Byzantine Archaeological Remains in Beer Sheva, Israel

Beer Sheba in the Byzantine period was a large and important city in the province of Palestine Tertia. It served as an administrative, religious, and military center, and seat of the Roman military commander of Palestine. Beer Sheva is mentioned in many sources, including historical texts, epigraphic sources, and archaeological research. In recent years, following archaeological excavations conducted at the city's new transportation center have been uncovered Be'er Sheva's Byzantine residential neighborhoods. These excavations open a new window into the daily life of the city, in a way that did not exist before. The residential neighborhoods surrounded the city center to the north, east, and west and included buildings built on local loess soil and complexes dug within it. Industrial areas and large cemeteries with hundreds of tombs were located around the city. The state historical and archaeological research to date does not allow for a complete picture of the city in the Byzantine period. This article centralizes and summarizes most of the work on the subject to date and brings new insights to Byzantine Beer Sheva.

Raman investigation of corrosion products on Roman copper-based artefacts

<p class="Abstract">This paper illustrates a case study related to the characterisation of corrosion products present on recently excavated artefacts. The archaeological findings, from the Rakafot 54 site (Beer-Sheva, Israel), consist of 23 coins and a pendant, all dating back to the Roman period. Raman spectroscopy was used to identify the corrosion products that compose the patina covering the objects. To facilitate and support their identification, spectra were then processed using principal components analysis. This chemometric technique allowed the identification of two main compounds, classified as atacamite and clinoatacamite, which formed the main components of the patinas. The results of this investigation can help in assessing the conservation state of artefacts and defining the correct restoration strategy.</p>

When colonised and ‘Colonisers’ cooperate to decolonise: Activestills Collective of Palestine/Israel

Activestills is a political photography collective founded in 2005 in Palestine/Israel that consists of a small group of Palestinian, Israeli and international documentary photographers. The collective dedicates photography as a means to confront what it calls the Israeli settler-colonial project in the region of Palestine. Ahmad Al-Bazz, born in 1993, a Palestinian member of the collective, and Shachaf Polakow, born in Beer Sheva, his Israeli colleague, write a joint piece to reflect on their cooperation at Activestills (see: https://www.Activestills.org).

Shadow Plans for Beer Sheva, 1947-1949

The development of Jewish Beer Sheva was viewed as the building of a new city, since it was to be manyfold larger than the original Arabic Beer Sheva. The plan for the development of Jewish Beer Sheva was part of the ‘Sharon Plan’, a master plan for the State of Israel published in 1951. However, beyond this official plan, there were several other plans for the city which were eventually relegated to the archive: two plans for a Jewish neighborhood alongside the existing Arab city dated 1947 and a plan for the entire city drawn up by the ‘Afikim Ba-Negev’ company dated 1949. These plans, which were never implemented, shed light on the planning, thinking and ideology during this period, which were based on a connection to the land, the value of community and a changing attitude towards the Arab city.

Ancient runoff harvesting agriculture in the arid Beer Sheva Valley, Israel: An interdisciplinary study

Between 2004 and 2008, a wealth of ancient agriculture-related finds was uncovered during a survey throughout the loess plains of the Beer Sheva Valley region, in the arid northern Negev, Israel. The survey was conducted under the framework of an archeological study, aimed at assessing the similarities and dissimilarities of the valley’s ancient agricultural systems to those of the Negev Highlands to the south and of the Judean Lowlands and Southern Hebron Mountains to the north. Data collection from selected sites included detailed mapping of settlements and their hinterlands. Ancient runoff farming systems, comprised of relatively uniform stone terraces transecting the wadis (ephemeral stream channels), and other agriculture-related structures, such as tuleilat el anab (spatially patterned stone mounds erected on hillslopes), were revealed throughout the region. Other archeological finds included a variety of structures, including livestock pens, square watchtowers, rock-cut water cisterns, and others. This study indicates that like the agricultural systems in the neighboring southern and northern regions, the systematic terracing of wadis across the Beer Sheva Valley region was affiliated with the monastic settlement system, which was centrally managed by the church in the service of the Byzantine Empire. The significance of this settlement system stems from its highly capable central organization, aiming to achieve geo-political control of space. Despite peaking in the mid-6th century CE, this system persisted throughout the Early Islamic period, until the mid-8th century CE. Results of this study contradict the conclusions of previous studies, which negated the viability of ancient runoff farming across the loess plains of the Beer Sheva Valley region. Insights of this research highlight the need for interdisciplinary studies when assessing the interactions between human populations and the natural environment in ancient times.

Exposure Assessment of Indoor PM Levels During Extreme Dust Episodes

Millions of people live in areas that are subject to frequent dust events; however gaps remain in our knowledge about the association between dust, air quality and corresponding particulate matter (PM) exposure levels inside buildings. This case study demonstrates how the PM2.5 and PM10 levels in an urban environment respond to strong natural dust episodes. Real-time measurements were recorded simultaneously in indoor and outdoor environments in households in the city of Beer-Sheva, Israel during several strong dust events. A typical strong event was used for a detailed analysis of PM10 and PM2.5. Outdoor daily concentrations were above 1000 µg m−3 for PM10, the maximum hourly value of which was 1320 µg m−3. The indoor PM10 peaked at about 700 µg m−3 and fluctuated in parallel with the outdoor level but with a time lag of about 15 min. Indoor air tended to remain for several hours after the dust event had subsided. Analyses of multiple events revealed that the dependence of indoor PM2.5 and PM10 on natural dust varies but is not directly linked to the level of atmospheric dust concentration. From a health perspective, the exposure risk posed by extreme indoor PM2.5 and PM10 levels generated by natural dust episodes should be considered.

Using Open Street Map Data in Environmental Exposure Assessment Studies: Eastern Massachusetts, Bern Region, and South Israel as a Case Study

There is an increase in the awareness of the importance of spatial data in epidemiology and exposure assessment (EA) studies. Most studies use governmental and ordnance surveys, which are often expensive and sparsely updated, while in most developing countries, there are often no official geo-spatial data sources. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an open source Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) mapping project. Yet very few environmental epidemiological and EA studies have used OSM as a source for road data. Since VGI data is either noncommercial or governmental, the validity of OSM is often questioned. We investigate the robustness and validity of OSM data for use in epidemiological and EA studies. We compared OSM and Governmental Major Road Data (GRD) in three different regions: Massachusetts, USA; Bern, Switzerland; and Beer-Sheva, South Israel. The comparison was done by calculating data completeness, positional accuracy, and EA using traditional exposure methods. We found that OSM data is fairly complete and accurate in all regions. The results in all regions were robust, with Massachusetts showing the best fits (R2 0.93). Results in Bern (R2 0.78) and Beer-Sheva (R2 0.77) were only slightly lower. We conclude by suggesting that OSM data can be used reliably in environmental assessment studies.

Is the Measles Virus Indeed Involved in Carcinogenesis? – Commentary

Objectives: An association between the measles virus and Hodgkin lymphoma has been disclosed by our laboratory in Beer-Sheva, starting in 2003. We question the refutation of our study and the absence of interest among experts. Methodology: It was based on immunohistochemistry with commercial, as well as experimental anti-measles antibodies. It relied also on RT-PCR and in situ hybridization evidence of measles virus RNA. Key Results: At this stage (2004), the link between the virus and the lymphoma was essentially descriptive. The first and last response to our challenge appeared in 2007, in the form of doublet articles, in the same issue of a major cancer journal. The two European research groups responding, rejected categorically our findings by proposing different arguments. Major Conclusion: As reservations to these reactions became soon apparent, a series of papers from our laboratory were published. These articles concerned the evidence of a relationship between the measles virus and additional categories of cancers. Different malignancies in which this virus was not expressed at all, were also described. A further study suggested a mechanism by which the measles virus may activate lymphomagenesis in classic Hodgkin lymphoma. To our dismay, and in spite of repeated calls to verify the various results, no further response was obtained from international experts.