Rob:
Thanks so much for pointing us to that excellent article on large animals in Canaan during various time periods, including the entire Biblical time period. In case anyone missed that fine article that Rob cited, it’s here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0005316 Rob, I’m no expert in this field, but I seem to be reading the maps in that article quite differently than you are. Figure 4 shows where gazelle bones were found from the Early Bronze Age to the present. Note that no gazelle bones were found near Hebron. Note also that even when deer are at their lowest level, in the Persian period, the author specifically states that deer are still found in the Shephelah, at Lachish. If am understanding these maps correctly, the data is unequivocal that deer always flourished in the Shephelah, while never being near Hebron. Moreover, I believe that the presence of deer/gazelles is closely correlated with the presence of trees. As such, the marked lack in all time periods of deer or gazelles near Hebron calls into question whether oak trees would have been prominent in southern hill country. Per Figure 9, hartebeest bones were found in abundance in the Shephelah throughout the Bronze Age, while never being found near Hebron. Rob, I don’t see that fine article as attesting a single animal in the Hebron area in any time period. Meanwhile, that article documents all sorts of large animals throughout the Shephelah from the Early Bronze Age through the Iron Age. Rob, where does that fine article say that there were either large animals or oak trees in the Hebron area? Why would the Patriarchs choose to sojourn in one of the rare parts of Canaan, the Hebron area, that according to that article apparently featured neither large wild animals nor large numbers of oak trees? There have been at least two major archaeological digs at Hebron, so presumably there was data from Hebron that was used in this article’s findings. If I understand that article correctly, it is much more negative regarding the Hebron area than I have ever been. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
