Nessana in the Negev

ARCHAEOLOGY: A Large Byzantine Pilgrimage Hostel Complex Found in the Ancient City of Nessana in the Negev Desert (Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).

A team of researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is conducting excavations at the Nessana site, located in the southwestern Negev desert on the border between Israel and Egypt. This settlement, which reached its peak during the Byzantine and early Islamic periods (6th-7th centuries AD), has become a focal point for archaeologists seeking to unravel the mysteries of the material culture of pilgrimages in late antiquity.

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The underlying article by the excavator, just published in Antiquity, is open access through Cambridge Core:

Excavating ancient pilgrimage at Nessana, Negev
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2024

Yana Tchekhanovets

Type
Project Gallery Information
Antiquity , First View , pp. 1 - 7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.132

Abstract

The ancient site of Nessana in the south-western Negev had an important role in the logistics of early-Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The arid climate, which preserved organic material, and the richness of multilingual epigraphic evidence from this region make Nessana a key site for archaeological study of the material culture of pilgrimage.

For more on Nessana, see here (cf. here).

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