Masada

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Biography

Masada ( Hebrew language|Hebrew ????, pronounced , from ?????, metzuda , "fortress") is the name for a site of ancient palace s and fortification s in the Southern District (Israel)|Southern District of Israel , on top of an isolated rock plateau , or horst (geology)|horst , on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert , overlooking the Dead Sea . Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE. In the final accords of the First Jewish–Roman War , the Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire led to the mass suicide of the Sicarii rebels. Masada is located at 31°18'56"N, 35°21'14"E, about east of Arad, Israel|Arad .

Geography

The cliffs on the east edge of Masada are about high and the cliffs on the west are about high; the natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. The top of the plateau is flat and rhomboid -shaped, about by . There was a casemate wall around the top of the plateau totaling long and high, with many towers, and the fortress included storehouses, barracks , an Armory (military)|armory , the palace, and cistern s that were refilled by rainwater . Three narrow, winding paths led from below up to fortified gates.

History

According to Josephus , a 1st-century Jew ish Ancient Rome|Roman historian, Herod the Great fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt. In 66 CE, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire, a group of Jewish extremists, called the Sicarii , overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, additional members of the Sicarii and numerous Jewish families fled Jerusalem and settled on the mountaintop, using it as a base for harassing the Romans.

In 72, the Roman governor of Iudaea Lucius Flavius Silva headed the Roman legion Legio X Fretensis|X Fretensis and laid Siege of Masada|siege to Masada. The Roman legion surrounded Masada, and built a circumvallation wall and then a Defensive wall|siege embankment against the western face of the plateau, moving thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth to do so. Josephus does not record any attempts by the Sicarii to counterattack the besiegers during this process, a significant difference from his accounts of other sieges against Jewish fortresses. He did record their raid before the siege on Ein-Gedi , a nearby Jewish settlement, where the Sicarii allegedly killed 700 of its inhabitants.

According to Dan Gill,Gill, Dan. , Nature 364 , pp. 569–570 (12 August 1993); DOI 10.1038/364569a0 geological investigations in the early 1990s confirmed earlier observations that the high assault ramp consisted mostly of a natural spur of bedrock that required a ramp only high built atop it in order to reach the Masada defenses. This discovery would diminish both the scope of the construction and of the conflict between the Sicarii and Romans, relative to the popular perspective in which the ramp was an epic feat of construction. The rampart was complete in the spring of 73, after probably two to three months of siege, allowing the Romans to finally breach the wall of the fortress with a battering ram on April 16.Duncan B. Campbell, "Capturing a desert fortress: Flavius Silva and the siege of Masada", Ancient Warfare (magazine)| Ancient Warfare Vol. IV, no. 2 (Spring 2010), pp. 28–35. The dating is explained on pp. 29 and 32. According to Josephus, when Roman troops entered the fortress, they discovered that its 960 inhabitants had set all the buildings but the food storerooms ablaze and committed a mass suicide . Modern archaeologists have found no evidence of mass burial at the location and only some thirty skeletons have been recovered on the site. The lack of such evidence and the absence of any first person historical references has led to the idea that a mass suicide is a myth and to a book called "The Masada Myth".

Masada today

The site of Masada was identified in 1842 and extensively excavated between 1963 and 1965 by an expedition led by Archaeology of Israel|Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin . While a hike up the Snake Path on the eastern side of the mountain (access via the Dead Sea Highway ) is considered part of the "Masada experience," a Aerial tramway|cable car operates at the site for those who wish to avoid the physical exertion. Due to the remoteness from human habitation and its arid environment, the site has remained largely untouched by humans or nature during the past two millennia. The Roman ramp still stands on the western side and can be climbed on foot. Many of the ancient buildings have been restored from their remains, as have the wall-paintings of Herod's two main palaces, and the Roman-style Public bathing|bathhouse s that he built. The synagogue , storehouses, and houses of the Jewish rebels have also been identified and restored. The meter-high circumvallation wall that the Romans built around Masada can be seen, together with eleven barracks for the Roman soldiers just outside this wall. Water cisterns two-thirds of the way up the cliff drain the nearby wadi s by an elaborate system of channels, which explains how the rebels managed to conserve enough water for such a long time.

Inside the synagogue, an ostracon bearing the inscription ''me'aser cohen (tithe for the priest) was found, as were fragments of two scrolls; parts of Deuteronomy 33–34 and parts of Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel 35–38 (including the vision of the Dem Bones|"dry bones" ), found hidden in pits dug under the floor of a small room built inside the synagogue. In other loci fragments were found of the books of Book of Genesis|Genesis , Leviticus , Psalms , and Sirach , as well as of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice .

Archaeologist Yigael Yadin 's excavations uncovered the skeletal remains of 28 people at Masada. The remains of a male 20–22 years of age, a female 17–18 and a child approximately 12 years old were found in the palace. The remains of two men and a full head of hair with braids belonging to a woman were also found in the bath house. Forensic analysis showed the hair had been cut from the woman's head with a sharp instrument while she was still alive (a Jewish practice for captured women) while the braids indicated that she was married. Based on the evidence, anthropologist Joe Zias believes the remains may have been Romans whom the rebels captured when they seized the garrison. The remains of 25 people were found in a cave at the base of the cliff. Carbon dating of textiles found with the remains in the cave indicate they are contemporaneous with the period of the Revolt and it is believed that as they were buried with pig bones (a Roman practice); this indicates that the remains may belong to Romans who garrisoned Masada after its recapture. Others, nevertheless, still maintain that the remains are those of the Jewish Zealots who committed suicide during the siege of Masada, and all were reburied at Masada with full military honours on July 7, 1969.

The remnants of a Byzantine Empire|Byzantine church dating from the 5th and 6th centuries have also been excavated on the top of Masada.

The Masada story was the inspiration for the "Masada plan" devised by the British during the Mandate era. The plan was to man defensive positions on Mount Carmel, Israel|Mount Carmel with Palmach fighters, in order to stop Erwin Rommel|Erwin Rommel's expected drive through the region in 1942. The plan was abandoned following Rommel's defeat at Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein .
The Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Moshe Dayan , initiated the practice of holding the swearing-in ceremony of soldiers who have completed their Tironut (IDF basic training) on top of Masada. The ceremony ends with the declaration: "Masada shall not fall again." The soldiers climb the Snake Path at night and are sworn in with torches lighting the background.Dan Bitan, , the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert, 1960, Yad Ben Zvi

Masada was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. An audiovisual light show is presented nightly on the western side of the mountain (access by car from the Arad, Israel|Arad road or by foot, down the mountain via the Roman ramp path).

In 2007, a new museum opened at the site in which archeological findings are displayed in a theatrical setting.

A 2,000-year-old seed discovered during archaeological excavations in the early 1960s was successfully germinated into a date plant. At the time it was the oldest known germination, remaining so until a new record was set in 2012.

Layout

1.& nbsp;snake path gate.
2.& nbsp;rebel dwellings.
3.& nbsp;Byzantine monastic cave.
4.& nbsp;eastern water cistern.
5.& nbsp;rebel dwellings.
6.& nbsp;mikvah.
7.& nbsp;southern gate.
8.& nbsp;rebel dwellings.
9.& nbsp;southern water cistern.
10.& nbsp;southern fort.
11.& nbsp;swimming pool.
12.& nbsp;small palace.
13.& nbsp;round columbarium tower.
14.& nbsp;mosaic workshop.
15.& nbsp;small palace.
16.& nbsp;small palace.
17.& nbsp;public immersion pool.

18–21.& nbsp;Western Palace :
18.& nbsp;service area.
19.& nbsp;residential area.
20.& nbsp;storerooms.
21.& nbsp;administrative area.
22.& nbsp;tanners' tower.
23.& nbsp;western Byzantine gate.
24.& nbsp;columbarium towers.
25.& nbsp;synagogue.
26.& nbsp;Byzantine church.
27.& nbsp;barracks.

28–39.& nbsp;Northern Palace :
28.& nbsp;grand residence.
29.& nbsp;quarry.
30.& nbsp;commandant’s headquarters.
31.& nbsp;tower.
32.& nbsp;administration building.
33.& nbsp;gate.
34.& nbsp;storerooms.
35.& nbsp;bathhouse.
36.& nbsp;water gate.

''' 37–39.& nbsp;Herod's& nbsp;Palace :
37.& nbsp;upper terrace.
38.& nbsp;middle terrace.
39.& nbsp;lower terrace.

A.& nbsp;ostraca cache found in casemate.
B.& nbsp;Herod's throne room.
C.& nbsp;colorful mosaic.
D.& nbsp;Roman breaching point.
E.& nbsp;coin cache found.
F.& nbsp;ostraca cache found.
G.& nbsp;three skeletons found.

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Masada

Biography

Geography

History

Masada today

Layout

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