Hameara and Har Saggi 2003 Overview

Benjamin A. Saidel and Mordechai Haiman, Life and Death in the Desert: The Excavations at Hameara and Har Saggi in the Western Negev Highlands, Israel

The grant is to publish the results of Haiman’s excavations of the Early Bronze Age sites located at Hamaera and Har Saggi in the Negev desert, Israel (Fig. 1). As a result of the Camp David Peace Accords, the Government of Israel conducted an archaeological salvage project in the Negev Highlands in preparation for the redeployment of its armed forces from the Sinai Peninsula (Haiman 1989:173-175). As part of this salvage project, Haiman excavated 10 Early Bronze Age sites at Hameara and Har Saggi from 1980 to 1983. These sites have yet to be published.

The 10 sites slated for publication include five habitation sites, four concentrations of cairns and burial tumuli, and an open air shrine. The study of such a range of site types, including both the secular and the sacred, will contribute towards a better understanding of the socio-economic organization of arid land pastoralists as follows. First, data derived from the study of the material culture at these sites can provide information on the cultural and commercial relationships between the inhabitants of the encampments located at Hameara and Har Saggi and the population of the town of Tel Arad, the gateway to urban Palestine in the Early Bronze Age. Second, analysis and publication of this group of sites will provide information on activities carried out in domestic, burial, and ritual contexts. Third, the publication will involve submitting for testing and analysis selected material, the results of which will substantially contribute to our understanding of issues such as diet, health, and technology in the Early Bronze Age. Fourth, the location of the sites at Hameara and Har Saggi is important for reconstructing the seasonal movements of pastoral nomads during the Early Bronze Age. As part of this research sites will be entered into a geographical information system (GIS) in order to examine the distribution of various types of sites on the regional (central Negev) and interregional (southern Sinai) levels.

The project is unique because the sites slated for publication represent most aspects of daily life, that is, habitation, burial, and ritual activities. Also, these sites are representative of the broader Early Bronze Age cultural complex that existed in the Negev Highlands and parts of the Sinai. The publication of the Hameara and Har Saggi sites will expand the range of final excavation reports covering an area and period for which such comprehensive reports are lacking. The title for the proposed monograph is Life and Death in the Desert: The Excavations at Hameara and Har Saggi in the Western Negev Highlands.