Making Masada MatterHTAA National Conference 2018pramm@cedars.nsw.edu.au

mailto:pramm@cedars.nsw.edu.au

Why Masada?

IN THE SYLLABUS

p.24

p.21

LIST B – THE NEAR EAST – B6

p.31

Many ways to Focus:

1 Artistic Styles1.1 Jewish

1.1.1Religious Limitations

1.2Roman Styles

1.2.1Mosaics

1.2.2 Frescoes

1.3 Influence ofGreek Culture

1.3.1Columns

2 Buildings2.1Hanging Palace

2.2Casement Wall

2.3Cisterns

2.4 Storehouses

2.5Bathhouse

2.6Residences

2.7Mikvre

2.8Ritual Baths

2.9Byzantine Church

3 Artefacts / Source Analysis3.1Coins

3.2 Foodstuffs

3.3 Scrolls

3.4Weapons

3.5Ostraka

3.6 Personal Items

4 Roman Warfare / Siege Tactics4.1 The Siege Ramp

4.2Circumnavigation Wall

4.3 Surrounding Camps

4.4Camp Structure

4.5Use of Slave labour

4.6Ballistas

5 Historiography / Representation5.1 Josephus Account?

5.2 Sicarri or Zealots?

5.3 Yadin's Excavations

5.4 The Masada Myth

5.5Human Remains

Drilling Down

Site Study

Many ways to Focus:

1 Artistic Styles1.1 Jewish

1.1.1Religious Limitations

1.2Roman Styles

1.2.1Mosaics

1.2.2 Frescoes

1.3 Influence ofGreek Culture

1.3.1Columns

2 Buildings2.1Hanging Palace

2.2Casement Wall

2.3Cisterns and aqueducts

2.4 Storehouses

2.5Bathhouse

2.6Residences

2.7Mikvre

2.8Ritual Baths

2.9Byzantine Church

3 Artefacts / Source Analysis3.1Coins

3.2 Foodstuffs

3.3 Scrolls

3.4Weapons

3.5Ostraka

3.6 Personal Items

4 Roman Warfare / Siege Tactics4.1 The Siege Ramp

4.2Circumnavigation Wall

4.3 Surrounding Camps

4.4Camp Structure

4.5Use of Slave labour

4.6Ballistas

5 Historiography / Representation5.1 Josephus Account?

5.2 Sicarri or Zealots?

5.3 Yadin's Excavations

5.4 The Masada Myth

5.5Human Remains

Links to the Core

Site Study

LINKS TO:• Roman Warfare, treatment of rebels• Roman Society – administration of the empire• Art and Architecture in Israel, Roman and Greek Influences• Society of Israel• Historical representations• Limitations of sources – Josephus • Processes of Archaeology• Treatment and Display of Human Remains• Personalities: Julius Caesar, Agrippina the Younger

Modern Syllabus (side note)• Arab-Israeli Conflict• Zionism• Holocaust

A STUDY OF PEOPLE – ARCHAEOLOGYHerod - as a Great Builder, Imitator or Mad King?

THE HANGING PALACE

ROMAN INFLUENCESLuxury in the Form of Roman baths x2

Rebuilding

Tubuli

HypocaustPreserved Frescoes

Conservation: Restoring original stones – roofing protects from exposure

ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHODS - BEFORE

Image Removed for copyright – see Yadin’s (1966) Herod’s Last Fortress

CONSERVATION / PRESERVATION - AFTER

HEROD’S MOSAICS

Workmen’s lines

Geometric Shapes

Natural imagery

Preservation

A STUDY IN PERSPECTIVES? Mythmaking from the beginning

PersonalitiesHerod

Great Builder

Or Mad King

Julius Caesar

Visonary

Or Tyrant

Nero

Patron of the Arts

Or Mad Emperor

Eleazar Ben-Yair

Zealots

Or evil assassin

Yadin

GroundbreakingArchaeologist

Or Patriotic MythmakerFlavius Josephus

HistorianOr Self-serving Traitor

Nachman Ben-Yehuda

Revisionist Historian? Titus

Successful General

Genocidal MassMurderer?

P E R S P E C T I V E S A N D

M Y T H M A K I N G AT M A S A D A

Mythmaking at MasadaJosephus

Early 1900s -Zionist Movement

Youth Expeditions

Shamaria Guttman

Yigael Yadin - 1966 Herod's Last FortressPatriotic Archaeology

Last Defenders

Sicarri Become Zealots

State Sponsorship late 1960sState burial of bodies /remains

Pig bones?

Age of skeletons

IDF Swearing inonto of Masada

Masada willnever fall again coins 1970

Faded in importance aftervictory in 6 Day War 1967

Masada TV Miniseries 1981

RevisionistsNachman Ben-Yehuda 1995 The Masada Myth

Archaeologicaldigs 2017-2018

JOSEPHUS(389)… so great was the zeal they were in to slay their wives and children, and themselves also… for the husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their children into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them, with tears in their eyes. (392) Yet at the same time did they complete what they had resolved on, as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers, and they had nothing else for their comfort but the necessity they were in of doing this execution to avoid that prospect they had of the miseries they were to suffer from their enemies… (395) They then chose ten men by lot out of them, to slay all the rest; … they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by lot executed that melancholy office; (396) and when these ten had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves, that he whose lot it was should first kill the other nine, and after all, should kill himself… and when he perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with the great force of his hands ran his sword entirely through himself, and fell down dead near to his own relations. (398) So these people died with this intention, that they would leave not so much as one soul among them all alive to be subject to the Romans. (399) Yet there was an ancient woman, and another who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most women in prudence and learning, with five children, who had concealed themselves in caverns under ground, and had carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of one another. (400) Those others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being withal included in that computation.

Josephus, Jewish Wars, 7.9.389-400 – eerily similar to his own tale of survival at Jotapata (3.8.7)

Z I O N I S M E A R L Y 1 9 0 0 S – Y O U T H V I S I T S

19441951

YIGAEL YADINYigaelYadin, (1966) Herod’s Fortress and the Zealot’s Last Stand, p. 54

S TAT E C O I N S A N D M E M O R Y

M A S A D A M I N I -

S E R I E S 1 9 8 1

DISPUTING YADIN AND ’THE MYTH’

• Woman’s Hair revised to have been cut off whilst still alive. Possibly a woman connected to the Roman garrison that was captured in 66AD. (Zias and Gorski, 2006)

• Pig bones found in cave with other skeletal remains. (Zias and Gorski, 2006 + many other sources)

• The Zealots and heroic last defenders VS. Sicarii – Josephus explains the Sicarii were the ones on top of Masada, the same who murdered 700 at Ein Gaddi (Jewish Wars, 4.7.2) of their own people (women and children) due to their evilness and for their provisions. Josephus says that death would not be enough punishment for these men. (Jewish Wars, 7.8.1) (Nachman Ben-Yehuda, 2002)

• Dispute over the length of the siege –Years? Months? Weeks?

SIEGE RAMP REVISIONS

How much did the Romans have to fill?

SIEGE RAMP REVISIONS

How much did the Romans have to fill?

Ramp Built on a Natural Spur –significantly less effort than first though (Gill 1993) + Israel Documentary Channel (2016)

May have been as little as 6 weeks.

C O N T I N U E S T O D A Y

2006

2015

RECENT DIGS• Archaeologists get set to dig at Masada, after 11-year hiatus [February, 2017]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/archaeologists-get-set-to-dig-at-masada-after-11-year-hiatus/

• New Archaeology Shows ‘Refugee Camp,’ Not Just Rebels, Atop Masada [September 10, 2017]: https://forward.com/news/382132/exclusive-new-archaeology-shows-refugee-camp-not-just-rebels-atop-masada/

• Masada Dig Reveals a Pleasure-Garden at King Herod’s Palace [20th August, 2018] https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/masada-dig-reveals-a-pleasure-garden-at-king-herods-palace/

• Other interest –3D modeling matched over aerial drone footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXbeubemh7Y

https://www.timesofisrael.com/archaeologists-get-set-to-dig-at-masada-after-11-year-hiatus/https://forward.com/news/382132/exclusive-new-archaeology-shows-refugee-camp-not-just-rebels-atop-masada/https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/masada-dig-reveals-a-pleasure-garden-at-king-herods-palace/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXbeubemh7Y

GET ON IT – HTA FACEBOOK PAGESNew Lesson Ideas

• Excavating the cookie – toothpicks, cookies and grid reference page. Students aim to remove chocolate chips without damaging them. Could work with muffins as well.

• Instagram wall - #hashtag students’ thoughts as they learn. • Twitter Fountain – Create a series of tweets as a personality at Masada, during

a select time period.

• Lolly Pong Revision – dot points in the cups with lollies, students play – if they can speak on a dot point for 1 minute or longer they can keep the contents of the cup.

**Amongst all the other amazing sharing of resources and support.

USEFUL RESOURCES:

History Texts

DVD

s

TextbooksW

ebsites

BIBLIOGRAPHY:1. Israel Documentary Channel (Published Sep 13, 2016] “Battlefield Detectives – Siege of Masada”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gkE9tOzb9g2. BBC Films, (2006) Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire - Critical Moments - Jewish Rebellion, 3. Ethics of Suicide – Has text from Jotapata and Masada Fall -

https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/selections/josephus/4. Gill, Dan. 1993. "A Natural Spur at Masada" Nature, 364[#6438]:569-570. 5. Great Jewish Revolt: The Siege of Masada Parts 1-5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc6Jaxc8abA6. Herod the Great – Bible Mysteries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCP517cGLpA7. LIVIUS Articles on Ancient History http://www.livius.org/8. Masada Mysteries: What do we know about the bones https://jamestabor.com/masada-mysteries-what-

do-we-know-about-the-bones/9. Nachman Ben-Yehuda (1995) Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel, University of

Wisconsin Press10. Segal, B; (1981)Masada, Israel11. Yagin, Y. (1966) Masada: Herod's Fortress and the Zealot's Last Stand, London12. Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews; trans. Whiston, W.,(1981) The Complete Works Of Josephus,

Michigan;13. UNESCO World Heritage Listing – Masada https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1040

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gkE9tOzb9ghttps://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu/selections/josephus/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc6Jaxc8abAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCP517cGLpAhttp://www.livius.org/https://jamestabor.com/masada-mysteries-what-do-we-know-about-the-bones/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1040

IMAGE ATTRIBUTIONS:1. Image 1 picture: By Israel Defense Forces, processed by User:MathKnight [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia

Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Israel_Defense_Forces_-_Masada_Flyover-BW-01.jpgnt2. Image 2. Map By Kandi [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Culture_of_Antiquity.png3. Image 3. Map By Adhavoc [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Europe_180ad_roman_trade_map.png4. Image 4 drone aerial shot By ZeevStein [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons5. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%93%D7%94_-_%D7%96%D7%90%D7%91_%D7%A9%D7%98%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F.jpg6. Map of Masada By Kordas, gracias a los inestimables consejos de Chabacano [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Masada.svg7. Bathhouse By David Shankbone (attribution required) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from

Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_large_bathhouse_by_David_Shankbone.jpg8. Zealot Bath By Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany (Herod's large bathhouse, Masada) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via

Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herod%27s_large_bathhouse,_Masada_(15687854756).jpg9. Aerial view of northern terrace Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israel-2013-Masada-Aerial_01.JPG10. Lower Terrace Frescoes By Chris Smith from Auckland, New Zealand (Masada pillars) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia

Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_pillars_-_cmsmith_nz.jpg11. View from the Top of Hanging palace By Nis101 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%93%D7%9489.jpg12. Side View of Northern Palace Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israel-2013-Aerial_18-Masada.jpg13. Model of Northern Palace By Berthold Werner [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_BW_A.JPG14. Outside the Bathhouse By This file is a work by Takashi kurita.Please, credit this: Álvaro C.E. I would appreciate being notified (acantos30hotmail.com) if you use my work

outside WikimediaMore of my work can be found in my personal gallery [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Termas_y_torre_vigia_desde_palacio_norte.jpg

15. Mosaic By Fallaner [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holy_Land_2016_P0973_Masada_mosaic.jpg

16. Cadets Graduating By user Zizoxaxa (Hebrew Wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caracal_battalion.jpg17. Israeli Police Israel Police [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israeli-Police-

Facebook--Misdar-003.jpg18. Siege Ramp By Tribun militum [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siege_ramp3.JPG19. Aerial View of Ramp By israeltourism from Israel (Masada) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_Masada_-_israeltourism.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Israel_Defense_Forces_-_Masada_Flyover-BW-01.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Culture_of_Antiquity.pnghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Europe_180ad_roman_trade_map.pnghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%93%D7%94_-_%D7%96%D7%90%D7%91_%D7%A9%D7%98%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Masada.svghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_large_bathhouse_by_David_Shankbone.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herod's_large_bathhouse,_Masada_(15687854756).jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israel-2013-Masada-Aerial_01.JPGhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_pillars_-_cmsmith_nz.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%93%D7%9489.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israel-2013-Aerial_18-Masada.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_BW_A.JPGhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Termas_y_torre_vigia_desde_palacio_norte.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holy_Land_2016_P0973_Masada_mosaic.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caracal_battalion.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israeli-Police-Facebook--Misdar-003.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Siege_ramp3.JPGhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_view_of_Masada_-_israeltourism.jpg

BOOKLET IMAGE ATTRIBUTIONS:Booklet Images:1. YadinDavid Eldan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yigael_Yadin_and_Zalman_Shazar_at_Massada_1964.jpg

2. Engraving Masada NorthBy W. Tipping [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_(Tipping_01).jpg

3. IDF 1944By עדימןיא :תירבע [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_20714_The_Palmach.jpg

4. Student Visits 1951By עדימןיא :תירבע [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_9417_Gan-Shmuel_-_a_trip-climbing_to_Massada_1951.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yigael_Yadin_and_Zalman_Shazar_at_Massada_1964.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada_(Tipping_01).jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_20714_The_Palmach.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_9417_Gan-Shmuel_-_a_trip-climbing_to_Massada_1951.jpg