View source for Shivta

{{Short description|Archeological site in Israel}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox ancient site
|name          = Shivta
|native_name   = שבטה<br />شبطا
|alternate_name= possibly Shubitu (Nabataean), Sobota (ancient Greek), Subeita<ref name=NegevGibson>{{cite book |first1= Avraham |last1= Negev |first2= Shimon |last2= Gibson |work= Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land |title= Sobota; Shivta| year= 2001 |location= New York and London |publisher= Continuum |page= 474 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=l3JtAAAAMAAJ |isbn=0-8264-1316-1 }}</ref> and Isbeita<ref>[http://carta-jerusalem.com/biblical-sites/shivta-subeita-isbeita/ Shivta (Subeita, Isbeita)], Carta Digital Ltd, accessed 5 August 2020</ref> (Arabic).
|image         = Ruins of a church in Shivta in the Negev.jpg
|alt=
|caption       = Shivta's southern church
|map_type      = Israel
|map_alt=
|map_size      = 100
|coordinates   = {{coord|30.88|34.63|display=inline,title}}
|location      = [[Southern District (Israel)|Southern District]], [[Israel]]
|region        = [[Negev]]
|type          = Settlement
|part_of=
|area=
|material=
|built=
|abandoned     = 8th/9th century
|epochs=
|cultures      = [[Nabataeans|Nabataean]], [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]]
|dependency_of=
|occupants=
|excavations   = 1933-1934
|archaeologists=
|condition     = In ruins
|ownership=
|management=
|public_access=
|website= <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
|notes=
|designation1            = WHS
|designation1_offname    = [[Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev]] ([[Elusa (Haluza)|Haluza]], [[Mamshit]], [[Avdat]] and Shivta)
|designation1_date       = 2005 <small>(29th [[World Heritage Committee|session]])</small>
|designation1_number     = [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1107 1107]
|designation1_criteria   = iii, v
|designation1_type       = Cultural
|designation1_free1name  = Region
|designation1_free1value = [[List of World Heritage Sites in Europe|Europe and North America]]
}}

'''Shivta''' ({{langx|he|שבטה}}), originally '''Sobata''' ({{langx|el|Σόβατα}}) or '''Subeita''' ({{langx|ar|شبطا}}), is an ancient city in the [[Negev Desert]] of [[Israel]] located 43 kilometers southwest of [[Beersheba]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Segal|first=Arthur|date=1985-01-01|title=Shivta-A Byzantine Town in the Negev Desert|jstor=990111|journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians|volume=44|issue=4|pages=317–328|doi=10.2307/990111}}</ref> Shivta was declared a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]] in June 2005, as part of the [[Incense trade route|Incense Route]] and the [[Incense Route – Desert Cities in the Negev|Desert Cities of the Negev]], together with [[Elusa (Haluza)|Haluza]]/Elusa, [[Avdat]] and Mamshit/[[Mampsis]].<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 18</ref><ref>[https://cms.education.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/F5FF19A8-E1BB-4BC4-9C39-B557EEC62FD7/64650/unesco_04_05_eng.pdf Israel National Commission for UNESCO: Report on Activities 2004-2005], p. 30, accessed 6 August 2020</ref>

The name Shivta is a modern [[Hebraization of Palestinian place names|Hebraization, given by the Negev Naming Committee in the early 1950s]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Beʼer-Shevaʻ|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EcnYAAAAMAAJ|year=1992|publisher=Ḳiryat-sefer.|page=61|quote=The Arabic name of the site is A-Sbaita and is associated with the Sobata mentioned in the [[Nitzana (Nabataean city)|Nessana]] papyri. A. Negev assumes that the name originated from the Nabatean name Shubitu . The Hebrew name, Shivta, was awarded by the Governmental Commission of Names.}}</ref><ref name=NegevGibson>{{cite book |first1= Avraham |last1= Negev |first2= Shimon |last2= Gibson |work= Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land |title= Sobota; Shivta| year= 2001 |location= New York and London |publisher= Continuum |page= 474 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=l3JtAAAAMAAJ |isbn=0-8264-1316-1 }}</ref> The Greek name Sobata was mentioned in the [[Nitzana (Nabataean city)|Nessana]] papyri.

==History==
[[File:Subeita in the Survey of Palestine 1944 1-250,000 Sheet 3 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Subeita shown in the 1944 [[Survey of Palestine]] map]]
[[File:Street in Shivta ruins in the Negev.jpg|thumb|left|Shivta ruins]]

Long considered a classical [[Nabataean]] town on the ancient [[spice route]], archaeologists are now considering the possibility that Shivta was a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] agricultural colony and a way station for [[pilgrims]] en route to the [[Saint Catherine's Monastery]] in the [[Sinai Peninsula]].{{cn|date=August 2020}}

A few Roman-period ruins have been discovered, but most of the archaeological findings date to the [[Byzantine period]].{{cn|date=August 2020}} Shivta's water supply was based on [[surface runoff]] collected in large reservoirs.<ref name=parks>{{Cite web |url=http://www.parks.org.il/parks/ParksAndReserves/shivta/Pages/default.aspx |title=Shivta National Park |access-date=2012-12-30 |archive-date=2013-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130304141007/http://www.parks.org.il/parks/ParksAndReserves/shivta/Pages/default.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[https://www.parks.org.il/en/reserve-park/shivta-national-park/ Meet Shivta National Park], at the new homepage of the Nature and Parks Authority, accessed 5 August 2020</ref>

===Roman period===
Roman ruins from the first century BCE have been unearthed in the southern part of the town.<ref name=parks/>

===Byzantine period===
Three Byzantine churches (a main church and two smaller ones), two wine-presses, residential areas and administrative buildings have been excavated.{{cn|date=August 2020}}

====Churches====
Traces of a mural of [[Transfiguration of Jesus|Christ's transfiguration]] were discovered in the apse of the southern church, as well as remains of a colourful 6th-century mosaic and a beardless depiction of Jesus in the northern church.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-jesus-face-discovered-in-ancient-negev-church-1.6640744 "'Suddenly I Saw Eyes': Jesus’ Face Discovered in Ancient Israeli Desert Church"]. Ruth Schuster for Haaretz, 14 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2021.</ref><ref>Tepper, Yotam and Bar-Oz, Guy. [http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/Report_Detail_Eng.aspx?id=25825 Shivta: Preliminary Report]. Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (HA-ESI) Volume 132 Year 2020, Israel Antiquities Authority. Retrieved 24 November 2021.</ref>

====Agriculture (wine)====
{{main|Gaza wine}}
The wine presses at Shivta give an insight into the scale of wine production at the time.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2012-08-16|title=Deep in the desert|url=https://www.jpost.com/arts-and-culture/food-and-wine/wine-talk-deep-in-the-desert|access-date=5 August 2020|publisher=Adam Montefiore for The [[Jerusalem Post]]}}</ref> According to the calculations of archaeologists, the Nabatean/Byzantine village of Shivta produced about two million liters of wine.<ref>[https://www.jpost.com/magazine/lifestyle/no-sour-grapes "No sour grapes"], Deborah Rubin Fields for The Jerusalem Post, 17 February 2011, partially accessed 5 August 2020 {{subscription required}}</ref>

Adjacent to the site is a large farm that uses Nabatean{{dubious|No, Byzantine. Source is both very poor & old. Look for new source; not considered anymore a Nab. technique, still used in Byz. times.|date=August 2020}} agricultural techniques of irrigation, sowing and reaping.<ref name=Benzaquen>{{Cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/travel/around-israel/a-hop-skip-and-a-jump-into-the-past|title=A hop, skip and a jump into the past|newspaper=John Benzaquen for The Jerusalem Post, 26 August 2012|access-date=2020-08-05}}</ref>

In the early 6th century, grape production in the Negev for the so-called ''vinum Gazentum'' ('[[Gaza wine]]' in Latin) experienced a major boom due to the high demand for this product throughout Europe and the Middle East.<ref name=volcanoes/> This has been documented by studying ancient trash mounds at Shivta, [[Elusa (Haluza)|Elusa]], and [[Nessana]], which showed a sharp peak in the presence of grape pips and broken "Gaza jars" (a type of amphorae used in this period to export [[Levant]]ine goods from the port of Gaza), following a slower rise during the fourth and fifth centuries.<ref name=volcanoes/> However, mid-century two major calamities struck the Byzantine Empire and large parts of the world: a short period of climate change known as the [[Late Antique Little Ice Age]] (536-545), caused by huge volcanic eruptions in faraway places, which lead to [[Extreme weather events of 535–536|extreme weather events]]; and in the 540s the first outbreak of [[bubonic plague]] in the [[Old World]], known as the [[Justinianic Plague]].<ref name=volcanoes/> Probably as a result of these two events, international trade with luxury goods such as Gaza wine almost grounded to a halt, and in Shivta and other Negev settlements grape production again gave way to subsistence farming, focused on barley and wheat.<ref name=volcanoes/> The previously widely accepted theory that the [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|Muslim conquest]], which came a century later, and the Muslim ban on alcoholic beverages were the cause for the decline of the wine industry in the Negev has been now proven wrong.<ref name=volcanoes/> In nearby Nessana, the number of grape pips is even on the rise again during the Early Islamic period, probably due to the needs of a local Christian monastery.<ref name=volcanoes/> This seems to indicate that the wine industry of the Negev could well be sustained over centuries through appropriate agricultural techniques and in spite of the arid climate, but that the grape [[monoculture]] was economically unsustainable in the long run.<ref name=volcanoes>{{Cite news |url= https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-archaeologists-reveal-secrets-of-ancient-desert-wine-industry-1.9022227 |title= How Volcanoes and Plague Killed the Byzantine Wine Industry in Israel |newspaper= Ariel David for Haaretz, 29 July 2020 |access-date= 2020-08-04}}</ref>

===Early Muslim period===
After the [[Early Muslim conquests|Arab conquest]] in the 7th century CE, the population dwindled.{{why|date=August 2020}} Shivta was finally abandoned in the 8th or 9th century CE.{{cn|date=August 2020}}

== The Armenian graffito from the Southern Church of Shivta ==
The Armenian graffito from the Southern Church of Shivta is a significant archaeological find. It has been dated it to the 9th-11th centuries, to a time after the site had already been abandoned. The date is based on paleographic analysis, as well as the location of the graffito.<ref name= YTYT>{{cite book |last= Tchekanovets |first= Yana |last2= Tepper |first2= Yotam |author-link= Yotam Tepper |last3= Bar-Oz |first3= Guy |title=The Armenian Graffito from the Southern Church of Shivta |page=446-454 |url=https://www.academia.edu/35320887}}</ref> It is located in the apse, at a height of 2.8 meters from the church floor, and consists of only two uncial letters: Բ (B) and Ա (A), 17 cm high and together 24 cm wide.{{cn |date= July 2025}}

==Excavation history==
[[Ulrich Jasper Seetzen]] was the first [[West]]erner to visit the site when he arrived in 1805, but he misidentified it as Abde (Avdat).<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 1</ref> [[Edward Henry Palmer]] came in 1870 and the following year he published the first official description,<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 2</ref> while [[Alois Musil]]'s 1901 visit resulted in the publication of the first photos of the ruins.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 4</ref> A team from the [[École Biblique]] in Jerusalem including famed researchers [[Antonin Jaussen]], [[Raphaël Savignac]] and [[Louis-Hugues Vincent]] studied a few aspects of the site in 1904, Theodor Kühtreiber added a few observations in 1912.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 5</ref> The first scientific study covering agricultural and social aspects came as a result of a survey by [[Charles Leonard Woolley|C. L. Woolley]] and [[T. E. Lawrence]] (the future "Lawrence of Arabia"), taken on behalf of the [[Palestine Exploration Fund]] (PEF) in 1914.<ref>Röhl (2010), pp. 6ff.</ref> During the [[World War I|Great War]], a German team of researchers ([[Theodor Wiegand]], [[Carl Watzinger]] and Walter Bachmann), part of the {{ill|Deutsch-Türkisches Denkmalschutzkommando|de}} ("German-Turkish Command for Cultural Heritage Protection"), studied the site in 1916.<ref>Röhl (2010), pp. 11ff.</ref> The École Biblique returned in 1926 with a team under Raphaël Tonneau, and in 1929 with Alexis Mallon.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 14</ref>

In 1933–38, American archaeologist Harris Dunscombe Colt conducted a dig at Shivta. The house he lived in bears an inscription in ancient Greek that reads: "With good luck. Colt built (this house) with his own money."<ref name="parks"/><ref>Röhl (2010), pp. 14-15</ref> Colt never published the result of his excavations, which also represent the only large-scale archaeological campaigns executed at the site.<ref>Röhl (2010), pp. 14-15</ref> Much of the archaeological information is lost for good, not least due to a fire on 7 October 1938 at the expedition house that consumed all the collected architectural decoration and dig notes.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 15. See also the <span class="plainlinks">[https://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=2282&type_id=&id=31543''letter to Colt''] </span> describing the damage.</ref>

Updates from 2018:
:In January 1938, a suitcase, which contained artifacts, documents, and photographs from the archaeological excavations at Shivta, was forgotten at the Haifa port. The suitcase belonged to Harris Dunscombe Colt (1901—1973), the excavator of Shivta. Colt never came to claim the forgotten suitcase, nor was it ever sent to him. The suitcase was eventually shipped to Jerusalem and its contents were never studied or published. <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mushecht.haifa.ac.il/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=638:the-forgotten-suitcase&catid=214&Itemid=178&lang=en|title=The Forgotten Suitcase}}</ref>
:The artifacts, which consist of small items like jewelry, door hinges, nails, pieces of glass, objects made from bone, ivory and wood, and shards of pottery inscribed with Arabic and Greek writing, are now on display at the [[Hecht Museum]] at the University of Haifa.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livescience.com/64798-lost-artifacts-shivta.html|title = Customs Letter About a Long-Lost Suitcase Leads to Artifacts from Desert with Early 'Jesus' Painting| website=[[Live Science]] |date = 19 February 2019}}</ref>

In the late 1940s, [[Bellarmino Bagatti]] continued work at the northern church,<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 15</ref> and in the 1950s [[Nelson Glueck]] researched Shivta's ecology.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 16</ref> Between 1958-1960, [[Michael Avi-Yonah]] and made the site accessible, in the process also clearing the central church of debris.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 16</ref>

In the 1960s, botanist [[Michael Evenari]] studied the economy of Shivta and water collection in its arid environment, his methods of [[experimental archaeology]] offering important insights into [[subsistence farming]] in the Negev desert.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 16</ref>

Between 1970-1976, Avraham Negev led various surveys,<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 16</ref> others following with a number of small digs, theoretical studies and mapping efforts.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 17</ref> A 2000-2001 in-depth study of Shivta's water systems, based on surveys and analysis, was the work of Tsvika Tsuk.<ref>Röhl (2010), p. 18</ref>

==See also==
* [[Archaeology of Israel]]
* [[Tourism in Israel]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Tepper|first1= Yotam|author-link1=Yotam Tepper|last2=Bar-Oz|first2= Guy|date= 2016-05-04 |url=http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=24977&mag_id=124 |title=Shivta Preliminary Report|publisher=Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel |number=128}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Erickson-Gini|first1= Tali|date= 2013-12-16 |url=http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/Report_Detail_Eng.aspx?id=5420&mag_id=120|title=Shivta Final Report
|publisher=Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel |number=125}}
* Nash, G.H., 2019. One of the magnificent six: Secrets for the Byzantine city of Shivta. Current World Archaeology 96, 46-49.
* {{cite web |last= Röhl |first= Constanze |title= Shivta, Architektur und Gesellschaft einer byzantinischen Siedlung im Negev (PhD thesis); "Shivta, Architecture and Society of a Byzantine settlement in the Negev" |date= 2010 |publisher=[[University of Cologne]] |location= [[Cologne]], Germany |url= http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/cgi/search/simple?q=Shivta&_action_search=Suchen&_action_search=Search&_order=bytitle&basic_srchtype=ALL&_satisfyall=ALL |language= de |access-date=5 August 2020 }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071023204440/http://www.co-ground.com/common/360_Shivtah_m.html 360 degrees panorama of Shivtah]}}
* [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1107 Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev], UNESCO
* [https://www.beweb.chiesacattolica.it/percorsi/percorso/101/Il+Battistero+nella+storia%3A+dal+rito+al+luogo/battisteri/24/Shivta I due Battisteri di Shivta] su BeWeB - Beni ecclesiastici in web
*[https://www.manar-al-athar.ox.ac.uk/pages/collections_featured.php?parent=6346 Photos of Shivta] at the [[Manar al-Athar]] photo archive
{{World Heritage Sites in Israel}}
{{National parks of Israel}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Nabataean sites in Israel]]
[[Category:Nabataean architecture]]
[[Category:National parks of Israel]]
[[Category:World Heritage Sites in Israel]]
[[Category:Ramat Negev Regional Council]]
[[Category:Former populated places in West Asia]]
[[Category:Byzantine architecture]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Southern District (Israel)]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Southern District (Israel)]]
[[Category:Protected areas of Southern District (Israel)]]