Erickson-Gini (2014) argued that a major earthquake struck Oboda (Avdat) in the early 7th century CE, sometime after the latest dated inscription in the South Church (aka the Martyrium of St. Theodore), which dates to 617 CE (Negev 1981:37). Archaeological excavations uncovered widespread destruction and abandonment associated with this seismic event. Evidence of massive structural failure was documented across the site, particularly along the western slope with its numerous caves and buildings ( Korjenkov et al., 1996). At nearby Mezad Yeruham, a similar destruction horizon appears to have occurred contemporaneously (Y. Baumgarten, pers. comm. to Erickson-Gini), and signs of earthquake damage were identified at multiple other sites in the region. These include the construction of revetment walls around churches and private houses at Sobota (Shivta), Saʿadon, Rehovot-in-the-Negev, and Nessana — most likely as a response to structural instability caused by the same seismic event.

Following this destruction, parts of Avdat/Oboda were abandoned although occupation did continue in cave complexes on the slope of the acropolis and in hundreds of rock-hewn dwellings arranged in terraces below the necropolis. Radiocarbon dating and ceramic evidence from Bucking et al. (2022) showed that while some mortar samples belonged to the Byzantine period, most organic samples from the cave deposits dated to the Umayyad–Abbasid period (650–890 CE). This evidence — supported by the presence of Abbasid Mefjer/Buff Ware — indicates that although the city was no longer a major urban center, parts of the site remained intermittently occupied or reused well into the early Islamic era.

Further evidence for the early 7th-century earthquake was found in excavations conducted by Erickson-Gini (2022). In a cave on the southern slope of the acropolis (Area D), a collapsed bedrock shelf produced a deposit of massive earthquake debris. In the Roman–Byzantine Quarter (Areas A and B), collapsed, folded, and displaced walls, fallen ceilings, broken pottery, and rotated arch springers were also documented. While a ceramic derived Late Byzantine terminus post quem for this destruction is relatively secure, the terminus ante quem is less certain, likely because no overlying occupation layers were present. Taken together, these strands of evidence — stratigraphic, architectural, and radiometric — strongly support the occurrence of a destructive earthquake at Oboda probably in the early 7th century CE and probably shortly after 617 CE. The event caused widespread structural collapse, prompted post-seismic reinforcement measures such as revetment wall construction, and may have led or contributed to a fundamental shift in the town and region’s settlement pattern. While the city itself was largely abandoned as an urban center, the archaeological record shows continued, if transformed, human activity in the subsequent Umayyad and Abbasid periods.