- - , Algemeen, , Thomas E. Levy, Russell B. Adams, Reassessing the chronology of Biblical Edom: new excavations and 14C dates from Khirbat en-Nahas (Jordan), [11 may 2004]
- - , Algemeen, 2006, United Press International, Archeologists find new evidence on Edom
A ruined copper mine in Jordan is shedding new light on the biblical civilization known as Edom, The New York Times reports.
Edomites lived south of the Dead Sea, in what is now Jordan and are portrayed as the troublesome neighbor of Israelites. Recent excavations of an ancient copper mine have prompted archeologists to reconsider when the Edomites may have existed, the Times said.
An international team of experts is arguing that Edom may have come together as a civilization as early as the 12th century B.C. They base their findings on recorded radiation dates, as well as artifacts like arrowheads and ceramics.
The results of research and excavation have reportedly yielded the first high-precision dates of the period. It has also brought to light the sophistication of this ancient civilization, the Times said.
The research was conducted by Dr. Levy, an archaeologist at the University of California, San Diego and Mohammad Najjar, director of excavations and surveys at the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
"We have discovered a degree of social complexity in the land of Edom," they wrote in their research, "that demonstrates the weak reed on the basis of which a number of scholars have scoffed at the idea of a state or complex chiefdom in Edom at this early period."
Tijdschrift , Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS), Volume 6: Article 6 (2006), Juan Manuel Tebes,
"You Shall Not Abhor an Edomite, for He is Your Brother": The Tradition of Esau and the Edomite Genealogies from an Anthropological Perspective
This article studies the genealogical relationship between ancient Israel and Edom, as is expressed by the Hebrew Bible. It studies especially the sociopolitical and ideological framework that gave birth to the biblical tradition of the brotherhood of Jacob, the Israelite patriarch, and Esau, here the alleged eponym of the Edomites. Three pertinent questions are discussed: the Jacob-Esau saga in the biblical scholarship; the presence of Southern Jordanian "Edomite" material culture in the Negev; and the issue of kinship, segmentation and orality in ancient societies. It is argued that the brotherhood tradition should be understood in the terms of the sociopolitical, demographic, and ideological background in which it emerged: the Late Iron Age Negev.
Tijdschrift , Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS), Volume 6: Article 6 (2006), Juan Manuel Tebes,
"You Shall Not Abhor an Edomite, for He is Your Brother": The Tradition of Esau and the Edomite Genealogies from an Anthropological Perspective
Abstract
This article studies the genealogical relationship between ancient Israel and Edom, as is expressed by the Hebrew Bible. It studies especially the sociopolitical and ideological framework that gave birth to the biblical tradition of the brotherhood of Jacob, the Israelite patriarch, and Esau, here the alleged eponym of the Edomites. Three pertinent questions are discussed: the Jacob-Esau saga in the biblical scholarship; the presence of Southern Jordanian