turkish police station. Burkhardt (1822, 511-512) also pointed out a place
called Ed-Deir near ‘Aqaba, a small island, which cannot be other than the
406
P. FIGUERAS
present Coral Island, wrongly taken by some as ancient Yotabe.15 The only
ruins to be seen today on that island are those of a medieval Arab castle, recently excavated and partly restored by the Egyptian authorities.
The most valuable source of information for our knowledge of a monastic presence in Aila comes from the acts of the Constantinopolitan
Council gathered by Justinian in A.D. 536 against Anthimus. There, among
the names of the clergy signing the council’s decisions, we find a certain
“John, by God’s mercy priest and monk,” who signs “in the name of all
the monks of Aila in the Third Palestine” (Schwartz 1940, 248).16 This reference is an important evidence to the fact that, not only were there monks
in the region, but also that they were of orthodox denomination and sufficiently organised as to send a representative to the council. It is true that
the monasteries of other cities of the Third Palestine sent delegates to the
council too,17 but this only confirms, without diminishing it, the importance
of Aila as a monastic center.
A much later source, the so-called Notitia Graeca Episcopatuum, adds
an interesting note referring to the bishopric of Aila, saying: “It has under
it the monastery of Great Arsenius” (Palmer 1872, 554, 22). We do not
know today where that monastery was situated, but it could only be within
the jurisdictional radius of Aila’s bishopric, certainly not far from that
city.18 There is a possibility that it was situated around Mount Sinai. Indeed,
we know from John Moschus that a “laura of the Ailanites” (tön Ailiotön)
had been founded there in the sixth century by a certain “abbot Antony,”
and where “abbot Stephen” was the priest (John Moschus, Spiritual Prairie, PG 87, ch. 62-66, 134).
15. Today its is currently assumed that Yotabe or Jotabe should be looked for at today’s
Straights of Tiran, near the southern entrance to the Gulf of ‘Aqaba or Eilat.
16. This important reference to the existence of monks and monasteries in Aila and surroundings during the Byzantine period has been strangely ignored by all historians and archaeologists concerned by Palestinian monasticism.
17. Thus we not only have twice the signature of “Elias, by God’s mercy deacon and monk,
and in the name of the monks of Augustopolis of the Third Palestine” (Schwartz 1940, 51.
93), but also the mention of “all archimandrites and monks in the third Palestine” (ibid., 37,
40; 51, 29) and “the monks of the monasteries of the three Palestines” (ibid., 25, 33 [35]).
18. It would be wrong to look for historical links between this “great Arsenius” and the
well-known Abbot Arsenius referred to in the Apophtegmata Patrum (PG 65, 71-442), a
well-instructed noble man who embraced monastic life in the Egyptian desert in the fourth
century, of whom many edifying anecdotes are told. In Sobata, one of the Negev towns,
and thus nearer to Aila but still too far, the tomb of a “triceblessed Arsenius, monk and
priest” was discovered on the floor of the baptistry chapel in the north church (see below,
Sobata).
407
Relations between the monks of Mt. Sinai and the people of Aila are
also known from other sources. There is not only the fact that Stephen, the
builder of the Sinai basilica about the mid-sixth century, was from Aila,
according to the inscription on one of the roof beams (Sevøenko 1966, 257.
262). But a century later, Anastasius, a monk from Sinai, reports on the
visit paid by bishop Sergius of Aila to Abbot Orentius of Sinai at his deathbed (Nau 1902, 71). The same source also tells the story of a famous monk
from Sinai who summoned one of his spiritual brothers from Aila before
his death (ibid., 67).
Birosaba (Beersheva, map ref. 130.072)
This city, possibly to be identified with biblical Beersheva despite other
more generalised views, is known from different sources, literary as well
as epigraphic and archaeological, to have existed on the same place in the
Byzantine period. To the first group belongs: 1) Eusebius’ Onomasticum19
in the fourth century, 2) the records of pseudo-bishop Eucherius20 in the
fifth, and 3) the geographic mosaic pavement from Madaba21 in the sixth.
Archaeological evidence includes the imposing remains of churches, whose
existence has been recorded since the Middle Ages.22
Byzantine ruins on the spot were later acknowledged by a number of
western scholars, such as Robinson (1838), Seetzen (1855), Abel (1903b),
Musil (1907), Woolley and Lawrence (1914/15).23 When the present town
of Beersheva was planned by the Ottoman government and the building activity started at the turn of the century, only a small number of fortuitous
19. This source refers to the town as kome megiste, “a very big village,” in which “a fortress (phrourion) of soldiers” (Jerome: “praesidium militum Romanorum”) is situated
(Klostermann 1904, 50f).
20. Pseudo-Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, who writes some fifty years after Jerome and uses
his Latin translation of the Onomasticum, calls Berosaba vicus maximus, i.e. “a very big
village, situated twenty miles south of Hebron” (Wilkinson 1977, 54).
21. Avi-Yonah 1954, n. 98.
22. Thus Sir John de Maundeville, A.D. 1322-1365 (ed. T. Wright, 1968, Early Travels in
Palestine, New York, p. 160), and L. de Sudheim, A.D. 1338, De itinere Terre Sancte (ed.
G. C. Neumann, 1884, Archives de l’Orient Chrétien, Paris, p. 348).
23. Pieces of major historical interest among these occasional finds were the fragmentary
inscriptions today known as “Imperial Decree of Beersheva” (Alt 1921, 4-25), dealing with
the regulation of civil payments to the Roman army. Other inscriptions have more recently
been discovered and only partially published (see above, footnote 9).
408
P. FIGUERAS
discoveries of church ruins, mosaic pavements, Greek inscriptions, farm installations and necropolises could be rescued for study and publication
(Figueras 1982).24
An informal sketch of the ruins of ancient Birosaba was drawn in 1903 by
Fr. Abel, O.P., during one of his visits to the spot when the building of the new
town had just started (Fig. 2). That sketch indicates a place near the wadi running to the south of the present old city with the name Ed-Deir, “The Monastery.” We cannot know, of course, if those were really the ruins of a monastery.
But their location, somewhat away from the town and near the wells along the
wady that would ensure enough water for a monastic community, confers
some plausibility to the popular identification of those ruins by later generations of local Arabs. More important may be the fragmentary inscription on a
tomb-stone found in the present city, including, with no clear context, the term
“monastery” (Figueras 1985, 20, no. 12; 1994, no. 18c).
As far as formal excavations are concerned, Byzantine Beersheva has not
been the object of a comprehensive project, but the sporadic digs conducted
there by modern Israeli archaeologists so far, have brought to light important
remains, including also the ruins of two possible monasteries. One is the room
complex around the atrium of a rather large basilica (24×15 m) discovered
Fig. 2
Birosaba, Byzantine ruins (Abel 1903a).
24. Some of the most important remains from the Byzantine period, such as a monolith
cruciform Baptism font and a chancel column inscribed with Hebrew characters, were first
published by Woolley and Lawrence (1914-15), but later they were unfortunately lost, probably as a consequence of the First World War.
409
in 1948 and excavated in 1967 by Y. Israeli (1967), and which has now totally disappeared. It was situated at the present crossing of the Eli Cohen street
and Presidents’ Avenue, north-east of the old city.
In the course of 1991, a residential complex from the Byzantine period
was discovered and partially excavated in the south of the present city, on
the southern bank of Nahal or Wadi Beersheva. The doubtless Christian
character of the rather sumptuous building allows us to think that it could
have been, at least for a time, the premises of a monastic community. So
far, no official report of this discovery has seen light, but a Greek epitaph
found there in secondary use is presently being published (Ustinova Figueras 1995). New excavations in Beersheva are taking place these very
days to the east of the Municipal Market, conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority under the direction of Mr. Peter Fabian, and the foundations
of a huge cruciform church have been exposed.25
As written evidence of a monastic presence in Birosaba, we may adduce the correspondence of Barsanuphius, one of two famous recluse
monks in Seridos’ monastery, between Gaza and Maiumas, in the sixth century. In no less than six of his two thousand preserved letters “the great old
man” Barsanuphius addressed a certain “Abbot John of Birosaba” who was
living in the same monastery (Chitty 1966a). The fact that this monk is
called by the honorary title of aba, “Father,” or “abbot”, generally, though
not exclusively, used in that period, as today, to address the Superior of a
monastery, possibly indicates that John had been the Superior of a monastery in his native town of Beersheva before joining the monastery of
Seridos. From his letters to Barsanuphius it becomes evident that he was
an expert in building, or at least had been appointed supervisor of the building activity in the monastery. We also learn from the letters that he had an
impatient character, that was compensated, however, by the humility with
which he approached his spiritual father asking for counsel.
Elusa (El Khalassa, Óalutza, map ref. 117.056)
The ruins of the ancient city of Elusa, which is indicated in the Peutinger map
on the Jerusalem-Aila road, and in the Madaba Map as a big town, apparently
fortified with city walls and towers (Avi-Yonah 1944, no. 103, pl. 6), are situ-
25. See a short report of the dig, with a picture of the mosaic found, in Yedi‘ot A˙aronot 31
July 1994, p. 10.
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Fig. 3
P. FIGUERAS
Elusa, plan of ruins (Negev 1988, 115).
ated some 20 km south of present Beersheva, in a desert zone, near the socalled “Óalutza sands”. The spot was visited by several travelers in the last
century, and was identified with ancient Elusa as early as 1835 by Robinson
(1841). The visit to the spot by the Dominican Fathers of the École Biblique
in Jerusalem yielded several Greek inscriptions from the Byzantine period and
earlier (Jaussen - Savignac - Vincent 1904).
Archaeological evidence of the presence of monks or monasteries in ancient Elusa has not appeared so far, neither from the short dig conducted on
that spot in 1938 by H.D. Colt, nor from the excavations undertaken there
by A. Negev in 1973, 1979 and 1980, which exposed only the Nabatean
theater and part of the cathedral church (Fig. 3) (Negev 1993). The evidence,
however, comes from the Church literature. In the sixth century A.D., John
Moschos mentions in his famous book Spiritual Prairie a certain Victor,
whom he calls “hesychastes - i.e. hermit - in the laura of Elusa” (PG 87/3,
2032). Another source, an extensive biography of St. Theognios, bishop of
Bitylium in Northern Sinai (Vailhé 1891) has as its author “Abbot Paul of
Elusa”, who had succeeded Theognios as superior of his monastery near Je-
411
rusalem. Paul must have deserved such name after a long stay in one of the
monasteries of the most important city, actually the only real city, of the
Byzantine Negev, and See of the only bishop of the central Negev (Figueras
1981, 153; on Elusa see also Mayerson 1983).
A third and more explicit source from the same period are the records of
the so-called Piacenza Pilgrim, who visited the place about 570 A.D. The
bishop of the city told him about a young lady called Mary, whose husband
had died on the very night of the wedding. “She bore it with courage, and
within a week she had set all his slaves free, and given away all his property
to the poor and to monasteries.” She then disappeared from the city, and was
seen living as a wandering hermit “in the desert across the Jordan,” in the Dead
Sea region (Wilkinson 1977, 85). The same pilgrim tells us how he and his
companions “discovered a monastery of women in those parts, more than
sixteen or seventeen of them who were in a desert place, and given food by
the Christians.” They had a donkey at their service, “and they used to give
food to a lion, tame from the time it was a cub” (ibid., 87).
These are for the moment the scarce data that can be collected from
the sources. There is no doubt that, if a proper excavations program is once
enterprised in the ruins of ancient Elusa, a better picture will be reached of
the monastic presence in and around the most important of the cities of the
central Negev.
‘Ein ‘Avdat (map ref. 128.025) (Phot. 1)
This is one of the very few remains of a Byzantine hermitage in the Negev
desert, in contrast with the numerous laurae that are found in narrow canyons or wadis of the Judean desert. Here we have a small group of four
caves, partly excavated artificially in the soft limestone rock of the northern wall of Nahal Tzin, near the source of ‘Ein ‘Avdat, 60 m above the bed
of the wadi and 40 m under the the top of the precipice. Access to the caves
is by narrow steps carved into the rock, apparently by the ancient monks
(Phot. 2). These four caves were examined during the survey conducted on
the spot by Z. Meshel and Y. Tsafrir on behalf of the Israel Department of
Antiquities in the seventies (Meshel - Tsafrir s.a.).
Cave No. 1 (Fig. 4): This is a natural cave that was adapted as living
premises. It has two rooms, measuring 4.5×4.8 m and 1.6×1.5 m respectively.
Both the location and the shape of the cave are typical of the Byzantine hermitages in Palestine. A cross was carved in the rock, above the niche on the
wall that was probably used as a cupboard, near the main entrance to the cave.
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Fig. 4
P. FIGUERAS
‘Ein ‘Avdat, cave no. 1 (Meshel-Tsafrir, Fig. 2).
Cave No. 2 (Fig. 5): This cave has only one big room, measuring
5.30×5.60 m. Outside the entrance to the cave, a low bench was carved
along the rock wall (Phot. 3), forming a sort of balcony overlooking
the impressive view (Phot. 4). A short Greek inscription was found
painted in red on the wall inside the cave, an invocation to Saint
Theodore (Fig. 5). The fact that the south church of Oboda or ‘Avdat,
some 5 km south of these caves, was dedicated to that same saint, seems
to link the small community of hermits living near ‘Ein ‘Avdat to the
central monastery, a coenobium, in Oboda (see below, s.v.). Tsafrir raises
the slight possibility that the man named Zacharia who wrote the inscription in the cave could be the young man of the same name who
was buried in the floor of the church of Saint Theodore (Negev 1981,
29, no. 16; Meshel-Tsafrir, 11).
Cave No. 3 (Fig. 6): This is a one-room cave situated 7 m above Cave
no. 2. Excavated in the flat face of the rock, it measures 2.25×6.15 m. At
the time of its use, access to the cave was made possible through a series
413
of small steps dug out of the rock. However, it is possible that the excavation of this cave was never completed.
Cave No. 4 (Fig. 7): It is situated 20 m north of Cave no. 2, and it measures 3.50×1.70 m at its maximum. Its height reaches 1.75 m. Two flat surfaces inside the cave had been purposely cut into the rock to serve as
storage devices. The excavators suggest that this cave was also used as
kitchen (ibid. p. 17).
Fig. 5 ‘Ein ‘Avdat, cave no. 2 (Meshel-Tsafrir, Fig. 3). Inscription in cave. no.
2 (Meshel-Tsafrir, 11, ill. 6).
414
Fig. 6 ‘Ein ‘Avdat, cave. no. 3
(Meshel-Tsafrir, Fig. 4).
P. FIGUERAS
Fig. 7 ‘Ein ‘Avdat, cave. no. 4
(Meshel-Tsafrir, Fig. 5).
Óorvat Óur (also Khir bet Óor a or Óaur a, map ref. 143.077)
These ruins, situated about 100 m south-east of the present cross-roads of
the Hebron-Beersheva and Arad-Tel Aviv roads, were noticed by the German traveler Seetzen in 1805, the British surveyors Conder and Kitchener
(1883, 396-397) and again visited by Woolley and Lawrence (1914/15).
The latter pointed out that no traces of a church were visible on the spot.
However, evidence of two groups of Byzantine buildings has been reported
in the recent archaeological survey conducted on the spot by Y. Govrin (HA
1984, 76; Govrin 1992, 44*-45*.55-60). The first group includes a large
basilica, with an atrium on its west and some rooms around it (21×51 m)
(Fig. 8). The second one, situated near the northern walls of the first, is a
complex of rooms and courtsyards built of large flint stones (Fig. 9). According to its publisher, this second complex could represent a monastery
(Govrin 1992, 58, 2).
Fig. 8-9
58, 3).
415
Óorvat Óur, plans of monastery and church complexes (Govrin 1991,
416
Óorvat Kuseife
P. FIGUERAS
(map ref. 155.073)
These important ruins, situated on the road to Arad, represent a big settlement
from the Byzantine period. As early as in 1901, a church was reported there
by Musil (1908, 18). Mader, who visited the spot in 1911/14, reported the
presence of two other churches, to the south of the first one (Mader 1918, 225).
It was A. Ovadiah who suggested that the northern church (Fig. 10) was served
by a monastic community (Ovadiah 1970, 121), although this cannot be
proved until real excavations are conducted on the spot. Should this be the
case, it would be another example of monastic churches situated in or very
near to towns, as in Ru˙eibeh, Sobata and Oboda (below, s.v.).
So far there is no way to identify Óorvat Kuseife with one of the towns
mentioned in the few literary sources referring to the Negev, though some
scholars would like to identify it with the civil settlement of Malatha (Oppidum Malathis) (Avi-Yonah 1977, 78, s.v. Malatha), which is still a matter of controversy.26
Fig. 10 Óorvat Kuseife, plan
of church complex (Ovadiah
1970, Pl. 51).
26. No archaeological proof can be adduced for the normally accepted identification of ancient Malatha with the site today called Tel Mal˙ata or Tel el-Mil˙ (map ref. 152.069), 18
km west of present Arad. On the other hand, a fragmentary inscription found in Óorvat
Karkur ‘Elit (186 - 082), 7 km north of Beersheva, mentions a certain “Salamanos, priest of
Malath[a]” (Figueras 1985, 39 [no. 31] and 42 [no. 34]).
Fig. 11
417
Óorvat So’ah, plan of church complex (Govrin 1991, 98, 1).
Óorvat So’a (Khirbet Sa’wa) (map ref. 148.075) (Fig. 11)
An architectural complex, including a large Byzantine church (19×40 m),
is situated on the southern side of a hilltop covered with the ruins of ancient settlement. The rectangular structure (25×38 m) adjoining the church
from the south apparently served as living-quarters. This site, already reported by the British survey more than a century ago (Conder - Kitchener
1883, 409-410), has been recently surveyed again by Y. Govrin on behalf
of the Israel Antiquities Authority (Govrin 1992, *67.97-99), who also published its schematic plan. In his opinion, that I fully share, this complex
was probably a monastery. Indeed, its situation on the edge of the village,
the number of spacious rooms adjoining the church from the south, and a
defense tower (8×8 m) from the north, are elements that we find in better
documented monasteries, from the Negev as well as from other regions.
418
P. FIGUERAS
Mampsis (Kurnub, Mamshit) (map ref. 156.048) (Fig. 12)
The ruins traditionally called Kurnub by the local Arabs were identified
with the ancient town called Mampsis in Eusebius’ Onomasticum (8:8) in
the fourth century and numerous sixth century sources such as the Madaba
Map (Avi-Yonah 1944, 96), the Nessana Papyri (Kraemer 1958, 124) and
others (Shereshevski 1991, 21-22). In the second century C.E., the geographer Ptolemy (V, 15, 7) recorded that town as Maps. The ruins are situated
5 south-east of today’s Dimona, on the eastern side of the Northern Negev.
Although visited and surveyed by several scholars, large scale excavations
were not conducted in the site till 1965 by A. Negev. Together with other
parts of the town, such as the city-walls and two big residential buildings,
he also excavated the two Byzantine churches, which are probably the oldest ones in the Negev (Negev 1974, 400-404; 1988, 64-82).
Fig. 12 Mampsis (Kurnub, Mamshit), plan of ruins (Negev, New Encyclopedia
of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Mamshit).
419
The eastern church (Fig. 13). This beautiful building, which also includes
a baptistry chapel annexed to its southern wall, has a complex of several rooms
on its western side and a tower at its north-western angle. The purpose of such
a stronghold in a Parish church, as it certainly was, could not be anything but
the defense of a community of people living in and around it, most probably
a monastic community serving in that church. A similar case in the Negev is
the southern church in Oboda (see below, s.v.).
Fig. 13
Mampsis, plan of the east church complex (Negev, ibid.).
The western church (Fig. 14). This so-called “Nilus Church,” from the
name of its main donor, has a residential building attached behind it (Phot.
5), that could have, according to the excavator, been the house of that same
man (Negev 1974, 401). Here also, such a residence attached to the church
may indicate that a monastic community used to live in it. This assumption
could be confirmed by several crosses on its inner lintels, but this is better
done by a Greek inscription on the church floor, in front of the sanctuary. Indeed, this inscription mentions a certain “Abba (Greek: TON ABBA) [son] of
Zenobios the paramonarios.” 27 Its publisher has translated these words by
27. This title of paramonarios, frequent in ancient Church epigraphy, does not correspond to
a modern one in the Greek Church. Meimaris (1986, 259-260) describes paramonarios’ duties as related to the custody and supervision of a church and church properties in the name of
the local bishop. He could be a priest, a deacon, a clerk of lower rank, or a simple monk.
Unfortunately, the inscription in question, as well as the whole mosaic floor of the Nilus church
at Mampsis (Mamshit - Kurnub), have recently (October 1994) been irreparably vandalised.
420
Fig. 14
P. FIGUERAS
Mampsis, plan of the west church complex (Negev, ibid.).
“Abba (son) of Zenobios the warden” (Negev 1981, 71), taking Abba as the
name of Zenobios’ son. Both translations are plausible, but the presence of
the article before the word ABBA seems to be an indication that the latter term
is to be understood as the monastic title abbas (simply “Father” better than
“abbot”, i.e. Superior of a monastery), very frequent in the monastic epigraphy of that time, also in the Negev (Meimaris 1986, 235-239). If my interpretation is correct, it is easier to consider the western church of Mampsis
also as a church served by a monastic community.
Mitzpe Shivta (Mishrefe) (map ref. 112.036) (Phot. 6-7)
Situated on the edge of a high hill facing an extensive plain, this site includes the ruins of an enclosure wall with a gate on the western side and a
small chapel on the opposite side, around which and on a lower level are
living rooms, natural caves, an open cistern and a well (Phot. 6). Six km to
the east of the plain, the ruins of the town of Sobata or Shivta (see below)
appear on the horizon, and from this fact the present name Mitzpe Shivta,
i.e. “the observation point (Arab. mishrefe) upon Shivta.” On his visit to
the place in 1871, Palmer identified it as a Roman fortress, and thus also
Musil in 1901. An opposite view was expressed by Woolley and Lawrence,
who saw in it “undoubtedly a monastic establishment, a laura,” basing their
Fig. 15
421
Mitzpe Shivta, general plan of ruins (Baumgarten 1986, 99).
opinion on the local pottery sherds and the building systems (Woolley Lawrence 1914/15). Wiegand, who had visited the place in 1916, also
thought that it had been a monastery (Wiegand 1920).
An archaeological survey of the ruins was conducted on the spot in
1979 by Y. Baumgarten on behalf of the Israel Department of Antiquities,
as part of the general survey of the region (Segal 1986, 97-108). It was
found that the western gate on the wall (Fig. 15) gave entrance to a large
open space, in the middle of which were the ruins of a stone building measuring 12×14.5 m. This building had been interpreted by Woolley and Lawrence as a guest-house or the residence of the Superior of the monastery.
Baumgarten did not find enough evidence in the structure of the building
to determine its original function.
422
P. FIGUERAS
The chapel on the eastern side of the open space (Fig. 16) includes a simple prayer hall measuring 18.2×6.6, with an apse on the east 1.9 m deep and a
room annexed to its southern wall, apparently built later than the original
building. This room measures 11.6×4.0 m. White and colored fragments of the
plaster once covering the walls and the apse were found on the stone slabs of
the pavement. The rooms, partly built, partly excavated into the rock (Fig. 17),
which can be seen on a lower level than the chapel around the edge of the natural platform, have been interpreted as hermits’ cells by Baumgarten (1986). A
similar interpretation was given by Woolley and Lawrence (1914/15) to a
small tower situated to the east of the chapel. An arched structure facing east
is probably a prayer cell (Phot. 7). Baumgarten, who dates the site in a general way to the late Byzantine period on an archaeological basis, suggests seeing it as the desert inn described c. 570 by the anonymous Piacenza pilgrim,
who called it “a fort, the guest-house (xenodochium) of Saint George,” situated twenty miles from Elusa to the south, “which provides something of a
refuge for passers-by and gives food for hermits” (Wilkinson 1977, 87).
Fig. 16 Mitzpe Shivta, plan of the
chapel (Baumgarten 1986, 101).
Fig. 17 Mizpe Shivta, plan of rockcut rooms (Baumgarten 1986, 101).
423
I agree with Baumgarten’s interpretation, not only because the distance
and the character of Mitzpe Shivta’s buildings (monastic and military), coincide with those of the sixth century Piacenza Pilgrim, but also because it is
confirmed by epigraphic evidence. Indeed, even today the visitor can read,
incised on the base of a plastered arch-stone in one of the rooms partly excavated into the rock (Phot. 8), a rather long cursive inscription in Greek, starting with the words “Oh Lord, the God of Saint George...” It is a prayer
written by a man who asks for himself, his wife, his daughter and his servants.28 The reference to Saint George certainly indicates that that saint was
the Patron of the place, and the tenor of the text indicates that the kind of person who wrote it was certainly a layman passer-by, not a local monk. Like
the Piacenza Pilgrim, the writer of the inscription was probably on his way
to Mount Sinai, accompanied by his family and servants, and they all took a
rest in that fort and monastery that “provided them something of a refuge”
(Figueras 1995). It is to be observed that soldiers stationed around the same
place where monks were living, either as hermits in a laura or as members
of a closed community, is not a surprise in the Byzantine period, at least
along roads that were considered dangerous for private people to walk, as we
read in Egeria’s records (Wilkinson 1971).
Mo’eile˙ (map ref. 090-010) (Fig. 18)
This is the name of a place near Qadesh Barne‘a, today on the Egyptian
side of the Israel-Egypt border in the central Negev, where a monastic cave
was reported by the Dominican Father Abel (1903b). According to his description and sketch (Fig. 19), the cave included a central room that had
entrances to another three small rooms. Some steps cut into the floor of the
central room led to an unknown place. The general shape and other details
of this cave are similar to the monastic cells found in ‘Ein ‘Avdat (above)
and many others in the Judean desert and elsewhere. In all probability, this
cave too, carved into the limestone not far from the abundant source of ‘Ein
El-Qudeirat, near which agriculture was certainly practiced in ancient times
(Bruins 1986, 105-120), had been used by monks in the Byzantine period.
We actually know from the Life of Hilarion written by Jerome, that monks
lived in the area of Qadesh since the mid-fourth century (Hieron., Vit. Hil.
25, PL 23).
28. I hope to publish soon this interesting inscription.
424
P. FIGUERAS
Fig. 18 Map
showing Wadi
Mo’eile˙ and
position of
monastic cave
(Abel 1903b).
Fig. 19 Monastic cave
near Wadi
Mo’eile˙
(Abel, 1903a).
425
Nessana (Nitzana, ‘Auja el-Óafir) (map ref. 097.031) (Fig. 20)
This town, probably founded by the Nabateans in the second century B.C.,
is by far the best documented of all Byzantine settlements in the Negev. Indeed, the discovery of an archive of papyri from the sixth and seventh centuries C.E. at that site (till then called by the Bedouins ‘Auja el Óafir) by the
American Colt Expedition in 1935 (Colt 1962), came to throw light, not only
on the life of that town, but also of all the Negev and its inhabitants in general at the edge of the Byzantine period and the first decades of Muslim occupation. However, many other data relevant to our subject were also collected
in Nessana from two sources other than the papyri, namely the inscriptions,
some of which were already found before the American expedition (Alt 1921),
and the architectural features revealed by the archaeological excavations. It
is to be noted that, since 1987 till the present, a new archaeological dig has
been taking place at Nessana under the direction of Dan Urman on behalf of
Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Urman 1990).
We can today speak of at least six churches having been built in Nessana
in the Byzantine period, to which maybe another should be added, namely
the one reported almost a century ago by Lagrange (1897), because it is not
clear whether he describes one of our churches no. 3, 4 or 5 or a different one.
He actually describes a basilica he saw on the same plain where those are
found, but the shape and measurements he gives (20×10 m for the church,
15×10 m for the atrium) do not correspond to any of those other churches.
Our list is as follows:
No. 1, on the acropolis, with the names of St. Sergius and Bacchus (the
north church) and No. 2, St. Mary Mother of God (the south church), were
excavated by the American expedition (Colt 1962). No. 3, in the plain, had
been described by former visitors, among whom Woolley and Lawrence
(1914/15), but was later destroyed because the Turks wanted to transform it
into a guest-house. Nos. 4 and 5 correspond to a double church recently discovered and excavated in the plain, some 150 m south of the location of No.
3, by the present Israeli expedition (Urman 1990). Finally, No. 6 is the chapel
of a small monastery, also recently excavated by the same expedition, on the
northern slope of the acropolis. For different reasons, as will soon become
evident, we can be sure that churches no. 1, 3 and 6 were related to monks.
Church no. 1, St. Sergius and Bacchus (Fig. 21). This church, apparently the most sumptuous and probably the most important of the town,
to which people from numerous villages, towns and cities, including Elusa
and Birosaba, used to bring offerings on the feast of the Patron Saints
(Kraemer 1958, Pap. 79), was probably served by a community of monks.
426
Fig. 20
P. FIGUERAS
Map of Nessana ruins (Woolley-Lawrence 1914/15).
Its Superior is often referred to in papyri and inscriptions with the monastic title of hegoumenos (Kraemer 1958, Pap. 45.1, 46.3, 47.8, 50.4,
77.10, 147.1; Colt 1962, nos. 12, 77; see Meimaris 1986, 239-246), even
though at periods he was a married person.29 In one of the papyri found
29. This apparent incongruency has been noticed by all those who have dealt with Nessana’s
papyri and inscriptions. A suggested solution is to consider those hegumenoi as having entered the monastic order only after they became widows.
427
in a room annexed to this church, this church complex is called “the mone
(that is, “monastery”30) of St. Sergius” (Kraemer 1958, Pap. 79.25,44).(30)
The term monachos, “monk,” occurs four times in the papyri (ibid., Pap.
31.23, 90.35, 91.61; see inscription 78 in Colt 1962, 167), and the title
abba, “Father,” no less than fifteen times. One of these references is not
to the monks of Nessana but to those of Mount Sinai, with whom the
former apparently held current relations. It has even been suggested to
identify “Father Martyrios” of Mount Sinai, referred to in Pap. 89.23, with
an Abbot of the same name, Superior of Mt. Sinai c. A.D. 595 (ibid., pp.
254 and 259, n. 23).
The epigraphic evidence is also impressive. Besides the above said
hegoumenos that occurs several times, there is an interesting graffito including a long list of eight saints, seven “Fathers” and three “Mothers” (Colt 1962,
no. 38, pp. 151-152), some of them well-known Egyptian monks, others who
had been famous in Palestine, while others belonged to the western Church.
The list was possibly used as a sort of a calendar, as suggested by its publishers (Colt, ibid.). The list in question is as follows:
“Saint Mark”
“Saint Bliphimus”
“Saint Manicus”
“Saint Ambrose”
“Saint Isidore”
“Saint Nonius”
“Saint Pamphilus”
“Father Romanus”
“Father Manalas”
“Father Cyril”
“Father Zenobius”
“Father Chariton”
“Father Samur”
“Father Sabinus”
“Father Germanus”
“Our Mother Anna”
“Our Mother Martha (lit. Mathra)”
“Our Mother Pheste”
This is not the right place to comment on this list, but it is obvious that
monks and nuns, some very famous, others less, were very familiar to
Thaleleus, the man from Nessana, possibly himself a monk, who wrote it
on the plastered voussoir stone.31
Church no. 3. The evidence on the monastic attachments of this church,
the remains of which were reported by early visitors and today unfortunately destroyed (above), come particularly not only from the contents of
an inscription, but also from the buildings surrounding it. Indeed, as the
30. Mone is actually a synonym for monasterion and other Greek terms meaning monastery.
31. Cf. Meimaris 1986, 236, no. 1177.
428
P. FIGUERAS
Fig. 21 Nessana, plan and section of SS. Sergius and Bacchus church and
monastery (church no. 1) (Colt 1962, Pl. LXIII).
plan shows, the church (17.5×9 m) had a spacious atrium (12.7×18.5 m) to
the west, a rectangular hall in the north, and a room complex in the south.
The latter was probably a monastery, as already suggested by Woolley and
Lawrence (1914/15).
429
The Greek inscription on the mosaic floor of the church was already
published by Huntington (1911) and reproduced by Woolley and Lawrence
(1914/15) and also by Kirk and Welles (Colt 1962). Its dedicatory text
comes as a surprise in more than one aspect: “For the salvation of the donors Sergius, ex-assesor and monk, Palut his sister, and John, deacon, her
son, and member of the city council of the metropolis Emesa. In the year
496, fifth indiction-year, the 20th of month Gorpiaios” (September 7, A.D.
609).32 It is plausible to think that those people, members of a rich family
from the remote Syrian city of Emesa (today Homs), founded a monastery
in Nessana on the occasion of their visit to the town. Their presence there
is explained by the pilgrim movement to Mount Sinai through the Negev
desert (Figueras 1995). The first person mentioned is now a monk, after he
retired from his lucrative job as a lawyer in Emesa, but a monk that is legally able to dispose of his fortune, so as to offer, together with his sister
and nephew, such a gift as the foundation of a monastery with its church.
It could be that he himself, with or without his sister and nephew, had decided to live permanently in Nessana. At least we can imagine that they all
spent enough time in the town or surroundings as to see the completion and
dedication of their rich foundation.
Church No. 6 (Phot. 9).33 Undoubtedly, this complex of a small chapel surrounded by rooms and a square atrium with its cistern can only be interpreted
as a coenobium or the premises of a small closed monastic community. Its location is north of the complex of St. Sergius and Bacchus, on the slope of the
acropolis hill. The huge well near the upper church is actually situated between
both monastic complexes and could be used by both communities. The monastery seems to have been built according to a well-drafted and regular plan.
Should one be allowed to speculate about this multiplication of monasteries in Nessana, we could come to the conclusion that one of them, probably the one referred to here, might be a nunnery, a monastery of women.
This suggestion could be supported by the presence of the Greek word
matronikia (“women quarters”?) in one of the Nessana papyri (Kraemer
1958, Pap. 79.29,31,62).34 The existence of monasteries of women in the
32. This is according to the Arabic or Elusa era. Ovadiah prefers to interpret it of the era of
Gaza. In the latter case, the year would be 435 C.E.
33. I thank my colleague Dr. Dan Urman for kindly allowing me to make use of the photo
and to report on his discovery, still unpublished.
34. It should be observed that term is only a guess by the publishers of the corrupted text of
Pap. 79, which actually only reads m[ ].
430
P. FIGUERAS
Byzantine Negev is well attested to by the already quoted text of the
Piacenza Pilgrim, who visited one of them near Elusa.35
Summarizing all the available data about Nessana in the last period of its
existence from before and after the Muslim conquest, that occurred about A.D.
634, we obtain the general picture of a rich civil center in the Negev, with a
rather strong economy based not only on agriculture and trade, but also on
what would today be called “Christian tourism” (Figueras 1995b). It is possible that even the civil administration was in the hands of the Church authorities, and these were particularly linked to monastic institutions. Not by
chance, the most important papyri were found in the premises of the monastery of St. Sergius (and Bacchus), whose Head held the monastic title of
hegoumenos. The letters addressed by the Muslim governor of Gaza to “the
people of Nessana” (Kraemer 1958, Pap. 73) actually arrived in the hands of
that powerful person. Not by chance either, such literary pages as those of
the Latin poet Vergil, together with fragments of a Latin-Greek dictionary,
were found there. Two interesting writing tablets were discovered there also,
still holding their wax layer with some words scratched on it by a young student. Such interesting features in the archaeological records preserved in that
Nessana monastery are better explained if we just consider it as being the
cultural center of the town, which certainly included a boys-school as well.
If this could be proved, we would have in Nessana a kind of monasticism more
akin to the ideals of St. Basil of Cappadocia than to those of St. Pachomius
in Egypt or St. Chariton in the Judean desert, that is, monks involved in such
social activities as organized education, not living a life only of prayer and
contemplation but combined with some manual work.
On the other hand, it is also very probable that monks from the Nessana
area were involved in agricultural and commercial activities. The evidence
comes from the papyri referring to the plot of land of a certain “Victor, son
of the Very Honorable Sergius Aladias, monk” (Kraemer 1958, Pap. 31.2324; see also Pap. 90.35 and 91.61). As a matter of fact, it had usually been
admitted by scholars that agriculture had been practiced by monks in Palestine in the Byzantine period, as the archaeological records show.36 But
here we have it written in a sixth century document.
35. See above, s.v.
36. A case in point for the Negev region is the wine-press near the north church of Sobata
(see below, s.v.). In the north of Israel, evidence of organized and sophisticated agricultural
activity by monks of the Byzantine period has also been discovered (C. Dauphin, 1979, “A
Monastery Farm from the Early Byzantine Period at Shlomi,” Qadmoniot 12 (45), 25-29,
Hebrew; Id., “A Byzantine Ecclesiastical Farm at Shlomi,” in Tsafrir 1993, 43-48).
431
Oboda (Eboda, ‘Abdeh, ‘Avdat) (map ref. 128.022) (Fig. 22)
The present ruins of ‘Avdat, situated in the central Negev on the Beersheva Eilat road (Fig. 23), represent the ancient town of Oboda of the Peutinger Map
(Phot. 10) and Eboda of the Nessana Papyri (Kramer 1958, Pap. 39.2,13).
These names, which the Arabs preserved under the form of ‘Abdeh (Jaussen
- Savignac - Vincent 1904), certainly correspond to that of the Nabatean king
Obodas (39-9 B.C.), who was considered to have been the founder of the
town, in which, according to Stephen of Byzanz, he was also buried. Apparently in the fifth century (Negev 1974, 403), the first (or north) church was
built in the area of an ancient Nabatean temple on the acropolis. Later on, and
probably following the construction of the huge fortress in the sixth century
with its little chapel, another (the south) church was built on the acropolis (Fig.
24). On the basis of coins and inscriptions, its excavator, A. Negev, assumed
that the entire town with its two churches were destroyed by the Muslims in
636 (Negev 1974, 414), but this is today much doubted.37 Actually, the first
Christian inscription from the south church of Oboda dates from 550 and the
last one from 617 (Negev 1981, 29 and 37).
Fig. 22
Map of Oboda (after ‘Eini 1986, [‘Avdat] 6).
37. According to the results of more recent excavations, the destruction of the town in the
seventh century is probably to be assigned to an earthquake that took place in 631.
432
P. FIGUERAS
Evidence of a monastic
presence in Oboda comes
from two sources, namely architecture and epigraphy,
both from the south church.
This church (Fig. 24), in basilical style (21×12.6 m) and
having two chapels for the
veneration of relics, to the
north and the south of the
central apse, has an epitaph of
the pavement of the church
calling it “Martyrium of St.
Theodore” (Negev 1981,
30).38 The almost square atrium (15×14 m) to the western
side of the basilica, surrounded by several rooms on three
23 Map of the ‘Avdat region, showing geoof its sides (Phot. 11), proba- Fig.
graphic relation between Oboda and the monastic
bly had an upper story. This caves of ‘Ein ‘Avdat (after ‘Eini 1986, [‘Avdat] 5).
feature and the remains of a
tower on the south-west corner of the same atrium seem to point to the presence of a monastic community, as was recognised by its excavators (Ovadiah 1970, 25). As already said, this could be the central coenobium to which
the hermits from the laura of ‘Ein ‘Avdat (above) were connected.
One of the five epitaphs on the pavement of this church complex was
found in the portico of the atrium, and it refers to a certain “Father (Greek
ABBAC) Kapito, the presbyter, (son) of Erasinos,” who died on September
22, 617 C.E. (Negev 1981, 36-37). As said above (Mampsis), the title ABBAC
was much used, though not exclusively, by monastic superiors (Meimaris
1986, 235-236), and it is quite natural to see it applied to a priest who could
have been the Superior of the monastery in which he was buried.
A last hint to the relations between Oboda and the monastic world
comes from another inscription, this time written in cursive letters in red
color on the shoulder of a very large pottery container, a pithos.39
38. Beside the already mentioned graffito on the so-called Saints’ Cave on the slope of the
acropolis, another invocation to the same Saint was found in the south church inscribed on
a fragment of chancel screen (Negev 1982, 31, no. 31).
39. The pithos was unfortunately smashed to pieces, but it can today be seen, restored, in
the small restaurant at the foot of ‘Avdat, next to the parking place.
433
Fig. 24 Oboda, plan of churches and monastery complex (Ovadiah [Levant 1], 124).
According to its publisher, it was “found in situ in the building to the
west of the acropolis,” and the text on it reads: “+ O Lord assist. To the
deacon Germanus, (sent) by the geron Theodosius” (Negev 1981, 43-44).
The last two words are important. Indeed, Theodosius, the geron or “old
434
P. FIGUERAS
man”40 here referred to, could be the famous Saint Theodosius, koinobiarch or Father of all the monasteries of the Holy Land since 492, who
founded the monastery till today called Mar Dosios, near Bethlehem. Of
course, we have no right to identify the two names, but one must admit
that it would be a little strange that two monks of the same name living
in Palestine about the same time, were honored with the same title.
Anyway, the sending of a big pithos, probably full of oil or wine, was
sent by a venerable monk by name Theodosius, who was certainly
endowed with powerful administrative authority, to a deacon in Oboda,
who could be the economus or administrator of a monastic comunity in
that remote town of the Negev.
We cannot exclude the possibility that, at a certain period at least, the
house-caves that can be seen on the western slope of the acropolis were once
inhabited by monks. This would explain the crosses and other Christian symbols decorating some of the walls, among which there is a rough drawing of
a saint soldier, probably representing St. Theodore, according to the graffiti
accompanying it (Negev 1981, Pl. 16, Phot. 37).
Concerning the presence of nuns in Oboda, there is only a light hint in
the epitaph, already published by Alt (1921, no. 114), of a woman that was
“virgin of God” (Greek: parthene [sic!] Theou). Such an epithet seems to
me to refer to a consecrated virgin, and not just to a woman that happened
to die before she got married, as other cases must certainly be interpreted.41
Ru˙eibeh (Re˙ovot ha-Negev) (map ref. 108.048)
This Byzantine town of the Negev was known to all the visiting scholars
of the last century and beginning of the present one. Despite the similarity
of the Arabic name Ru˙eibeh to the town of Re˙ovot mentioned in the Bible (Gen 26:22), there seems to be no connection between both places, as
archaeology does not support it. In 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1986 excavations
were conducted at the site by T. Tsafrir (partly in collaboration with R.
Rosenthal-Hegginbottom), who suggested identifying the place with
40. Here in Genitive form, gerontos. “Old Man” was a monastic honorary title given to cer-
tain venerable monks (see Meimaris 1986, 239), such as Barsanuphius (above, Birosaba).
41. One case is in Oboda (Negev 1981, 44: “... and his daughter virgin”), another one in Elusa
(Alt 1921, no. 44: “the virgin Sosanna”). In Oboda we also find a boy “who died unmarried”
(eteleutesen agamos), being only “17 years and seven months old” (Negev 1981, 29).
Fig. 25
435
Ru˙eibeh, plan of north church and monastery (Tsafrir 1993).
Bertheiba, a Byzantine toponym referred to in Papyrus 79 of Nessana
(Kraemer 1958; Tsafrir 1993, 295).
Four churches were discovered in the town, in the north-west, the
center, the east and the south. The one in the center had been described by
Woolley and Lawrence (1914/15) as being attached to a monastery and a
khan, but the presence of a monastery has not been supported by the excavations (Tsafrir 1993, 294-302). On the other hand, the north church, which
has also been excavated, though not entirely, is certainly a monastery
church, as its excavator has proved (Tsafrir 1988). This church, a threeabsidal basilica (Fig. 25), is situated some 100 m outside the built area of
the town, and it measures 24.80×13.10 m. Its special feature, an interesting
crypt measuring 3.4×4.3 m was discovered below the presbytery and the
nave, apparently for the veneration of some important relics. The access to
it was provided by a flight of steps on each side. The existence of this crypt
is evidence of the frequency of visitors to the town and the church, which
most probably is explained by the fact that Ru˙eibeh lay on the road connecting Elusa with Nessana, one of the pilgrim routes finally leading to
Mount Sinai (Figueras 1995b, map).
Assistance to pilgrims in this particular church was assured by the presence of monks. Indeed, around the southern wall of the atrium, the excava-
436
P. FIGUERAS
tions cleared some rooms, particularly a long and spacious one containing
a long narrow table, that was interpreted as the dining-room of the monastery (Tsafrir 1993, 300). It is not clear whether these rooms and those probably existing in the unexcavated area on the northern side of the atrium had
an upper story, as was the case in the north church of Sobata (here below).
A cistern in the middle of the courtyard collected rain water from the roofs
of church and monastery for the maintenance of its dwellers. It must be
pointed out that the inscriptions found so far in Ru˙eibeh do not confirm
the presence of monks in the town.
Sobata (Sobota, Sbeita, Shivta) (map ref. 114.032) (Fig. 26)
This town was probably built by the Nabateans towards the first century
C.E., and survived the Muslim conquest up to the eighth or ninth century.
Its location may owe more to agricultural than to commercial criteria, being as it is remote from the normal trade routes (see Fig. 1).
Its impressive ruins called
the attention of many visitors,
among them Palmer in 1870,
Musil in 1901, and Jaussen, Savignac and Vincent, who discovered the three churches and a
number of inscriptions, in 1905.
A good plan of Sobota was produced by Woolley and Lawrence
in 1914/15. The American-British Colt expedition worked on
the spot in 1934-36, but the results of this excavation were
never published. Then it was the
turn of Avi-Yonah and Negev in
1958-60, but no reports were
published then either. The north
church was again surveyed and
studied by Negev and R.
Rosenthal in 1978 (RosenthalHegginbottom 1982).
Fig. 26 Sobata, plan of the town showing
The monastic presence in south, central and north churches and surSobata is an established fact, rounding buildings (after ‘Eini 1986, [Shivta] 6).
437
Fig. 27 Sobata, north church and monastery complex (Woolley - Lawrence 1914/15).
supported by epigraphy as well as by architectural criteria, as will hopefully be shown in the following report on the three churches. It is indeed
very possible that all three, and not only the north one, were monastic
churches.
North church (Fig. 27). As Shereshevski (1991, 75) points out, this was
the only church in Sobata “built on the periphery of the site, without the
438
P. FIGUERAS
constraints or limitations of a
built-up area surrounding it.”
It is a whole complex of buildings, including a three-absidal
basilica facing east (19×12 m),
a spacious atrium surrounded
by rooms in the west (Fig. 28),
a chapel attached to the southern wall of the basilica, and a
baptistry chapel to its south.
The rooms around the atrium
include a long hall to the west
(probably a dining room), and
smaller rooms to the south, all
covered with arches which
once supported an upper story.
The northern gallery of the
atrium is paved with mosaic,
and a flight of steps led to its
roof, which was the floor of
the second story. Attached to Fig. 28 Sobata, isometric reconstruction of
the eastern wall of the atriun north church and monastery (RosenthalHegginbottom, 1982, Plan 4).
and close to its southern entrance, one can see a high stone-bed (Phot. 12), which might have served
the monk responsible for the reception of guests and pilgrims.
Many details of the building around the atrium, today collapsed (except for its outer, reinforced walls, standing up to a height of 5 meters), led
most scholars to accept that it had been built to be a monastery. Other
speculations, such as the interpretation of the small square in the middle of
the atrium as being the basis of a column, a memorial to a holy monk who
had once been lived as stylite in the neighborhood of Sobata (RosenthalHiggenbottom 1981, 232) have no supporting evidence.
Epigraphy seems to strengthen the monastic character of this church.
Indeed, a tomb in the baptistry is that of “thrice-blessed Arsenius (son)
of Abraamios, monk and priest,” who died on the 4th of January, 630
42. As pointed out above (Aila), there is probably no relation between this Arsenius and another
apparently famous monk of the same name who had his monastery within the jurisdictional area
of the bishop of Aila (Palmer 1871, 554, 22). Yet it is interesting to realize that, in the epitaph of
our monk Arsenius of Sobata, his memory is praised with such solemn expressions as “laid in
Christ, resting among saints, thrice-blessed Arsenius... monk and priest” (Negev 1981, 56-57).
439
C.E.42 Another one in the atrium of the church is that of a son of Abbot
Themos, who died on the 1st of April, 644 C.E. (Negev 1981, 52-52).43
Outside the church, a series of workshops have been interpreted as
belonging to the local monastic community (Segal 1986). This is especially true of the wine press that, contrary to usual, has no compartments around the threshing pavement.44 If this was true, we would have
a community of monks that were partly engaged in agriculture and partly
in the service of the Christian pilgrims and visitors, who were certainly
frequent in this church, judging by the presence of the baptistry, the
riches of its internal decorations, and the transformation of the initial
pastophoria or side-rooms into relic chapels (Margalit 1987).45
Central church (Fig. 29). All scholars agree that this is the most recent of the three churches of the town. It is a three-absidal basilica (c.
17×14 m), built when the street in front of it was already in existence,
and a three-arched porch connects the two. A previously existing cistern
has its mouth inside the church. The latter is immediately connected to a
complex of spacious buildings built around three small courtyards on its
southern and eastern sides. One of them is currently called “the Governor’s House,” only because it includes a high square tower (Segal 1986).
I would rather call the complex a community building, a monastery. Perhaps it had not been built with this purpose, but its sumptuous entrance,
with Christian symbols decorating the lintel of the main gate (Phot. 13),
seems to indicate that, in the course of time, probably when the church
was built, it had been transformed into one. The existence of towers, built
43. Abba is a title mostly applied to monks. It is frequent in the monastic literature to see
monks having sons, as we realized in the case of the hegoumenoi at Nessana (above, s.v.).
Another well-known case is that of Nilus, the monk of Sinai whose young son Theodulos,
who was living with him in a hermitage, was once abducted by a group of Saracens and
sold in the market of Sobata (PG 79, 674-683; see Mayerson 1963, 161).
44. Indeed, in all the other wine-presses in the Negev there are compartments around the
threading area (‘Eini 1986, [Har ha-negev] 13) apparently to allow a previous inspection of
the weight and quality of the grapes brought by each family to the common press, so as to
receive the right payment or the appropriate quantity of wine produced. That previous inspection was purposeless if the grapes to be pressed were brought from vineyards belonging to one and the same community.
45. These were characteristics of the pilgrim churches, and so we have to interpret many of
the churches in the Byzantine Negev, as they were visited by pilgrims on their way to or
from Mount Sinai (Figueras 1995). As for the north church of Sobata, it has been speculated by some to be the xenodochium or “inn of Saint George” mentioned by the Piacenza
Pilgrim. We have already seen that this identification is no more probable, after the discovery of the invocation to the “God of St. George” in Mitzpe Shivta (above).
440
P. FIGUERAS
as shelters for the community in case of danger, is well known in ancient
monastic architecture.46
No epigraphic evidence for the presence of monks in this central church
has been preserved. Actually, only a short inscription on a abacus of stone
capital, an invocation to St. Stephen, was published with relation to this
church (Negev 1981, 62, no. 70).
South church (Fig. 30). Situated to the east of the open pull of the town,
possibly the origin of the whole urban center of Sobata, this basilica (19×14.30
m) is probably the oldest of the three churches. According to a graffito detected on a wall at its entrance attesting to the frequent visits by pilgrims
(Figueras 1994, no. 4, Fig. 5), this church was very probably dedicated to St.
Stephen. Its only dated inscription, however, is from A.D. 639, being the commemoration of a new paving of the church under Bishop George and the
Archdeacon and economus Peter (Negev 1981, 61). Also here the epigraphy
does not help to see any connection with monks. However, the architecture
of the mansion attached to the northern side of the church seems to demand
here also the presence of a small community of church personnel. A single
Parish priest with his family would certainly not need such a house.
Knowing the use that is commonly referred only to Augustin of Hippo
in North Africa, it is possible that here, and maybe around the central
church too, we must be allowed to imagine a group of clergy living together in community of goods and sitting at the same table, rather than a
community of monks of the traditional kind. Indeed, in the fifth century,
besides the very well-known example of Augustin’s clergy, two other cases
are known of the same kind of phaenomenon, one around bishop Eusebius
of Vercelli (Ambrosius, Epist 63, I, 7-9), the other much nearer to our region, the case of Melas, the holy bishop of Rhinocorura (today’s El-‘Arish)
in North Sinai (Sozomen, Church History, V, 15, PG 67, 1389-90). These
examples, apparently, fruit of the spontaneous initiative of inspired people,47 could have been imitated in other towns as well, such as Sobata. On
the basis of that historical reality, the scholar has the right to suggest the
intepretation of certain archaeological remains along the same line, even if
there is no literary or epigraphic evidence for it.
46. A case in point in Palestinian monasticism is the tower in the monastery built by Jerome
and Paula in Bethlehem towards the end of the fourth century, where monks and nuns took
shelter during the attack by the Pelagians.
47. The text of Sozomenos concerning Rhinocolura towards the end of the fourth century is
convincing: “The clergy of this church dwell in one house, sit at the same table, and have
everything in common” (Sozomenos, Church History V, 15, in PG 67, 1389-90
Fig. 29
Sobata,
central church
and monastery
complex
(Negev 1988,
97).
Fig. 30
Sobata, south
church and
monastic
complex
(‘Eini 1986,
[Shivta] 10).
441
442
P. FIGUERAS
As a complement to the review of epigraphic and archaeological hints to
the presence of monks in Sobata, I will refer to an ostrakon found by the
American expedition in the ruins of Sobata (Meimaris 1986, 253, no. 1267),
acknowledging to a certain “Abbot John, son of Victor, lector,” for having
performed nine parts of his duty in cleaning the cistern. Apart from the interesting fact that a member of the clergy, although the low clergy, is seen performing compulsory public duty, we realise that here the title “abbot” (lit.
ab[b]a, in dat.) cannot but be monastic, because he was not a priest. More
problematic is the reference to a certain “Abba Victor, presbyter of Sobata,”
who appears among ten other contributors in an account of donations to the
monastery of St. Sergius in Nessana (Pap. 79.52; Meimaris 1986, 189).
Summarizing the hints of the monks’ presence in Sobata, let us remember that here, as in most other cases in the Negev, monastic life was of a different kind than those of the desert coenobia and laurae so typical of the
Judean desert and existing also in some points of the Negev. Relatively small
communities of clergy and/or monks lived around Parish churches, dedicated
to the spiritual service of their flocks and also of the numerous pilgrims who
attracted by famous relics and shrines (particularly, though not exclusively,
those of the north church). Also in Sobata, as in Nessana, the monks would
hold the boys-schools and thus maintain the cultural level of the civil community, even though agriculture certainly occupied some of the monks.
Tel ‘Ira (map ref. 148.071) (Phot. 14)
The ruins of a Byzantine monastery were discovered upon the ruins of an
Israelite fortress in this remote site of the north-east Negev desert. The site
was first surveyed by D. Alon in 1979 and was successively and/or contemporaneously excavated in several seasons by A. Biran, and I. Beit-Arieh
(HA 1979, 33; 1981, 34). The plan of the monastery has never been published, but it includes a small chapel, a courtyard and several rooms (Phot.
14). An inscription, today irreparably damaged, in the fragmentary mosaics at the entrance of the chapel, linked it with a special veneration to St.
Peter: “Our God has blessed us. Peter has blessed us. Our God.”48
48. I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Nimrod Negev, today a member of the Israel Antiquities Authority, for having called my attention, when he was still my student, to the discovery of
this unusual Greek text which I copied myself in situ. Except for the “House of Peter” in
Capernaum, no other church or chapel seems to have been dedicated to the memory of the Apostle Peter in ancient Palestine, but there was one in Rihab, in Transjordan (Meimaris 1986, 105).
443
The presence of a monastery in such a remote place is a good indication of the kind of life they were pursuing, certainly very similar to most
of the monasteries in the Judean desert. The fact that it had been established
upon and among the ruins of an ancient city is not surprising, as the ruins
furnished good stone for the building, and there was plenty water in the
old cisterns. The same had occurred in some of the Herodian palaces in Palestine (Massada, Herodion, Hyrcania), as in many of the ancient temples
in Egypt.
Tel Masos (Khirbet el Meshash) (map ref. 140.069) (Fig. 31)
In a way similar to Tel ‘Ira, Tel Masos monastery was also established close
to the ruins of an ancient Israelite city, whose identification is not yet definitely solved. This city lay on the banks of Nahal Beersheva, and it was
preceded in the same site by other settlements since the Chalcolithic period. The site was discovered by the Israeli survey headed by the late Y.
Aharoni in the sixties. An Israelite city and Byzantine monastery were later
excavated in 1972-1975 by a German-Israeli expedition, and the results
were properly published in an extensive two-volume report (FritzKempinski 1983).
The monastery ruins consisted of a building centered around a courtyard (Figs. 32 and 33). The chapel has a rectangular apse. On an angle of
the same courtyard is a burial crypt with several burial places for more than
one body, on whose stones some graffiti written in Syriac were reported.
The identification of this complex of chapel, rooms, courtyard and crypt as
a monastery is not a matter of doubt. All the necessary elements for the life
and maintenance of a monastic community are there. The only doubtful
thing about this place is the interpretation given to it by the excavators, and
particularly by the publisher of Syriac graffiti, the late Paul Maiberger
(ibid., p. 158ff). To his mind, those graffiti had been written not in Palestinian Syriac characters, but in north Syrian script, the so-called Nestorian
writing. As a result, a whole theory was formed regarding the foundation
date of the building, which should not be dated to the late Byzantine but to
the ‘Ummayad period. Indeed, it was said, it is not thinkable that during
the rigid Orthodox Byzantine regime, a Nestorian monastery would have
been allowed to be founded in Palestinian lands. The Muslims would apparently have been much more generous and large than the local Christian
authorities. What one can say about this theory is that the presence of some
unclear graffiti in Nestorian script (not even Nestorian in contents, as they
444
Fig. 31
P. FIGUERAS
Tel Masos, plan of monastery (Fritz-Kempinski 1983).
445
Fig. 32-33 Tel Masos, suggested isometric reconstruction of chapel and
monastery (Fritz-Kempinski 1983).
include only personal names and doubtful words) is certainly not enough
to establish a dating. All the criteria normally taken into consideration for
dating the building as Byzantine, such as pottery, are there.49 One must
accept that, in the moment when all the Christian settlements till then flourishing with their churches and institutions, were being abandoned, dismantled and inconsiderately destroyed all over the Negev, it is almost
inconceivable that a new monastery was planned and built, and then occupied for about one century, as it is claimed, in such a remote place as Tel
Masos.
Tel Yeshua’ (Tel es-Sawa) (map ref. 149.076) (Fig. 34)
This site lies some 20 km east of Beersheva, on the road to Arad, and has
been identified with a place where a group of Jews settled on their return
from the Babilonian exile (Neh 11:26). On the tel, the ruins of a square
building were interpreted by Woolley and Lawrence (1914/15) without
doubt as a monastery. The recent survey seems also to confirm this view
49. This is the authorized opinion of Prof. V. Fritz, excavator of the site and today director
of the German Archaeological Institute in Jerusalem, as expressed to the present writer in
private communication.
446
Fig. 34
P. FIGUERAS
Tel Yeshu’a, plan of the site (Govrin 1991, 89, 2).
(Govrin 1992, 88-89.*61). It had a church on its northern side and a room
complex on the south. The church, which had one apse only, was paved
with white mosaic.
447
It must be said that this interpretation of the ruins from the Byzantine
period has not been accepted by more recent archaeologists, who see in them
a round Herodian tower among other buildings that were in use during the
Roman and Byzantine period. Excavations have not been conducted at the
site, and it is difficult to verify the truth. If Woolley and Lawrence saw the
church, whose remains could later have been destroyed and dismantled, nothing stands against their interpretation. The Herodian tower could easily have
been included in the monastic complex. Even if part of the building was used
as a fort, the other part could serve as dwellings to a group of monks, as happened in other places, such as Mitzpe Shivta (above).
Summary
Trying now to compare the results obtained with the purposes we had set
to us at the start of this study, it is superfluous to point out that there is
archaeological as well as written evidence of the existence of monks and
monasteries in the Byzantine Negev. Rather, I would like to offer the results of this schematic research in a systematic and practical way, gathering in a general way the existing data under some significant headings:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Monks in Third Palestine in general (literary evidence)
Monasteries in Third Palestine in general (lit. evid.)
Hermit’s cave: Wadi Mo’eile˙ (archaeological evidence)
Laurae:
‘Ein ‘Avdat (arch.)
Elusa (lit.)
Mitzpe Shivta (arch. + lit. ?)
5. Isolated monasteries:
Aila region (lit.)
Óorvat Bodeda (arch. ?)
Óorvat Kuseife (arch. ?)
Óorvat So’a (arch. ?)
Tel ‘Ira (arch.)
Tel Masos (arch.)
Tel Yeshua’ (arch. ?)
Elusa region (nuns) (lit.)
6. Monastery near town:
Nessana, church no. 6 (nunnery ?) (arch. + papyri ?)
7. Monastic or clergy communities around churches in towns:
448
P. FIGUERAS
Birosaba (arch. + lit. ?)
Mampsis, western church (arch. + epigraphy ?)
Nessana, church no. 1 (arch. + epigr. + papyri)
Nessana, church no. 3 (arch. + epigr.)
Ru˙eibeh, north church (arch.)
Oboda, south church (arch. + epigr.)
Sobata, north church (arch. + epigr.)
Sobata, central church (arch.)
Sobata, south church (arch.)
8. Terms:
“Monastery” (mone) in Nessana (pap.)
“Monastery of women” in Elusa region (lit.)
“Monastery of women” (matronikia ?) in Nessana (pap.)
“Laura” in Elusa (lit.)
“Archimandrites” in Third Palestine in general (lit.)
“Hegumenos” in Nessana (epigr. + papyri)
“Abbas” in Birosaba (lit.), Mampsis (epigr.), Nessana (epigr.+ pap.),
Oboda (epigr.), Sobata (epigr.), Elusa (lit.)
“Monk” (monachos) in Nessana (pap.), Sobata (epigr.)
“Virgin of God” in Oboda (epigr.)
“Solitary” (hesychastes) in Elusa (lit.)
“Our Mother” in Nessana (epigr.)
“Old Man” (geron) in Oboda (epigr.)
Despite the difficulties of interpretation of some of these data, there is
no doubt that, also the Negev desert was heavily populated by monks
during the Christian centuries. They were in great part responsible, not
only for the Christianization of the local population (Elusa), but also
for its religious and cultural education (Nessana). If some of them lived
in absolute separation from secular affairs (‘Ein ‘Avdat, Mo’eile˙), others were totally involved in the social life of the communities (Nessana).
Some lived in remote cenobitic monasteries (Tel ‘Ira, Tel Masos), others in communities around the church parishes (Sobata, Oboda). Some
of them were active in agriculture (Nessana, Sobata), others took care
of the pilgrims and passers-by (Nessana, Ru˙eibeh, Mitzpe Shivta,
Sobata). Among their rangs there were writers of renown (Elusa), others had been rich members of famous city-councils (Nessana). There was
a small monastery of poor nuns living on charity in the middle of the
desert (Elusa), but another monastery had become well-known because
a great monk had lived there (Aila).
449
Let us finally remember that this monasticism, till today unfairly ignored by Church historians, was well known to the Church of the sixth
century, which invited some of its representatives to attend the ecumenical
council at Constantinople in 536.
Pau Figueras
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
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Monks and Monasteries in the Negev Desert

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