Ancient Farming
This topic was the hardest one to research. There is very little concerning ancient farming in the Negev. One is forced to follow many dead end leads, find major repetition of the most basic information from site to site, endure blogs that are written about northern Israel and do not apply to the Negev, though they falsely indicate they are for all of Israel, go from one good site to another because there is no one site that has enough about it, click on links that can lead to major dead ends, and endure sites that turn out to be absolute lies. Enough of my trials.
Farming in the Negev during ancient times was only slightly easier than now. From my research there is indication that it was wetter, receiving about twice as much rain as it does today. Today they dig wells that produce salt water, though less salty than the ocean, so they can use it to water certain crops. In ancient times the water that fell on the hills was channeled down to the fields in the valleys. There were also more trees than now, including frankincense, possibly the myrrh bush, terebinth, pines, some acacia, and wild almonds. They also grew pistachios, almonds, olives, and others. The crops that could be grown included barley, wheat in fields that had better soil, lentils, chick peas, flax, and others. In gardens they could grow onions, garlic, leeks, watermelons (if they had enough water), peas, and greens. They generally gathered roots and greens from the wild according to some research, though black radish was grown in gardens, and there were carrots and celery according to some sites.
Plowing was accomplished with a very primitive scratch plow. It generally consisted of a beam with a bronze or copper cladding on the point, and had to be forced down into the soil as the animal pulled it along. The depth was a maximum of 8” and they always waited until the rains began to plow. Harrowing was not done to smooth out the land, but was done to rake the seed into the soil and cover it so the birds would not eat it. Seed was sown by broadcasting, and the yield per acre was lower than in modern row sowing. Harvesting took time. One person could harvest about ½ acre per day, if that person also did the bundle tying. Sheaves were picked up and brought down to the threshng floor where a sledge pulled by an animal was drug across the loosed bundles or sheaves and the grain was separated from the stalks and hulls. It would be tossed up with a winnowing fork and the breeze would blow the chaff a distance and the grain would fall down to be swept up. I have actually witnessed a type of winnowing in the Philipines where the grain was loosed by people with their feet, then carried up a tower and poured onto the threshing floor. This is very labor intensive and takes time.
For collecting frankinsence, myrrh, and other resins from the trees, strips of bark were cut at the correct time of year and the resin was then collected over a three month period. In modern Israel most of those trees are now gone, as the wars and non-Israeli cultures destroyed them from the landscape.
There is a question about apple trees being in Israel during the time of the Judges, and true authorities say apricot trees were what the English versions of the bible translate as apple trees. Because of that reason, I stick with apricot trees, not apple trees. I have done enough research about where apple trees came from and when they were used in their native land to think this is correct.
Figs were also a desert product. Sycamore trees cannot stand freezing. They will die, as will frankinsence, myrrh, and some others. There is a native fig that needs wild figs planted nearby to produce. The figs from that tree are better than the sycamore fig, and the sycamore fig must be scratched or it will not ripen, as it comes from Africa and the wasp that fertilizes it does not live in Israel. That is what Amos did. He was an expert “fig fruit scratcher” to go out into the orchards and prepare the fruit to ripen so it would produce a good crop. This may sound trivial until one realizes that one mature tree can produce upwards of 300 figs or more. Amos could live all year on what he made.
A word on the girls sewing so much. It would probably be more accurate if I had them at the loom more. Flax is labor intensive, as is wool. Once the flax or wool is spun into threads, the threads were tied to a stout bar and then to a weight, usually a piece of terra cotta or pottery “ball,” and then other threads woven across and pushed up to make cloth. There are Egyptian drawings of these vertical looms as well as horizontal looms that probably were not used in ancient Israel. Sewing was a very time consuming part of women’s work in ancient Israel, as was the making of bread.
I read a thesis about large pots found in ancient Canaan, and so I came up with the idea that if these large pots were filled with water to a certain level, other pots could be placed inside with cheese, yoghurt, whey, and other perishable fruits and vegetables to give a type of refrigeration. The pots being covered would keep air circulation at a minimum, and fresh fruit and vegetables would last longer than sitting out on a shelf. I do not know if they did that, but neither does anyone else.
I took a little liberty of having Lamech and his family spreading the manure from the animals on their land, which would cause more water retention and produce better crops. I also do not know if that was done, as I could find no references pro or con to such a practice.
Farming in the Negev during ancient times was only slightly easier than now. From my research there is indication that it was wetter, receiving about twice as much rain as it does today. Today they dig wells that produce salt water, though less salty than the ocean, so they can use it to water certain crops. In ancient times the water that fell on the hills was channeled down to the fields in the valleys. There were also more trees than now, including frankincense, possibly the myrrh bush, terebinth, pines, some acacia, and wild almonds. They also grew pistachios, almonds, olives, and others. The crops that could be grown included barley, wheat in fields that had better soil, lentils, chick peas, flax, and others. In gardens they could grow onions, garlic, leeks, watermelons (if they had enough water), peas, and greens. They generally gathered roots and greens from the wild according to some research, though black radish was grown in gardens, and there were carrots and celery according to some sites.
Plowing was accomplished with a very primitive scratch plow. It generally consisted of a beam with a bronze or copper cladding on the point, and had to be forced down into the soil as the animal pulled it along. The depth was a maximum of 8” and they always waited until the rains began to plow. Harrowing was not done to smooth out the land, but was done to rake the seed into the soil and cover it so the birds would not eat it. Seed was sown by broadcasting, and the yield per acre was lower than in modern row sowing. Harvesting took time. One person could harvest about ½ acre per day, if that person also did the bundle tying. Sheaves were picked up and brought down to the threshng floor where a sledge pulled by an animal was drug across the loosed bundles or sheaves and the grain was separated from the stalks and hulls. It would be tossed up with a winnowing fork and the breeze would blow the chaff a distance and the grain would fall down to be swept up. I have actually witnessed a type of winnowing in the Philipines where the grain was loosed by people with their feet, then carried up a tower and poured onto the threshing floor. This is very labor intensive and takes time.
For collecting frankinsence, myrrh, and other resins from the trees, strips of bark were cut at the correct time of year and the resin was then collected over a three month period. In modern Israel most of those trees are now gone, as the wars and non-Israeli cultures destroyed them from the landscape.
There is a question about apple trees being in Israel during the time of the Judges, and true authorities say apricot trees were what the English versions of the bible translate as apple trees. Because of that reason, I stick with apricot trees, not apple trees. I have done enough research about where apple trees came from and when they were used in their native land to think this is correct.
Figs were also a desert product. Sycamore trees cannot stand freezing. They will die, as will frankinsence, myrrh, and some others. There is a native fig that needs wild figs planted nearby to produce. The figs from that tree are better than the sycamore fig, and the sycamore fig must be scratched or it will not ripen, as it comes from Africa and the wasp that fertilizes it does not live in Israel. That is what Amos did. He was an expert “fig fruit scratcher” to go out into the orchards and prepare the fruit to ripen so it would produce a good crop. This may sound trivial until one realizes that one mature tree can produce upwards of 300 figs or more. Amos could live all year on what he made.
A word on the girls sewing so much. It would probably be more accurate if I had them at the loom more. Flax is labor intensive, as is wool. Once the flax or wool is spun into threads, the threads were tied to a stout bar and then to a weight, usually a piece of terra cotta or pottery “ball,” and then other threads woven across and pushed up to make cloth. There are Egyptian drawings of these vertical looms as well as horizontal looms that probably were not used in ancient Israel. Sewing was a very time consuming part of women’s work in ancient Israel, as was the making of bread.
I read a thesis about large pots found in ancient Canaan, and so I came up with the idea that if these large pots were filled with water to a certain level, other pots could be placed inside with cheese, yoghurt, whey, and other perishable fruits and vegetables to give a type of refrigeration. The pots being covered would keep air circulation at a minimum, and fresh fruit and vegetables would last longer than sitting out on a shelf. I do not know if they did that, but neither does anyone else.
I took a little liberty of having Lamech and his family spreading the manure from the animals on their land, which would cause more water retention and produce better crops. I also do not know if that was done, as I could find no references pro or con to such a practice.