Biblical Archaeology Review

De Vaux, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 4, 7, 15–17, 28.

GeoJournal article, and shown on a map that formed the front and back covers of BA 44:1 (1981).

The only time we hear of the tax being suspended was during the reigns of Demetrius of Syria and Alexander Balas, when those kings sought to curry favor from Jonathan around 160 B.C.E. (1 Maccabees 10:28–30).

See also M. Harel, “The Roman Road at Ma’aleh ‘Aqrabbim (Scorpions’ Ascent),” Israel Exploration Journal IX:3 (1959), pp. 175–179, and John Rogerson, The New Atlas of the Bible (London: Guild, 1985), p. 114.

Some people who have had access to de Vaux’s notes suspect he was well aware of the remains of the wall and had recorded its existence in his notes but did not mention it in his publications. This wharf is also apparently recorded as 350-meter, NW-SE oriented, remains of a wall in the 1967–1968 Judea-Samaria-Golan survey published in 1972. Ed. Moshe Kochavi, Judaea, Samaria and the Golan, Archaeological Survey 1967–1968 (Archaeological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem, 1972). See also Lawrence E. Stager, “Farming,” p. 157.

We can trace the movement of these products as far as Petra in the writings of Strabo. Since some of it ended up in Gaza, according to Pliny, we can only assume that a transhipment took place across the Dead Sea. Strabo, Geographia 16.4.24, and Pliny, Natural History 12.32.63–64.

This trade is described by G. van Beek, “Frankincense and Myrrh,” BA 2 (1964), pp. 99–126. See also J. Innes Miller, The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire, 29 B.C.–A.D. 641 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1969), pp. 102–105.

Pessah Bar-Adon, “Excavations in the Judean Desert,” Atiqot 9 (1989), Hebrew Series 1–91. See map opposite p. 1.