Overview

Bibliography

Masada is a large fortress and palace complex built on a high mesa overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is famous because of the role it played as the site of the rebels' last stand at the end of the first Jewish Revolt. Josephus tells the story how the Jewish rebels chose suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. Although archaeological excavations have confirmed much of Josephus' account of the rebels' last stand, evidence of a mass suicide is lacking and has been questioned by historians.

Masada had been studied and surveyed numerous times since 1842, but it was not until the excavations by Yigael Yadin from 1963 to 1965 that the site was fully uncovered. Every building and the entire casemate wall were excavated and much was partially reconstructed so that today the site is a major Israeli tourist attraction.

Josephus indicates that the Hasmoneans first built on Masada, but nothing uncovered during the excavations can be dated with certainty to them and little pre-Herodian material was found. Herod appears to have cleared off the site before constructing his own buildings. Herod surrounded the 23-acre mesa with a 1300-meter casemate wall, with four gates facing the cardinal directions. At the northern end of the site, Herod constructed a palace on three terraces. Another large palace was built on the mesa, just inside the western gate. A large complex of storerooms, many residential buildings, multiple swimming pools and baths round out Herod's constructions.

The site appears to have been abandoned following the Herodian period, and was reoccupied a few years later by Sicarii (and their families). The Herodian buildings were reused and modified by the Sicarii, and many casemates in the wall were converted to living quarters. A large hall built into the wall, perhaps originally a stable, was converted into a synagogue, and numerous ritual baths, attesting to the Sicarii' concern for ritual purity, were built around the complex. Evidence of the Roman destruction of Masada was found everywhere in the excavations, including a large siege ramp on the western side of the mesa and numerous Roman camps surrounding the mesa on the plain below.

After a long period of abandonment, a small Byzantine monastic community reoccupied the site. Most of their constructions, including a church, are located on the western side of the mesa.

The archaeological strata uncovered at the site, as illustrated in the site plan, date to the following periods:

	Byzantine Period
	Post-Zealot Roman
	Sicarii
	Herodian Additions
	Herodian Period
	Pre- or Early Herodian