Tel Shoket (Hebrew: תל שוקת) is an Israeli tell or archaeological hill in the north of the

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

. It is located adjacent to Highway 60, between the Meitar Interchange and

Meitar Meitar () is a small local council north-east of Beersheba, in Israel's Southern District. The town lies on Highway 60 just south of the Green Line on the southern edge of Mount Hebron, alongside the Yatir Forest. Metar is 19 km north o ...

. Tel Shoket gave name to the

Shoket Interchange Shoket Interchange is an Interchange (road), interchange in the Negev located between Beersheba and Meitar. It is the southern terminus of Highway 6 (Israel), Highway 6, Israel's central and longest controlled-access highway, also known as the Tran ...

nearby. At Tel Shoket, there is a Muslim cemetery that serves the residents of the nearby

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

town of

Hura Hura, or Houra (, ) is a Bedouin town in the Southern District of Israel. It is located near Beersheba and beside the town Meitar. The town was established in 1989 as a part of solution offered by the state for the consolidation of Negev Bedo ...

and the Bedouin villages and hamlets in the region. There also is a grove and some agriculture.

History

Pottery found on the tell indicates that the place was settled in the

Chalcolithic period The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in diff ...

, after which the site was inhabited continuously from the Israelite period to the

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. Some identify Tel Shoket with the biblical town of Lebaot (also called Beit Lebaot or Beit Barai), mentioned in the list of cities received by the tribe of Shimon within the territory of the tribe of Judah. Others identify it with Beit Pelet mentioned in the book of Nehemiah as one of the southern settlements where the people of Judah lived during the

Persian period The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

. During the campaign for Sinai and Palestine in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, about 1,100 Ottoman soldiers from the 3rd Cavalry Division were stationed at Tel Shoket. As the

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was originally a First World War army corps of the British Empire under the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the ...

approached

Tel Be'er Sheva Tel Sheva () or Tel Be'er Sheva (), also known as Tell es-Seba (), is an archaeological site in the Southern District of Israel, believed to be the site of the ancient biblical town of Beer-sheba. The site lies east of modern Beersheba and wes ...

in preparation for the 1917 Battle of Beersheba, they encountered massive fire from the fortified Ottoman positions that slowed the advancement from

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

and

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

References

{{reflist Tells (archaeology) Bnei Shimon Regional Council Sunni cemeteries Cemeteries in Israel Archaeological sites in Israel