UCLA

Archaeological excavations in the northeastern Negev region of southern Judah identified significant amounts of “foreign” archaeological material culture in contexts dating to the late Iron Age (late eighth to early sixth century BCE). This iconic material culture consisted of highly identifiable ceramics, evidence of non-Yahwistic cult featuring the deity Qws, and non-Judahite inscriptions. Identified as associated with the kingdom of Edom to the east, this material culture assemblage was quickly interpreted to be the result of an Edomite “invasion,” understood as occurring during the late Judean monarchy (late seventh to early sixth centuries BCE) in tandem with Babylonian aggression and the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, as was promoted by certain readings of the biblical text. This study challenges the monocausal interpretation of an invasion, recognizing both the longevity of this material culture’s presence in the northeastern Negev, its frequent production within the northeastern Negev, and the contexts in which it was excavated that reveal a material culture footprint inconsistent with an invasion. I argue that the Edomite material culture came to be present in the region through a long and sustained pattern of culture contact, migration, and social entanglement, in large part the result of activity associated with the lucrative South Arabian trade that traversed the region en route to the Mediterranean. Framing the region through a borderlands approach, three case studies explore each of the iconic “Edomite” datasets, 1) foodways, 2) ritual behavior, and 3) inscriptions. I present each dataset in relation to patterns of human behavior and interaction, and especially the ways that they may be used as proxies for different types of social identities. Ultimately, this study delivers a new narrative of social entanglement for a misrepresented region. While the end of this period may have been marked by violence, the previous century and a half indicates a lengthy pattern of cross-cultural interaction, political ambition, economic enterprise, and social entanglement.