Archaeologists first discovered a 10th-century fort in the Timna Valley—located near Eilat at Israel’s southern tip—in 2014. But only recently, by performing tests on the remarkably well preserved animal bones and dung in the complex’s stables, were they able to realize some of their discovery’s implications. James Rogers writes:

Built of sturdy stone to defend against invasions, the fortification had pens for draft animals and other livestock. By studying pollen, seeds, and fauna in the dung, experts found that the animals were fed with hay and the remains of grapes, which were delivered from the Mediterranean coast hundreds of miles away.

The research . . . highlights the ancient community’s sophisticated defense system and trade links. “The evidence demonstrates long-distance connections with the Mediterranean region,” said Erez Ben-Yosef, [one of the leaders of the excavation]. In addition to transporting materials to other regions, the donkeys at the fortification would also have been used in copper production.

The fact that the two-room fortification is located within one of the largest ancient smelting plants in the Timna Valley is particularly important, according to Ben-Yosef. “Until now we didn’t have evidence for military conflicts in the copper mines of Timna at this period,” [he said]. “Moreover, they are in accord with the biblical accounts depicting wars between David and the Edomites who inhabited this region.”

The archaeologist added that, with biblical historians hotly debating these accounts, any evidence is of great importance.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.