precious documents, including biblical scrolls, and scrolls 

 of the Dead Sea Sect, which can be absolutely dated from 

 before 73 c.e., the first time that ancient scrolls can be spe- 

 cifically and absolutely dated. And we have been able to 

 recreate the patterns of life on the top of this rock during its 

 various periods of occupation. 



The most spectacular building on Masada was Herod's 

 three-tiered palace-villa (hitherto inaccessible except by the 

 use of stakes and rope ladders, but now served by permanent 



King Herod's three-tiered palace. 



staircases installed for us by the army). On the upper ter- 

 race are remains of a rectangular building used as living 

 quarters, with a magnificent semicircular porch bounded 

 by the cliff. The rooms were adorned with frescoes and 

 simple black and white mosaic floors. The middle terrace, 

 60 feet below, boasted a circular pavilion and colonnade. 

 The bottom terrace, 40 feet lower, was the outstanding area 

 of the villa, and the best preserved. It contained a double 

 colonnade surrounding a large patio, with wall paintings of 

 colored panels. Though some of these paintings show a 

 naive attempt to imitate marble and precious stones, they 

 are well executed, in the style popular during that period 

 throughout the Roman Empire. This villa is the only spot 

 on Masada which enjoys constant shelter from the searing 

 desert winds. This, in fact, was the structure described by 

 Josephus as Herod's palace. This description, until re- 

 cently, was erroneously taken to refer to the large build- 

 ing in the middle of the western part of the plateau. That, 

 we discovered, was indeed the official palace, but the north- 

 ern terraced structure was Herod's private retreat. 



When we excavated Herod's palace, we foimd it com- 

 pletely covered with a thick layer of ashes, and it was in the 

 ashes of the lower terrace that we came across gruesome 

 evidence of the fate of the Jewish defenders. Lying among 



coins of the Jewish revolt, a letter in Aramaic, a mantle, 

 arrows and hundreds of silver-plated scales of armor, were 

 the remains of skeletons of a man, a woman and a youth. 

 Dark brown braids were still attached to the scalp of the 

 woman and nearby were her leather sandals. Josephus had 

 written, ". . . and the one man left till last, first surveyed 

 the serried ranks of the dead, in case amidst all the slaughter 

 someone was still left in need of his hand; then, finding that 

 all had been dispatched, set the palace blazing fiercely, and 

 summoning all his strength drove his .sword right through 

 his body and fell dead by the side of his family." 



South of the hanging palace were the ruins of a large 

 complex of buildings consisting of long, narrow halls. These 



Shaft of light pierces a giant cistern at Masada. 



were the famous storerooms built by Herod. We found the 

 floors littered with huge piles of debris, mostly of stone, be- 

 longing to the walls and roofs which had collapsed when the 

 Zealots burned their stores before their suicide. We discov- 

 ered hundreds of jars containing remnants of food, each food 

 item kept in a separate room. Some of the jars had been 

 made in Herod's time, but they were also used by the Jewish 

 defenders, who replenished them, and wrote labels describ- 

 ing their contents in Aramaic and Hebrew. These short 

 inscriptions were of great importance for the history of 

 Hebrew script, since they are unquestionably dated 66- 

 73 C.E. They also told us much of the way of life of the 

 defenders, for many of these inscriptions indicate that the 

 contents of certain jars were tithes set aside for the Levites 

 and Priests, and show how scrupulously they followed the 

 laws of Moses, even under the harsh conditions of belea- 

 guered Masada. 



MAr Pages 



