EZION-GEBER — GLUECK 475 



thus to restore most of the shape of the jar, which may well have 

 been the container of precious products brought from as far as South 

 Arabia. It may also possibly have belonged to a Minaean trade 

 representative living in Elath. This discovery emphasizes the inti- 

 mate commercial relationship between Ezion-geber : Elath and Arabia, 

 and underlines anew the importance of Ezion-geber: Elath as a 

 trade center and seaport, in addition to being an important industrial 

 site. Miss Caton-Thompson and her colleagues have recently dis- 

 covered some South Arabic inscriptions during the excavation of tlie 

 temple at Hureidha, apparently first built in the fourth century 

 B. C.-° They are similar in type to the Minaean characters found 

 incised on the jar at Tell el-Kheleifeh. The Hureidha inscriptions 

 thus again furnish an approximate date — less definite, to be sure, 

 than that obtained from the excavations at Tell el-Kheleifeh — upon 

 which the history of the South Arabic type of ancient Arabic writing 

 can be pegged. The distance between Ezion-geber and Hureidha is 

 approximately 1,200 miles, and at least four centuries intervene 

 between the South Arabic inscriptions found at the two sites. It be- 

 gins to appear, however, that both places were set in one cultural 

 pattern, and that Arabia continued into what is today called Trans- 

 jordan, and thus in ancient times almost literally abutted the terri- 

 tory of Israel. To this day, for instance, the "skyscraper" houses 

 of southern Arabia, described in recent books such as Freya Stark's 

 "Southern Gates of Arabia," linger on in ruined form as far north 

 as Ma'an in southern Transjordan. Ezion-geber: Elath and Hureidha 

 are at opposite ends of the great Spice Route. A site at the southern 

 end of this great trade route, contemporary with Ezion-geber: Elath, 

 is bound to be found. 



In addition to the sea and land trade with Arabia, evidence was 

 discovered of trade with Egypt and Sinai. There were found such 

 varied objects coming from Sinai or Egypt as carnelian, agate, ame- 

 thyst, and crystal beads, cartouche-like seal impressions, a tiny, faience 

 amulet head of the god Bes, a Bubastite cat (pi. 7, fig. 2), fragments 

 of alabaster cups and plates and buttons, and a part of a scaraboid 

 bead. 



To a later phase of the Edomite settlement of Period IV belongs 

 a small storeroom near the southeast end of the mound. In it were 

 four beautiful jars, three of them as intact, with the exception of a 

 crack in one of them, as when they left the potter's wheel about 2,500 

 years ago. One of the jars was partly broken. The mouth of this 

 jar had been closed with a heavy stone stopper, and further sealed 



*• Caton-Thompson, G., Geology and archaelogy of the Hatlhramaut, Southwest Arabia. 

 Nature, vol. 142, No. 3586, pp. 139-142, July 23, 1938 ; A temple In the Hadhramaut. Asia, 

 May 1939, p. 299. 



