Rehav Rubin

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Historical Geography, Faculty Member

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I am a professor at the Department of Geography, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.My areas of research are Historical geography and history of cartography and mapping, mainly of the Holy Land/ Israel.My website is: En.rehavrubin.huji.ac.il
Address: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

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Thomas Römer

Collège de France

Ronit Lupu

Ianir Milevski

National Scientific and Technical Research Council

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Israel Antiquities Authority

Amit Reem

Roy Albag

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design

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Israel Antiquities Authority

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Israel Antiquities Authority

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A Time Machine Ride Through the Judean Hills

The idea of time travel was coined back in fin-de-siècle England. In his famous book The Time Mac... more The idea of time travel was coined back in fin-de-siècle England. In his famous book The Time Machine (1895), H. G. Wells conjured up a voyage into the future in search of a better society. A more recent take on this theme is the popular 1985 movie Back to the Future. Many historians and archaeologists, though, dream of visiting a prior era that they are researching in order to fill in missing details. While time travel is confined to the genre of science fiction, simulation technologies allow for the virtual reconstruction of various sites. Nestled in the heart of the Land of Israel/Palestine, the Judean Hills and its roads to Jerusalem are a stage upon which kings and governors, travelers and conquerors, laymen and pilgrims, as well as native shepherds and tillers of the earth, have partaken in an ongoing saga that has forged this region. Every age has had its own rulers, prevailing faith and culture, technologies and architectural style that have all left their stamp. The intricate landscape spread out before us today is the cumulative result of all these factors. Its sundry historical-cum-archaeological vestiges offer a laboratory and observation deck from which to improve our knowledge of this cultural landscape. In the Judean Hills, it is seldom easy to distinguish the hallmark features of one era from among other artifacts dotting the terrain: the ruins of villages, the stone edifices in the fields, the agricultural terraces on the slopes and in the streambeds, the water cisterns and water installation near springs, and the remains of olive and wine presses, to name but a few. It was indeed in the hopes of clarifying such matters that I boarded the imaginary 'time machine'. My excursion was limited to a narrow strip along modern-day Highway 1, from the approaches to Jerusalem in the east, to Sha'ar Ha-Gai (Bab al-Wad in Arabic) in the west. Along the way, I stopped off at sites that represent particular epochs, ranging from the Roman era almost to the present time, with the objective

Rehav Rubin

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