Masada in the Hasmonean period -- Masada in the Herodian period -- Building materials -- Ornamentation -- Construction at the time of the procurators and the Roman garrison -- Construction during the priod of the rebels -- The eastern gate -- Building 8 (the commandant's residence?) -- The storerooms -- The large bathhouse -- The approach to the northern palace -- The northern palace -- The water supply system -- The synagogue -- The casemate wall -- Building 9 (hostel?) -- Building 10 : the western palace -- The small palaces -- The layout of the palaces -- The phases of construction of Herodian Masada -- Pottery Written finds -- Coins -- Other finds -- The battle for Masada -- Masada in the Byzantine period -- Archaeology and the Masada myth.

The dramatic story of the last stand of a group of Jewish rebels who held out against the Roman Empire, as revealed by the archaeology of its famous site Two thousand years ago, 967 Jewish men, women, and children—the last holdouts of the revolt against Rome following the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple—reportedly took their own lives rather than surrender to the Roman army. This dramatic event, which took place on top of Masada, a barren and windswept mountain overlooking the Dead Sea, spawned a powerful story of Jewish resistance that came to symbolize the embattled modern State of Israel. Incorporating the latest findings, Jodi Magness, an archaeologist who has excavated at Masada, explains what happened there—and what it has come to mean since. Featuring numerous illustrations, this is an engaging exploration of an ancient story that continues to grip the imagination today.

In 73 A.D., legend has it, 960 Jewish rebels under siege in the ancient desert fortress of Masada committed suicide rather than surrender to a Roman legion. Recorded in only one historical source, the story of Masada was obscure for centuries. In The Masada Myth, Israeli sociologist Nachman Ben-Yehuda tracks the process by which Masada became an ideological symbol for the State of Israel, the dramatic subject of movies and miniseries, a shrine venerated by generations of Zionists and Israeli soldiers, and the most profitable tourist attraction in modern Israel. Ben-Yehuda describes how, after nearly 1800 years, the long, complex, and unsubstantiated narrative of Josephus Flavius was edited and augmented in the twentieth century to form a simple and powerful myth of heroism. He looks at the ways this new mythical narrative of Masada was created, promoted, and maintained by pre-state Jewish underground organizations, the Israeli army, archaeological teams, mass media, youth movements, textbooks, the tourist industry, and the arts. He discusses the various organizations and movements that created “the Masada experience” (usually a ritual trek through the Judean desert followed by a climb to the fortress and a dramatic reading of the Masada story), and how it changed over decades from a Zionist pilgrimage to a tourist destination. Placing the story in a larger historical, sociological, and psychological context, Ben-Yehuda draws upon theories of collective memory and mythmaking to analyze Masada’s crucial role in the nation-building process of modern Israel and the formation of a new Jewish identity. An expert on deviance and social control, Ben-Yehuda looks in particular at how and why a military failure and an enigmatic, troubling case of mass suicide (in conflict with Judaism’s teachings) were reconstructed and fabricated as a heroic tale.

No Marketing Blurb

When the Jews revolted against Rome in 66 CE, Josephus, a Jerusalem aristocrat, was made a general in his nation’s army. Captured by the Romans, he saved his skin by finding favor with the emperor Vespasian. He then served as an adviser to the Roman legions, running a network of spies inside Jerusalem, in the belief that the Jews’ only hope of survival lay in surrender to Rome.As a Jewish eyewitness who was given access to Vespasian’s campaign notebooks, Josephus is our only source of information for the war of extermination that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, and the amazing times in which he lived. He is of vital importance for anyone interested in the Middle East, Jewish history, and the early history of Christianity.

An account of the archaeological excavations at the rocky fortress site of a Jewish revolt against Roman oppressors.

The mighty epic of Masada tells of Jews who preferred liberty to life itself. Their story centers on the bleak fortress of Masada in the Judean Desert after the conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Holy Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. Here, in a last stand, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes laid aside the differences that had crippled their resistance to the Romans and united in their zeal for God and country. Their leader was Eleazar ben Ya'ir, one of the great freedom fighters of Jewish history. This story brings to vivid life people who might have taken part in this great episode of Jewish history. It tells of the bridal couple, Adin and Ohada, from distant Babylonia; the winsome Urzillah from Nabatea, child of the caravan trails of the East; and Justus from Alexandria in Egypt, with his faithful wife, Sara, a convert to Judaism. Survivors from Jerusalem may well have included boys such as Iddo, of the priestly tribe; his friend and rival Aviel; and little Yitzhak, orphaned by the Romans and protected by Hannah, his grandmother and only surviving relative. Faith and courage belonged to them all--as they held a mighty Roman army at bay for three years. Even in their extremity they practiced and treasured the rites of their religion--blessing the new moon, circumcising the newborn infant, bathing in the mikveh (the ritual bath), and reciting the daily prayers. When all hope was gone they resolved to die as free men, women, and children. In turning their swords against themselves they ultimately denied victory to the Romans and the general Flavius Silva, for their memory has prevailed over that of their oppressors.

An ambitious and mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of Rules of Magic. The Dovekeepers is “striking….Hoffman grounds her expansive, intricately woven, and deepest new novel in biblical history, with a devotion and seriousness of purpose” (Entertainment Weekly). Nearly two thousand years ago, nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman’s novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael’s mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker’s wife, watched the murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior’s daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets—about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.

The artifacts excavated from the ruins of Masada yield fascinating insights into the world of the New Testament and the times when King Herod, Pilate, Jesus, Peter, and Paul lived. This book invites you to visit Herod's palaces, walk the robber-infested road taken by the good Samaritan, and see lamps that may have been like those carried by the ten virgins and sandals that made footprints on the shores of Galilee or the deserts of Judea. Every item from Masada suggests something about the setting in which Christianity arose. These essays help us better understand the people, politics, and material culture of the world of the New Testament.