Judea Samaria and the Golan – the archaeological survey of 1968

The archaeological survey of Judea and Samaria and the Golan in 1968 or as it was called the "Emergency Survey" is the first comprehensive archaeological survey that was conducted in these areas.

After The Six Day War, for the first time Israeli archaeologists had an opportunity to research these areas. They had information only about the ancient site located at the Golan region from Gottlieb Schumacher's book written at the end of the 19th century. In Judea and Samaria, with few exceptions, no sites were examined or identifications were incomplete.

The survey in the area began several months after the end of the Six Day War, due to the feeling that these areas would be returned to Jordan, Egypt and Syria as soon as possible. The archaeologist Avraham Biran who led the survey wrote: It was "a sort of lightning strike that discovered sites about which nothing was known." Israel Antiquities Authority, the IDF, the Israel Police with many volunteers joined to help carry out the survey. Completion surveys were carried out in the Golan, the Samaria Mountains, North Sinai and the Jewish sites in the south of Mount Hebron.

To carry out the survey, the areas were divided into five sections with a responsible archaeologist per area. 

Land of Judah – Moshe Kochavi.

The Judean Desert and the Jericho Valley – Pessah Bar-Adon

Land of Benjamin and Mount Ephraim – Zechariah Kalai

Land of Ephraim and Manasseh – Ram Gophna and Yosef Porat

The Golan – Claire Epstein and Shmarya Guttman

The land of Judah

The survey covered an area of 800 square kilometers that were beyond the borders established at the 1949 Armistice Agreements at the end of the War of Independence. The survey included almost all of the Judean Mountains, the eastern foothills of the Shephelah and the northern edge of the Negev. There was little archaeological knowledge about the Judean region, on the other hand, there was a lot of information about it from Biblical and historical sources. Therefore, the teams decided the survey would be conducted in the following order of priority: 

1. Archaeological examination of sites for which historical identifications have been proposed.

2. Examining the sites marked on the map as ancient sites.

3. Continuous coverage of the entire area.

A total of 208 sites were examined. Most of them are on the mountain ridge: domed mounds and mounds with an extension. Some of the sites from the Hellenistic period up to modern times were found destroyed, due to the removal of the stones for secondary use. Sites with unhewn stones, from earlier periods, were found preserved.

By dividing the sites according to the periods, it shows that there were fewer sites that preceded the Iron Age. The dense settlement began in the Iron Age by settlers who later became known as the Kingdom of Judah. At the end of the survey, the identification of many settlements was confirmed, among them: Betar, Tקkoa, Beth-zur, Halhul, Ziph, Carmel, Horvat Maon (Hebron Hills), Dvir, Keilah.

From the Persian period, archeologists found settlements without a wall in the Bethlehem area and citadels along the southern border of the Yehud Medinata that protected against invaders from the south of the country.

From the Hellenistic period a considerable increase in the settlement's density and strength is visible. It reminiscent the beginning of the settlement in the Iron Age. Most of the settlements in the south of Judean Mountains, among other things, around Adoraim which was the capital of Toparch.

During the Roman period, the number of settlements continued to increase. Magnificent remains have been found in several places in addition to those known from Herodium and Hebron – Cave of the Patriarchs. The findings were evidence of a flourishing area during the Second Temple period. There are also remains of developed agriculture on terraces. A thorough excavation was carried out near Betar to locate the city's surrounding fortifications during the Bar Kokhba revolt.

In the Byzantine period settlements reach their peak in all of Israel and also in Judea there is an increased number of settlements. In total, evidence was found of the existence of 127 settlements in the Judaean Mountains(twice as many as in the Roman period) and another 26 – in the high plains. These settlements form a "settlement bridge" to today's settlements, most of which are inhabited to this day. Special emphasis was given to finding remains from the Jewish settlements in the south of the Hebron mountains in the area known as Droma.

Another topic discussed in the survey was the road network found in Judea.

The Judean Desert and the Jericho Valley

The surveyed area included part of the Judean Desert that was not included in the borders of the State of Israel, the Jericho plains and the Jordan Valley up to Gesher Adam – 1,400 square kilometers. Due to the limited time of the survey – four months, the large number of sites and the difficulties and effort involved in surveying the caves, the results were only partial. Before the survey, the known sites were Qumran, Ein Feshkha and Murba'at caves. After the survey 210 new sites were discovered. "It seems that the desert climate preserved prominent traces of historical occurrences and events, especially related to Jewish history and its wars for independence and freedom." The survey did not raise hypotheses that would explain the following phenomena:

· There are almost no remains of settlement in the Judean desert for more than two thousand years, between the Chalcolithic period – 4,000 BC to 3,150 BC and the second Iron Age between 1000 BC – 586 BC.

· Its not possible to determine the dates of the fortified construction with walls throughout the desert, due to the lack of remains. Similar structures found in the Negev were dated to the Middle Canaanite period – 2200 BC – 2000 BC.

A prehistoric site was found covering an area of ​​25 dunams, south of Alexandrium. It was a center for stone tools industry and preserved flints were found there.

The possibility of sites from the Chalcolithic period was known in light of a magnificent treasure found in Nahal Mishmar and the Chalcolithic temple of Ein Gedi. Several other sites were found in the desert: circular enclosures with a diameter of 30 to 50 meters with a stage inside. Presumably these were ritual sites. The surveyors also hypothesized that the name "Gilgal" does not refer to a specific place but to a ritual site with a circular structure with a platform – dozens of them were found in the survey.

From the Israeli era, citadels, strongholds, and wall lines were found, one of them is 2.5 km long. The assumption is that this is a defensive system built during the Kingdom of Judah. ​​The authors of the survey believe that the defensive system was intended to protect flocks of sheep, pastures, agricultural crops, water cisterns, and trade caravans. In this context is a verse from the Book of Chronicles (2:26 – 10) about the days of King Uzziah " He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, because he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain. He had people working his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil". These cisterns are still used today by the Bedouin tribes.

From the Roman period, lines of fortifications and roads were found, along the same route chosen by the kings of Judah. The Romans added military camps and forts and other strongholds. It became clear in the survey to what extent the Roman army made an effort to block the path of the Jewish warriors. The romans-built forts and fortresses in the desert above streams and their origins to besiege the Jews and bring them to surrender.

Information and findings were also obtained about the aqueducts and many caves discovered in the cliffs. The caves, without exception, in the Judean desert and west of Jericho, were found almost empty of findings, the Bedouins probably preceded the survey teams. Pessah Bar-Adon, the director of the survey in the region, concludes: "There is no doubt in my mind that the hidden exceeds the revealed, such is true for the entire survey area."