470 ANNU^VL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



Inasmuch as Ezion-geber I is the very first settlement built upon 

 the present site of Tell el-Hieleifeh, with all its walls resting on 

 virgin soil and no traces whatsoever of earlier buildings, it becomes 

 necessary to conclude that this Ezion-geber I is not the Ezion-geber 

 which the Israelites saw when they emerged from the Wilderness of 

 Sinai after the sojourn there lasting 40 years. The Ezion-geber they 

 saw was probably a tiny, straggling site, with a few mud-brick huts, 

 and a few scraggly pahns, and must have been situated farther to 

 the east, where the drinking water is less saline, and the sandstorms 

 blown by the strong winds down the center of the 'Arabah do not 

 occur. All traces of this earlier site of Ezion-geber have disappeared, 

 only its name surviving in the bustling town of Ezion-geber, first 

 built probably by Solomon in the very path of the winds blowing 

 down the center of the 'Arabah. 



A most interesting grave was found, sunk partly into the floor 

 level of the dry moat between the two outer fortification walls of 

 Period II on the north side, a short distance removed from the 

 smelter-refinery (pi. 4, fig. 2). It may possibly be the grave of the 

 man who directed the construction of this elaborate system of fortifi- 

 cations, and who died perhaps shortly after the walls were completed. 

 The top of the large mud-brick, mastabahlike grave was covered with 

 a layer of granite boulders, resting over a mud-brick roof. The 

 grave had already been anciently disturbed, and whatever of intrinsic 

 value it contained stolen, probably by some one familiar with its 

 contents. An interesting amount of material still remained in the 

 grave, however, when we opened it. It was found to contain a large 



phat, for instance, to occupy and extend Ezion-geber and to develop it into an industrial 

 center and a seaport must have been as valid in ITzziah's day as in theirs. It was Ezion- 

 geber, now known as Elath, which Uzziah restored to Judah. It is this alternative possi- 

 bility which we believe to be the more likely one. It is possible to restore to someone 

 only something which was previously owned. Thus in II Kings 16 : 6 we read that the 

 Edomite king drove out the Judaeans from Elath and restored it to Edom. If the Ezion- 

 geber of Solomon and Jehoshaphat and the Elath of Uzziah can be identified with each 

 other, then the Biblical difficulties with regard to them disappear, and the archeologlcal 

 ones resolve themselves into understandable relationships. 



After the time of Uzziah, Elath was to change hands once more, being lost by Judah 

 to Edom in the time of his grandson, Ahaz. Taking advantage of Ahaz' distress during 

 the Syro-Ephraimitic war in 735 B. C, the Edomites regained control of Elath. II Kings 

 16 : 6 should be amended to read : "At that time the king of Edom restored Elath to Edom, 

 and drove out all Judaeans from Elath ; whereupon the Edomites came to Elath, and 

 dwelt there to this day." 



After that time Judah was never again strong enough to dispute Edom's control over the 

 'Arabah and Elath. Edom thereafter became progressively less able to exploit the mineral 

 •wealth of the 'Arabah and to hold Elath. Adadnlrari, and particularly Tiglath-pileser III, 

 Sargon, Sennacherib, Ezarhaddon, and Assurbanapal, held Edom as a vassal state, and as 

 the Assyrian records show, the Arabs harried the Edomites with increasing force. (See 

 Glueck, Nelson, The topography and history of Ezion-Geber and Elath. BuU. Amer. Schools 

 Oriental Res., No. 72, p. 9, December 1938.) The political power of Edom was really com- 

 pletely at an end when Nabonidus made Teima his main seat of residence. The rapidly 

 rising Nabataeans took over the remains of the Edomite kingdom, infusing it in time with 

 new life and power. From their time onward, a new site, Aila, was selected for settlement 

 nearer the east end of the head of the Gulf of 'Aqabah. 



