En-Gedi 2002 Overview

Ephraim Stern, The Archaeological Excavations Directed by the Late Professor Benjamin Mazar at Tel Goren (En_Gedi)

The excavations at Tel En-Gedi (Tel Goren) were directed by the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar from 1960-1967. Mazar, who then served as president and rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, placed supervision of the excavation in my hands as of 1962. In his will, opened following his death (according to my colleague Prof. Amichai Mazar), he requested that I bring this project to its final publication Thus, I intend to fulfill his request.

The excavations at Tel Goren, located in the desert oasis of En-Gedi, were unique and of great importance. This isolated oasis was inhabited (aside from a Chalcolithic settlement of which a temple remains, providing an important key to understanding the culture and cult of that period) only during the end of the First Temple period and during that period apparently functioned as a royal estate of the Kings of Judah for the production of balsam. This settlement was destroyed shortly afterward by the Babylonians. The rich assemblage of finds from this period is therefore from an extremely brief and well defined period: 650-582 BCE and as such, is a chronological and cultural marker of the utmost importance.

Following the destruction of the First Temple, the tell was resettled during the period of the Return to Zion (the Persian period) and was also found to have been once more a part of the new Jewish state that was established by the returned exiles. From this period as well, an exceptional architectural and ceramic assemblage emerged, including written texts. These finds are of importance in the study of the material culture of the Judean state during the late Persian period, known until now from very few excavations.