Overview

Bibliography

Sobata is a large agricultural town in the western Negev. It was founded in the Middle Nabatean period and grew and prospered through the Byzantine period. The city continued to inhabited into the Early Islamic period, but for how long is uncertain. Sobata is distinct from the other Nabatean Negev cities – Mampsis, Oboda, and Nessana – in that trade did not play a prominent economic role. The economy appears to have been based on agriculture. The city is similar to the others, however, with several large churches and private residences. The presence of stables suggests that horse breeding also played a role in the economy.

The ruins of Sobata were first surveyed and described by E. H. Palmer in 1870, then subsequently by A. Musil (1901), C. L. Woolley and T. E. Lawrence (1914), and W. Bachmann, C. Watzinger, and T. Wiegand (1916). Excavations were carried out by H. D. Colt in 1934-1938, but the results were never published. Avraham Negev surveyed the site several times between 1971 and 1976, and Arthur Segal carried out limited excavations from 1979 to 1982 on behalf of Ben Gurion University of the Negev.