This book is a summary of the eight volumes of the Final Reports of the Masada excavations that have appeared to date. These volumes are a methodical, scientific analysis of the finds unearthed at the site, described by specialists, each in his or her area of expertise. Due to the technical nature of the Final Reports, their accessibility to lay readers is limited. However, the late Yigael Yadin, who led the archaeological expedition at Masada in the 1960s, always ensured that the discoveries of his research and excavations also came to the attention of the lay public. It is in that spirit that this book is written.
The Yadin expedition uncovered finds dating to a 150-year period: from the 30s of the first century BCE, when Herod the Great built his fortress on top of the cliff to the first half of the second century CE, when a Roman garrison was stationed at Masada after its fall. Most of the architectural finds date from the time of Herod, the greatest builder of the Second Temple period in this country. Most other finds—pottery and stone vessels, written documents involving daily life and fragments of scrolls, coins, textiles and various other finds—have been dated securely to the short period of seven or eight years between the beginning of the Great Revolt and the fall of Masada (66–73 CE). It is this secure dating, the great variety of finds, and the dry climate at Masada that helped preserve organic materials, which give Masada its extraordinary archaeological significance, second in importance only to Jerusalem for the archaeology of the Second Temple period.
However, Masada is not merely an archaeological site. It is also a symbol, especially, but not exclusively, to Israelis, as can clearly be seen by the hundreds of thousands of people who visit the fortress every year. The last chapter of the book is devoted to the meaning of this symbol today, pitting the finds themselves against recent critiques of the work and conclusions of Yadin’s Masada archaeological expedition.
Amnon Ben-Tor, Yigael Yadin Professor Emeritus of the Archaeology of Eretz Israel at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University, was a team member of the Yadin excavation of Masada from beginning to end. Ben-Tor studied archaeology and Jewish history at the Hebrew University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1968. From then and until 2004, he taught at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology while excavating various sites in Israel, among them a regional study of the western Jezreel Valley at the sites of Tel Qiri, Tel Qashish and Yoqne‘am. He has been the director of the Selz Foundation Hazor Excavations in Memory of Yigael Yadin since 1990.