Ha Besor Stream - Archaeology

Archaeology

Tell el-Farah (South) is located on the west of Nahal Besor. It was first excavated by Flinders Petrie in 1928 to 1929 and again recently excavated in 1999 and 2000 under direction of Gunnar Lehmann of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Tammi J. Schneider of Claremont Graduate University. Petrie first identified the site as Beth-Pelet (Joshua 15:27) and published the excavation reports under the names Beth-Pelet I - II. It has been linked by William Foxwell Albright to the ancient settlement of Sharuhen, although Tell el-Ajjul on the south bank of Nahal Besor and locations further to the coast have also been suggested. The tell is 37 hectares (4,000,000 sq ft) in size 15 metres (49 ft) high and was an important fortified site in the Middle bronze age. It was controlled by Egypt in the later bronze age and inhabited by philistines into the iron age. A hematite seal in the shape of the head of a bull was found and identified by Flinders Petrie to originate from Syria, it showed a bull attacking a lion beneath a scorpion. Nahal Besor has also shown evidence of epipaleolithic sites above paleolithic sediments. It has also been suggested to be the Brook of Egypt. Various ostracons have been recovered from around the site with Aramaic inscriptions analysed and translated by Joseph Naveh.

Several archaeological sites were excavated by Eann Macdonald in 1929 to 1930 along the Wadi Ghazzeh in lower Nahal Besor that show signs of specialist flint production. Some of these sites were re-excavated in 1969 by Jean Perrot. Finds of pottery and flints were studied by Ann Roshwalb who found evidence of both Egyptian and late neolithic occupations.