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THE familiar biblical story of sibling rivalry, foreshadowing strife in the Middle East then and to this day, began when the pregnant Rebecca, wife of Isaac, was told by the Lord:
Two nations are in thy womb,
And two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;
And the one people shall be stronger than the other people;
And the elder shall serve the younger. -- Genesis 25:23
Rebecca gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob, whose lives fulfilled the prophecy. Esau, the firstborn, became a hunter who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, a stew. Jacob tricked their dying father into granting a blessing that made Jacob master over Esau. The brothers, an angry Esau and a fearful Jacob, went their separate, antagonistic ways as patriarchs of rival nations.
Esau took wives from among the Canaanites and settled his family in the hill country of Seir, which became known as the land of Edom. This land, east of the Negev desert of Israel, lies in present-day Jordan. Esau is called the father of the Edomites, about whom little is known except for the biblical accounts, which were colored by Israelite animosity.
New discoveries by archeologists are beginning to cast light on Edom's shadowy history. Digging at several sites in Edomite country, notably Tell el-Kheleifeh, they have uncovered distinctive pottery from the first millennium B.C. and seals bearing inscriptions to Qos, the principal Edomite deity. Other inscriptions name one of the Edomite kings mentioned in Assyrian documents.
More recently, however, the discoveries are coming from ruins well within Israel itself and are revealing previously unknown aspects of Edomite religion and art in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., apparently the height of the culture's political development. In a report in the current issue of The Biblical Archaeology Review, two Israeli archeologists describe what they say is "one of the most spectacular finds of recent decades in all Israel."
At En Hatzeva, a site in the Negev 20 miles southwest of the Dead Sea, the archeologists have discovered a hoard of religious artifacts, including shattered cultic figures that bear striking resemblances to Edomite material. Among the 75 objects are seven limestone incense altars, some stone sculptures with stylized human features, chalices and knee-high clay stands in the shape of human figures that were presumably used for making offerings to deities.
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