The Israelite City 

"The canaanite city was surrounded by a 7.9 feet wall, set with gates and secondary openings (postern gates). Watchtowers with a semi-circular or square contour were built along its outer side. A peripheral street, lined with houses, runs along the wall's inner contour. A section of the wall and its towers has been reconstructed.

The well was constructed towards the end of the time of the Judean Kingdom, at the center of the Canaanite water reservoir, to a depth of 52.5 feet. According to the National Park Authority the wells water was transported to the distant fortress using pack animals. However, our investigations showed that the water to the well came from a source underneath the House of Yahweh possibly constructed during the time of Hezekiah. "During the Herodian period (first century BCE), the well was renovated and several plastered storage pools - some equipped with troughs (which bakers may use for knead dough for bread) -were constructed nearby." ('The Fortress Mound Program' by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority Publishing) 

The Israelite fortress 

Habitation of Arad by the Israelites began in the 11th century BCE. on the highest part of the site. A small settlement was built in the form of a courtyard encircled by residential buildings. A fortress was erected on the site, apparently during the reign of King Solomon in the second half of the 10th century BCE. Four additional settlement strata were uncovered above this original fortress reflecting structural changes introduced by various Judean kings following their destruction by conquering armies. The fortress, surrounded by a wall 180 feet long and 164 feet wide, contains a unique Judean shrine, water system, residential structures and storehouses. Discovered inside the fortress, were some 200 clay shards bearing ink-inscribed or engraved writings called ostraca and dating from various periods of the Judean kingdom as well as from the period of Perian rule. Over 100 of these ostraca are written in Hebrew and some 90 in Aramaic. Two particularly noteworthy ostraca include one citing the concept of the "House of Jehovah", perhaps a reference to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem; and the other mentioning Edom and the king of Judah in what appears to be a discussion of the Edomites threat faced by the Judean military outpost at Arad. The varied written find is of immense importance to the study of the development of Hebrew writing.

The six settlement strata uncovered at the Tel, represent fortresses dating from the period of the Judean Kingdom and the Hellenistic era. The wall, reconstructed at the site in its entirety, served to protect the Judean fortress during the 9th-6th centuries BCE. The remains of the solid-walled Hellenistic tower discovered at the center of the site were also reconstructed." ('The Fortress Mound Program' by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority Publishing) 

The above passage gives clear reference to the artifact that refers this to the house of Jehovah, however, it also introduces and confusing presumsion that this is in reference to the temple Solomon built.

"At Arad the temple is set within the north-eastern corner of the Israelite fortress and was maintained until dismantled by the the zealot Josiah. A simular structure was found at Lachish. Both sanctuaries repeat the tripartite scheme of the Solomonic temple, with variations. They have an open court with an altar, a sanctuary and a holy of holies in the form of a separate room or niche. The porch is replaced by side rooms. In Arad, the incense altars were placed in the holy of holies, contrary to Jerusalem usage." "The fortress and temple at Arad are also attributed to Solomon in the first place. They correspond to a similar temple at Lachish, erected on the site of an earlier, Canaanite sanctuary."

The statement above makes one misguiding comment about the site of the house of Yahweh. "the temple is set within the north-eastern corner of the Israelite fortress and was maintained until dismantled by the the zealot Josiah." It implies that the site was taken apart in the time of King Josiah for being a high place or a place dedicated to another god. Read the bible passage below:

"2Ki:23:4: And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. 2Ki:23:5: And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. 2Ki:23:6: And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. 2Ki:23:7: And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove. 2Ki:23:8: And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. 2Ki:23:9: Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. 2Ki:23:10: And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. 2Ki:23:11: And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 2Ki:23:12: And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 2Ki:23:13: And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. 2Ki:23:14: And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. 2Ki:23:15: Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. 2Ki:23:16: And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 2Ki:23:17: Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. 2Ki:23:18: And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 2Ki:23:19: And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 2Ki:23:20: And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem."

When did this house of Yahweh go out of use? 

It is generally spread about the house that it was buried at the time of King Hezekiah as one of the high places that were destroyed at that time. Yet, this whole concept doesn't line up with both archaeological and biblical references. 2Chr. 31:1 "Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke in pieces the pillars and hewed down the Ashe'rim and broke down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all." and 2Ki:18:4 "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan." Anyone actually reading these two passages will notice that they both say that Hezekiah and Israel broke in pieces and hewed down the high places and the things in them. In other times it is also mentioned that these things were burnt. But the place at Tel Arad was not done like this, any archaeologist that has worked on the site knows that the site was carefully dismantled and buried with all of its vessels completely intact.

Deuteronomy 12 states "De:12:1: These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. De:12:2: Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: De:12:3: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. De:12:4: Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. De:12:5: But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: De:12:6: And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: De:12:7: And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee."

So if this place was well known to be a house of Yahweh were according to artifacts found there people from far north to far south brought tithes and offerings, vows and freewill offerings. Then, this place wouldn't be destoryed at the time of Hezekiah or any other time.

All this in addition to a very clear time analysis Yadin Roman states that "From the epigraphic material found at Arad, we know of at least two priestly families that served in this temple...", "These two priestly families are mentioned both in letters found at Arad and in the Bible." And as mention before the priest Meremoth was during Ezra & Elishib's time; (Ezra 8:33, Neh 3:4). Therefore, we are shown indirectly what time this house of Yahweh existed.

After it was buried the town still in existence through the Second temple period. Mic:3:12: Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. 

For further information available on this subject (House of Yahweh). Feel free to contact us. For other archaeological sites we have investigated visited our reseach section.