CONCLUSIONS

The facts and considerations presented in the previous chapters will have permitted the reader to formulate views on different aspects of research and analysis: archaeological, palaeoclimatic, palaeogeographic, historical, ethnological, exegetic, psychological, and philosophical. The raw material described so far may stimulate thought and debate, but in synthesis, what can we draw from twenty years of archaeological research at Har Karkom? One thousand, two hundred previously unknown archaeological sites and the resultant comparative research reveal some fundamental trends.

Har Karkom was a paramount cult centre and a sacred mountain beginning in the Palaeolithic Age, reaching its peak of religious activity in the third millennium BC. It was then a true "Mecca" for the desert people. If the epic accounts described in the books of Exodus and Numbers rely on a historical background, and if indeed an exodus from Egypt took place with stops at Mount Sinai and at Kadesh-barnea, the chronological context may refer only to the BAC period, and more precisely to phase BAC IV (2350-2000 BC). Har Karkom was a primary sacred mountain in that period, and the topography and archaeological evidence of its plateau appear to reflect the location and character of the biblical Mount Sinai. The documentation provided by archaeology at Jericho and Ai and other archaeological sites mentioned in the Bible, the parallels with Egyptian literature, and the finds at Har Karkom all seem to imply that the biblical accounts of Exodus may have a historical background. True to the character of mythical accounts, the stories may have undergone some degree of transformation and elaboration over years of transmission. One should not forget to acknowledge that storytellers and troubadours from various generations may have had a role in the final compilations of the texts which reached us. In contrast to the widespread tendency of dismissing the Bible as a historical source, in our view, this narrative, popularised though it may have been, was and is founded on real historical occurrences, as corroborated by the archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom.