The modern israeli Negev is a product of twentieth-century politics. As a unit, it never existed in the past (for discussions, see Bienkowski 2006; also Rosen 1991). for a truer understanding of the historical processes behind the phenomena outlined here, in a sense sampled by the Negev materials, southern jordan, northern arabia, and sinai must be incorporated into the story. indeed, given the origins of the modern Bedouin tribes of the Negev, in jordan and arabia, and some of their migrations into Egypt, a larger perspective is clearly necessary. unfortunately, we do not yet have an archaeology of nomadic groups from those regions. Nevertheless, the patterns outlined here for the Negev, both geographical and chronological, are strong enough to indicate that there are important long-term historical trends and processes reflected here and that we should find corresponding, if not identical, phenomena in adjacent areas.
The shape of the settlement contractions and expansions, both with respect to the nomads as well as the farmers, seems to be a function of the geography of the region (see johnson 1969 for the effects of geography on shorter-term patterns), with a rather broad steppe zone between the desert and the Mediterranean zone (see also Lewis 1987 for the similar contractions and expansions in syria in more recent times). The fact of these changing configurations in relations seems to reflect fundamental changes in the nature of the nomadic systems, such that we can apparently divide the sequence into large-scale complexes.
On the other hand, lest we lapse into some crude geographical determinism, it is also clear that the adaptations themselves change significantly, even when the settlement configurations seem to be roughly similar. Both technological changes and social changes, internal and external, are cumulative. it is well beyond the scope of this paper to try to delineate these changes. Technologically, obvious additions to nomadic society are the introduction of the camel, and the various accoutrements necessary to fully exploit it (e. g., Bulliet 1990): the tent, the gun, ceramics, water cisterns, etc. socially and culturally, demographic growth, the rise of markets and trade systems, the evolution of tribal organization, the expansion of empires, and the rise of trans-tribal ideologies such as islam, all had major and unique effects on desert societies. The superposition of these complex cumulative changes onto a fixed geography is a classic Braudelian case study. it makes for rich and fascinating history.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to jeff szuchman for inviting me to the seminar at the Oriental institute for which this paper was prepared. Patrice Kaminsky, of Ben-Gurion university, helped me considerably with the maps. Gunnar Lehmann, also of Ben-Gurion university, was especially helpful in his comments on the early historic periods reviewed in this paper. Oded Tammuz helped me with some of the historic references. Ben saidel added important comments to the draft.
STEVEN A. ROSEN
Figure 4.1. Map showing surveys of the Negev on which analyses are based. Grid numbers are local Israel grid, according to which the surveys were organized
Figure 4.2. Schematic of the fluctuating boundary of systematic agricultural practice in the Negev
Caiendric Years BC/AD
Figure 4.3. Distribution of Early Bronze Age and Byzantine agriculture in the negev. Percentage figures are proportions of sickle segments in lithic assemblages. Byzantine agricultural zone is defined by reference to terrace systems in wadis
STEVEN A. ROSEN
Figure 4.4. Estimated extent of systematic agricultural exploitation in different periods in the Negev. Note that the Persian period is more or less coincident with the Middle and Late Bronze Ages,
And the middle ages
Figure 4.5. Schematic of the fluctuating boundaries of pastoral tribal presence in the Negev
Figure 4.6. Distribution of the tribal pastoral and agricultural systems of the Middle Ages
STEVEN A. ROSEN
Figure 4.7. Distribution of the tribal pastoral and agricultural systems of the Middle Bronze Age, circa 1800 B. C.
STEVEN A. ROSEN
Figure 4.9. Classical Complex architecture. Site 204-93 (Rosen 1994). Note that number in
Photograph is a field designation
Figure 4.10. Distribution of Byzantine/Early Islamic pastoral encampments versus agriculture sites in and around the Ramon crater (Rosen 1987a). Reproduced from The Journal of Field Archaeology with the permission of the Trustees of Boston university. All rights reserved
STEVEN A. ROSEN
World History
