Intensive agriculture in the Byzantine-era Negev

ARCHAEOLOGY: Making the Negev Bloom: The Byzantines Did It First. Archaeological survey finds not the odd isolated farm but intense agriculture in Israel’s Negev desert in the Byzantine period, between the 2nd and 6th centuries (Nir Hasson, Haaretz).

The archaeologists behind the survey hoped for insight into two questions about the Byzantine Negev. How did the arid southern desert became so prosperous back then? And why did the good times end?

A long and informative article on the survey.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the recent archaeology of the late-antique Negev, see the links collected here, plus here and here. For a couple of important, slightly later discoveries in the region, see here.

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