MAMPSIS
(Kurnub) Israel.
A small town in
the central Negev 40 km SE of Beersheba, on the way
to the Dead Sea. The name Mampsis appears for the
first time in the first half of the 2d c. A.D. (Ptol.
Geog.
5.15.7), where it is referred to as a place in Idumaea.
Eusebius (
Onom. 8.8) states that it was situated at a
distance of one day's march on the way from Hebron
to Aila. It is further mentioned in numerous sources of
the Byzantine period, such as the Madaba mosaic map
and the Nessana papyri. The site has been extensively
excavated. The earliest settlement on the site is Nabatean
(first half of the 1st c. A.D.). The remains of this town
were almost completely covered by the extensive Nabatean town of the early 2d c. A palace, an administrative
complex of buildings centered around a large tower, two
private dwellings, a public reservoir have been uncovered, and water storage devices in nearby wadies. Typical
of the period is the excellent quality of the masonry and
of the architectural decoration. Both the palace and the
private dwellings were built as self-contained fortresses,
with rooms around central courts. Each unit had only
one entrance, and the outside walls were solid with narrow slots high up on the wall. All houses had at least
two stories, and those above ground level were reached
by means of towers in which the stairs were built around
a heavy pier. A balcony surrounded the court. The private dwellings were provided also with storerooms and
stables of a type hitherto known only from the Hauran
and S Syria. The roofing system was based on arches
with coverstones. There was at least one cistern for each
house. The public reservoir (18 x 10 m and 3 m deep)
was roofed over by arches resting on piers. The water
storage consisted of series of dams, in which flood waters
were transferred to public and private reservoirs in the
town.
To this period also belong two necropoleis, discovered
near the town. One was civilian, the other military. Two
inscriptions identify a centurion of the Legio III Cyrenaica, and an eques of Cohors I Augusta Thracum respectively. Burial in the civilian necropolis was in a cist 2-4 m deep. The bottom was lined with ashlar, and here
a wooden coffin was placed. Over the cover stone of the
grave closely packed stones were placed. Above the
ground rose a stepped pyramid. One of these survives.
Some of the tombs contained drachmas of Trajan, and
one had seal impressions of Petra, Characmoba, and
Rabatmoba from the time of Hadrian. A great quantity
of gold jewelry was found in some of the tombs. One
tomb was dated by a Nabatean denarius to A.D. 44. Many
Nabatean pottery vessels represented both burial periods.
The dead in the military necropolis were cremated.
Mampsis was settled also in the late 2d and 3d c.
Since all Nabatean houses were still in a good state of
repair, no new building was needed. In one of the houses
a hoard of 10,500 Roman silver coins was found. Of
these ca. 2500 were drachmas and tetradrachmas of
the period from Vespasian to Hadrian, while the remainder belonged to the Severii. In the same house frescos depicting men, women, Eros and Psyche, Leda and the Swan, etc., were discovered. To this period possibly belongs a bath building built on the normal Roman plan.
Around 300 A.D. the town was surrounded by a wall. No
other changes were apparent in the town, and there was
no interruption in settlement between the periods.
In the Byzantine period the number of inhabitants
increased greatly. The need for more living space was
met by repartitioning the older Nabatean houses, and by
building annexes to these houses in the broad streets. The
two churches which belong to this period were squeezed
into the town by destroying parts of the town wall. As
in the earlier periods the architecture of Mampsis in the
Byzantine period was superior to that of the neighboring
towns. Both churches were built on an identical plan: a
basilica of one apse and two side rooms. Each had a
spacious atrium, but no narthex. One church was a complex covering an area of 55 by 25 m, while the other was only 27 by 10 m. Both had mosaic floors.
At ca. 634-36 Mampsis was overrun by Arabs, who
occupied it for a period long enough to destroy the site,
leaving a few graffiti on the stones of the apse of the
large church.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Negev, “Kurnub dans le Néguev,”
Bible et Terre Sainte 90 (1967) 6-17; id., “Mampsis, A
Town in the Eastern Negev,”
Raagi, Journal of Art History and Archaeology 7. 3-4 (1967) 5-28; id., “Oboda,
Mampsis and the Provincia Arabia,”
Israel Exploration
Journal 17 (1967) 46-55; id.,
Cities of the Desert
(1967); id., “A City of the Negev,”
ILN 14 and 21 Sept.,
1968; id., “The Chronology of the Middle Nabatean
Period,”
PEQ 101 (1969) 4-15; id., “Mampsis, eine
Stadt in Negev,”
Antike Welt 3, 4 (1972) 13-28.
A. NEGEV
