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Masada Presentation Making Masada Matter HTAA National Conference 2018 [email protected] Why Masada? IN THE SYLLABUS p.21 p.24 LIST B – THE NEAR EAST – B6 p.31 Drilling Down Many ways to Focus: Site Study 1 Artistic Styles 2 Buildings 3 Artefacts / Source Analysis 4 Roman Warfare / Siege Tactics 5 Historiography / Representation 1.1 Jewish 2.1 Hanging Palace 3.1 Coins 4.1 The Siege Ramp 5.1 Josephus Account? 1.1.1 Religious Limitations 2.2 Casement Wall 3.2 Foodstuffs 4.2 Circumnavigation Wall 5.2 Sicarri or Zealots? 1.2 Roman Styles 2.3 Cisterns 3.3 Scrolls 4.3 Surrounding Camps 5.3 Yadin's Excavations 1.2.1 Mosaics 2.4 Storehouses 3.4 Weapons 4.4 Camp Structure 5.4 The Masada Myth 1.2.2 Frescoes 2.5 Bathhouse 3.5 Ostraka 4.5 Use of Slave labour 5.5 Human Remains Influence of 2.6 Residences 3.6 Personal Items 4.6 Ballistas 1.3 Greek Culture 2.7 Mikvre 1.3.1 Columns 2.8 Ritual Baths 2.9 Byzantine Church Links to the Core Many ways to Focus: Site Study 1 Artistic Styles 2 Buildings 3 Artefacts / Source Analysis 4 Roman Warfare / Siege Tactics 5 Historiography / Representation 1.1 Jewish 2.1 Hanging Palace 3.1 Coins 4.1 The Siege Ramp 5.1 Josephus Account? 1.1.1 Religious Limitations 2.2 Casement Wall 3.2 Foodstuffs 4.2 Circumnavigation Wall 5.2 Sicarri or Zealots? 1.2 Roman Styles 2.3 Cisterns and aqueducts 3.3 Scrolls 4.3 Surrounding Camps 5.3 Yadin's Excavations 1.2.1 Mosaics 2.4 Storehouses 3.4 Weapons 4.4 Camp Structure 5.4 The Masada Myth 1.2.2 Frescoes 2.5 Bathhouse 3.5 Ostraka 4.5 Use of Slave labour 5.5 Human Remains Influence of 2.6 Residences 3.6 Personal Items 4.6 Ballistas 1.3 Greek Culture 2.7 Mikvre 1.3.1 Columns 2.8 Ritual Baths 2.9 Byzantine Church 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 – ARCHAEOLOGY Herod - as a Great Builder, Imitator or Mad King? THE HANGING PALACE ROMAN INFLUENCES Luxury in the Form of Roman baths x2 Conservation: Restoring original stones – roofing protects from exposure Rebuilding Tubuli Preserved Frescoes Hypocaust ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHODS - BEFORE Image Removed for copyright – see Yadin’s (1966) Herod’s Last Fortress CONSERVATION / PRESERVATION - AFTER HEROD’S MOSAICS Preservation Geometric Shapes Natural imagery Workmen’s lines A STUDY IN PERSPECTIVES? Mythmaking from the beginning Groundbreaking Or Self-serving Traitor Archaeologist Historian Zealots Or evil assassin Yadin Flavius Josephus Or Patriotic Mythmaker Eleazar Ben-Yair Patron of the Arts Or Mad King Herod Personalities Great Builder Nero Or Mad Emperor Nachman Ben-Yehuda Julius Caesar Revisionist Historian? Titus Visonary Successful General Or Tyrant Genocidal Mass Murderer? Mythmaking at Masada Josephus Early 1900s - Zionist Movement Youth Expeditions Shamaria Guttman Yigael Yadin - 1966 Herod's Last Fortress PERSPECTIVES Patriotic Archaeology Last Defenders Sicarri Become Zealots State Sponsorship late 1960s AND State burial of bodies / remains Pig bones? Age of skeletons MYTHMAKING IDF Swearing in onto of Masada Masada will never fall again coins 1970 AT MASADA Faded in importance after victory in 6 Day War 1967 Masada TV Miniseries 1981 Revisionists Nachman Ben-Yehuda 1995 The Masada Myth Archaeological digs 2017-2018 JOSEPHUS Josephus, Jewish Wars, 7.9.389-400 – eerily similar to his own tale of survival at Jotapata (3.8.7) (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) Ye t t h e re w as 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. 1951 1944 ZIONISM EARLY 1900S – YOUTH VISITS YIGAEL YADIN YigaelYadin, (1966) Herod’s Fortress and the Zealot’s Last Stand, p. 54 STATE COINS AND MEMORY MASADA MINI- SERIES 1981 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- Ye huda, 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. 2015 2006 CONTINUES TODAY 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 GET ON IT – HTA FACEBOOK PAGES New 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. • Tw i t t e r F o u n t a i n – 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. Te x t b o o k s Websites DVDs History Texts USEFUL RESOURCES: BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Israel Documentary Channel (Published Sep 13, 2016] “Battlefield Detectives – Siege of Masada” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gkE9tOzb9g 2. 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=Uc6Jaxc8abA 6. Herod the Great – Bible Mysteries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCP517cGLpA 7. 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-Ye h u da ( 1 9 9 5 ) Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel, University of Wisconsin Press 10. Segal, B; (1981)Masada, Israel 11. Yagin, Y. (1966) Masada: Herod's Fortress and the Zealot's Last Stand, London 12. 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 IMAGE ATTRIBUTIONS: 1.
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