ASIONGABER (Hebr. 'Esjón-gébher' = grove of Gébher [man’s name?]). — A city in the Edomite territory on the Red Sea, at the head of the Gulf of Elanitic, Elath (v.), which is the present-day el-'Aqabah. There the Israelites camped during the Exodus (Num. 33:35; Deut. 2:8). Solomon built a port and a merchant fleet there; a century later Jehoshaphat built a new fleet there destined for Ophir, but it was destroyed in the port of A. by a storm (1 Kgs. 9:26 ff.; 22:48 ff.; 2 Chr. 8:17; 9:21; 20:35–37). Already under Jehoram (849–842 B.C.) Edom, having rebelled, took from the kingdom of Judah (cf. 2 Kgs. 8:20–22; 2 Chr. 21:8–10) the coveted outlet to the sea. Later, the Bible no longer mentions A., but rather Elath, which Uzziah (789–738 B.C.) recovered from Edom.
It was identified in 1934 by F. Frank with Tell el-Heleifi, 500 m. from the present shoreline, 3.5 km northeast of el-'Aqabah. From 1938 to 1940 three excavation campaigns were conducted there under the direction of Nelson Glueck.
From these excavations it emerges that A. was founded as an industrial and commercial center in Solomon’s time and fortified with walls 2.50 to 3 m. thick and 8 m. high; it was equipped with metallurgical installations, especially for copper working. It may have been destroyed by Shishak (Shoshenq) around 950 B.C., then rebuilt (A. II) in the 9th century. After a fire, it was reconstructed on a new plan (A. III) in the 8th century, probably by Uzziah. Destroyed again by fire, it rose again (7th century) probably through the work of the Edomites: this fourth stratum (A. IV) lasted until the Persian or Hellenistic period (5th or 4th century B.C.).
ASINO -
Year — Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Detail from the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (A.D. 359) — Vatican Grottoes.
Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Detail from the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (A.D. 350) — Vatican Grottoes.