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CONFIRMATION OF GENESIS STORY
CLAIMED BY ARCHAEOLOGIST
(By Ayre Wallenstein, Reuter correspondent)
AN American archaeologist Dr Nelson Glueck, of Cincinnati, Ohio, believes he has found
evidence confirming the Genesis story of the destruction of a group of settlements in
the wilderness of Zin by King Chedarlaomer, some 4000 years ago.
."pOLLOT^lNG the trail of
J Abraham's wanderings
in the Negev wilderness on
his way to Egypt and back,
Dr. Glueck. investigated an
cient sites astride the trade
»routes passing through Kad
esh Barnea on the border of
'Sinai.
In his view, what he found
4 establishes that these sites
were destroyed in Abraham's
time, and were never again re
(Occupied.
The evidence of sherds
which strew the surface of
these ancient sites fits in
*with the story in Genesis
which described how King
.Chedarlaomer of Elam ana
his allies swept down from
the north to quell the rebel
lion of "the Horites in their
Mount Seir unto El-Paran,
which is by the wilderness",
and thence marched on
Enmishpat which is Kadesh,
and smote all the country of
Amalekites and also the Am
erites that dwell in Hazezon
tamar".
?
TT\R. Glueck, who conducted
^ a detailed archaeological
survey on Trans-Jordan in
the 1930's, discovered, in 1940,
King Solomon's mines and
the Etzion-Geber port, both
on the Gulf of Aqaba.
For the third successive
season now, he is carrying out
a similar survey of the Negev
under the auspices of the
Louis Rabinowitz Foundation
and the Hebrew Union Col
lege of Cincinnati, of which
he is president.
His conclusions have al
ready exploded the theory
that the Negev desert of to
day was also all wilderness in
Biblical days.
He found evidence of thriv
ing communities who lived in
this part of Holy Land as far
back as the fourth millen
nium before Christ, and of
towns and villages of- the Ab
rahamic period - i.e., about
2000 B.C.
According to him, the
skilled water engineers of the
Nabateans whose communities
in the Negev flourished from
the second century B.C. to
the second century after
Christ, left their cisterns,
channels and terraces to prove
that by the economic use of
the meagre rainfall, they
were able to grow crops anc
support a large population.
In many instances, he saw
evidence of water-courses
which were made to wind
around three or four moun
tains to reach a certain field
cultivated by the Nabateans.
With the help of sherds,
small fragments of pottery,
which he patiently collected
in the middle of what is . now
parched and desolate desert,
the American scholar is piec
ing together the jigsaw puzzle
of the past.
To him sherds speak a lan
guage of their own.
If a city is destroyed, metal
utensils, household goods and
the very buildings may dis
integrate and vanish, but not
so the fired pottery.
"Mere fire could not hurt
it," says Dr. Glueck. "That
is the reason why pottery is
the key to the entire history
of mankind."
Dr. Glueck describes his
work as "putting dots on the
map."
Altogether, he has marked
on his map the sites of some
200 ancient settlements,
ranging from the Chalcolithic
age (4500 B.C. to 3000 B.C.),
the Abrahamic period (2000
B.C. to 1750 B.C.) and up to
the more recent Nabatean,
Roman and Byzantine per
iods.
Starting from his "opera
tions base" at Sdeh Boker,
south of Beersheba, Dr.
Glueck and his assistants are
systematically combing the
Negev for evidence of ancient
habitations.
Wearing the "kefiah", the
Beduin headdress, and tanned
by the scorching Negev sun,
Dr. Glueck drives in his jeep
every day into the remote
parts of the wilderness in
search of valuable sherds.
On a typical expedition of
this kind, I heard him ex
claim: "This sherd settles it.
There must have been a set
tlement here about the year
400 B.C."
Apparently the small frag
ment of pottery he held in his
hand still had on it a sort of
dark paint-like glaze which
pinned it down to that par
ticular period.
The customs officiais at New
York airport are likely to get
a surprise one day in the
near future when the sun
tanned scholar turns up with
hundreds of what, to them,
will look like heavy money
bags.
At every site discovered,
sherds of all types and periods
are placed in cloth bags,
which Dr. Glueck has obtain
ed from the . First National
Bank of Cincinnati, normally
used by the bank as money
bags, and on which the
bank's name is printed.
Now, every bag bears, in
j addition, a figure correspond
ing to a similar one on the
map of the Never - the new
"dot" placed there by Dr.
Glueck to mark an ancient
site.
TX A VING found scores of
settlements dating back
to the days of Abraham, Dr.
Glueck is convinced that he
hit the trail used by the pat
ria ch on his voyage from
Beithel to Egypt and back,
when he returned "very rich
in cattle, in silver and in
gold".
Travelling with this large
caravan, he argues, Abraham
must have stopped in those
settlements along his route
through the wilderness of Zin.
After working in Wadi
Baqara, west of Sdeh Boker,
Dr. Glueck discovered that
the area was "a whole mass of
Abrahimitic sites".
Others he found near Ain
Mureifiq,- site of the ancient
Nabatean town of Abde, where
ruins of successive civilisa
tions can still be seen.
At the important present
day crossroads of Tel Yerou
cham, Dr. Glueck shows the
sites of other settlements,
also dating back to Abraham's
days. A few kilometres to
the south of the crossroads,
the sherds indicate the past
presence of Nabatean dwel
lers.
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