Romans some 75 years after Herod's death. 



All this was known, from Josephiis' minute descriptions, 

 to travellers, explorers and archaeologists who were drawn 

 to the site since its rediscovery by the American, Edward 

 Robinson (father of biblical geography), more than 130 

 years ago. Those interested in Roman siege-craft could 

 study the easily accessible and uniquely preserved remains 

 of Roman circumvallation, assault rampart and camps at 

 the foot of Masada. But classical archaeologists, interested 

 in these Herodian structures, could do little more than look 

 at the surface remains. After a strenuous climb to the top 

 of the "snake path" on the eastern face, they could experi- 

 ence a sense of achievement simply at having viewed the site, 

 while all thought of excavations was piu out of their minds. 



Rectangular Roman camps are still visible after nearly 

 2000 years. 



The Englishman, Captain Condor, in 1867, describing his 

 ascent by the dangerous path with delight wrote, "A false 

 step here would have been destruction : we arrived at the top 

 at 5:20 p.m. and gave three cheers, re-echoed from below." 

 But it was only after the establishment of the State of 

 Israel that more became known of Masada through ama- 

 teur research by the youth of the country. This led in 1955 

 and 1956, to soundings on the top of the rock by an Israeli 

 archaeological expedition. These showed that Masada could 

 be excavated only by a large-scale expedition camping on 

 the site for a protracted period. It fell to me to direct this 

 archaeological exploration. We imdertook two campaigns : 

 seven months in 1963-4 and five months in 1964-5, and by 

 May 1, 1966, we had excavated 96 per cent of the built-up 

 area of Masada. The remaining three per cent was left 

 unexcavated intentionally so that future visitors could get 

 a before and after picture. 



We faced enormous administrative and logistic problems. 

 The Israel army bulldozed a 15-mile track over the Judean 

 wilderness so that we could reach Masada by the easier, 

 western approach, leaving us only a gentle 10-minute climb 

 to the top. The Israel water authority laid a pipeline. We 

 pitched 40 tents for the expedition close to Silva's camp; 

 we had to select an inferior site since Silva had made the 

 strategic choice. From there we built cable-ferries to lift 



Volunteers from many countries joined in the excavations 



the equipment to the summit. To these difficult conditions 

 were added uncommonly hard winters, with heavy rains 

 and storms. 



In addition to teams of professional archaeologists, we 

 had the usual avalanche of applications from Israeli volun- 

 teers whom we took for two-week periods. We then decided 

 on an unusual step and opened our lists to volunteers from 

 overseas. The response was extraordinary. Throughout the 

 two seasons of digging, we were joined by thousands of 

 volunteers from 28 covmtries, who came at their own 

 expense and put in an exciting two-week stint, often 

 extended to many months. If we managed to achieve all 

 we did in 12 months of excavation it is due only to the en- 

 thusiasm of these volunteers from home and abroad, the 

 Israeli youth movements and the Israel ariny. 



Our finds are of immense importance to archaeologists, 

 historians, numismatists, Scroll researchers, Talmudic schol- 

 ars and students of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. We were 

 able to clarify the nature of the architecture, art and stra- 

 tigraphy of all Masada's buildings, from Herod's time up to 

 the Byzantine period. We uncovered magnificent first cen- 

 tury iTiosaics, the earliest ever found in Israel. We unearthed 

 the buildings of the Zealots — and gruesome evidence of their 

 last stand. Rare coins were found of the period of the Jew- 

 ish revolt — from 66 to 70 c.E. We discovered extremely 



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