Exploring the Wall Graffiti in the Raqafot Reservoir, Be’er Sheva‘

Graffiti depicting ships, animals and human/anthropomorphic figures were incised into the late Byzantine plaster layer of an Early Roman period rock-cut reservoir, located c. 4 km north of ancient Be’er Sheva‘, Israel. Although the reservoir was in use over the centuries, and as late as World War I, the latest plaster layer was applied in the late Byzantine period. The ship graffiti, seemingly incised with a sharp thin-edged tool shortly after the plaster was applied, depict the outlines of the hulls and rigging elements, and the ships are depicted as square-rigged merchantmen, typical of the period. The knowhow displayed in the various ship depictions, despite the distance of the reservoir from the coast, sheds light on a new and interesting aspect of the Byzantine-period Be’er Sheva‘ Valley farmsteads.