“I found Abraham’s wall,” he explained. He was a seasoned archaeologist working for the Israel Antiquities Authority and a guest lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. I don’t remember what language he was speaking, Hebrew or English? Wait, did he say wall or well? I don’t know. What I do remember is that he said, “except it’s dated to the Early Bronze Age.”
What that Israeli archaeologist suggested was that while the Middle Bronze Age fits a mathematical calculation of biblical chronology, the Early Bronze Age fits the imagery that makes the biblical stories come to life. If he was correct, Abraham lived hundreds of years earlier.
I was a graduate student in archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University. This was where legends of Israeli archaeology studied and practiced the art and science of archaeology to the awe and wonder of Israeli society. So to understand this in context, if every American is a lawyer, then every Israeli is an archaeologist.
What that archaeologist said to us made sense. The cave where Abraham buried Sarah is most similar to the shaft tombs found at the beginning and end of the Early Bronze Age. In the same time period one finds a monumental city with a royal acropolis and palace in the Land of the Philistines of the southern Coastal Plain and the Judean Shephelah that fits the story of Abraham and Sarah and Abimelech’s near death experience.
Abimelech returns in the story of Isaac and Rebekah, perhaps, just before the Early Bronze Age civilization collapses. A time period of a drier climate immediately follows. Cities are abandoned due to dependence on agriculture. Famine in Canaan is the context for Jacob sending his sons to Egypt for grain. Then the entire tribe moves there with their sheep and goats.
And the camels! Don’t forget the camels! Camels appear in Egypt at this time on rock inscriptions just like in the story of Abraham when he receives camels from Pharaoh. Then later, Abraham sends the camels to get Rebekah as a wife for his son, Isaac, from Northern Syria. All of this fits the imagery of the Early Bronze Age.
If you want to understand the imagery of the biblical narratives of the Patriarchs, the Early Bronze Age has a lot to offer. And even Abraham’s wall. Or was that well?
Peter Solomon Kovacs, MA RPA, graduated from the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a MA in Field Archaeology of the Biblical Period. He attends Church of the Messiah in Xenia, where he is also known to play the drums.
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