- Har Karkom
Har Karkom ("Mountain of Saffron", also called Jabal Ideid) is a mountain in the southwest
Negev desert inIsrael , half way betweenPetra andKadesh Barnea . On the basis that theIsraelites travelled across theSinai peninsula towardsPetra in a fairly straight line, a number of scholars have contemplated the possibility of Jabal Ideid being theBiblical Mount Sinai . Following this theory,Emmanuel Anati excavated at the mountain, and discovered that it was a majorpaleolithic cult centre, with the surrounding plateau covered with shrines, altars, stone circles, stone pillars, and over 40,000 rock engravings.Although, on the basis of his findings, Anati advocates the identification of Jabal Ideid with Mount Sinai [Emmanuel Anati, "The riddle of Mount Sinai : archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom" (2001)] [ [http://www.harkarkom.com Mount Sinai has been found: Archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom ] ] , the peak of religious activity at the site dates to 2350-2000 BC, and the mountain appears to have been abandoned between 1950-1000 BC;
the exodus is usually dated between 1600-1200 BC.Citations and Notes
Further reading
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External links
* [http://www.harkarkom.com/ Har Karkom website]
* [http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Mount_Har_Karkom.html Har Karkom on Tripod]
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