The researchers: "According to the common myth, the Romans harassed the rebels in Masada for three years. An innovative survey using advanced technologies revealed that the siege by the Roman army was a focused and relatively quick operation."
Researchers from the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University used advanced technologies of drones, remote sensing, and 73D computer modeling to obtain, for the first time, quantitative and objective information about the Roman siege system in Masada. The findings revealed that, contrary to myth, the Roman army's siege of the rebels in Masada in XNUMX AD lasted a few weeks at most.
The research was carried out by the excavation expedition to Masada on behalf of the Neustadter family, on behalf of the Institute of Archeology of Tel Aviv University, led by Dr. Guy Stibel and in collaboration with Dr. Chai Ashkenazi (currently Director of Geoinformatics at the Antiquities Authority), the doctoral students Boaz Gross (Tel Aviv University and Israel Institute of Archeology ) and Omar Zeevi (today at the University of Bonn). The research was conducted as part of an extensive project of the delegation that applies innovative research tools and asks new questions to understand, among other things, what really happened in Masada. The article was published in the prestigious Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Dr. Shtibel: "In 2017, we renewed the excavations at the Masada site, on behalf of Tel Aviv University. The famous site has been studied extensively since the beginning of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, but contemporary research allows us to apply innovative tools, ask new questions, and reach new insights into what happened there - before, during, and after the great rebellion. To this end, we initiated a comprehensive project that implements remote sensing technologies using drones and aerial photographs to gather the most accurate information from the area surrounding Masada, on three main topics: the water systems, the path systems leading to the site, and the most accurate Roman siege system around Masada. The data collected from the field is used to build XNUMXD computer models, which provide us with a clear, high-resolution image of the findings. In the current study, we focused on the siege system, which, thanks to its isolated location and desert climate, is the best preserved Roman siege system in the world."
Dr. Stibel adds: "For many years, a myth was established that the Roman siege of Masada was a long and arduous event, which lasted about three years. In recent decades, researchers have begun to challenge this assertion, for various reasons. We asked for the first time to examine the issue using innovative tools that allow objective measurements."
The researchers used remote sensing technologies using drones and aerial photographs to collect data of all the buildings in the siege system - height, width, and depth, with the highest resolution, down to a millimeter accuracy. This data was used to build a computerized 6000D model, which enabled the calculation of the volume and duration of the construction. Dr. Ashkenazi: "There are reliable estimates of the amount of stones and earth that a Roman soldier is able to move in a day, for the construction task. It is known that about 8000 to XNUMX Roman soldiers participated in the siege of Masada, and we objectively calculated how much time they spent building the entire siege systems - eight camps and a stone wall that surrounded most of the site. We found that the construction took less than two weeks, and based on ancient sources it can be estimated that immediately after its completion the Romans carried out an attack and occupation that lasted at most a few weeks. From this we conclude that the entire siege lasted a few weeks at most."
Dr. Stibel concludes: "The narrative of Masada, the rebellion, the siege and the tragic end that, according to Flavius Josephus, sealed the Great Revolt, has long since become part of the Israeli DNA and the Zionist story, and has been published all over the world. One of the prominent elements of the myth is the length of the siege: how difficult it was for the magnificent Roman army to score the citadel and subdue its defenders. For years it was assumed that the event spread over three years, but in recent decades researchers have begun to challenge this assertion. In our research, for the first time, we applied objective measurements with advanced technological tools to give this issue a scientifically based answer for the first time. According to our findings, we estimate as mentioned that the Roman siege of Masada lasted a few weeks at most. The Romans, as is the way of empires, came, saw and conquered, and the suppression of the rebellion in the isolated site was done quickly and without mercy. However, our conclusions do not in any way diminish the importance of the historical event, and we are still left with significant questions, such as: why did the Romans choose to invest so much effort in conquering a seemingly remote and neglected site? In order to answer the intriguing questions, we are continuing an extensive and innovative research project in Masada and its surroundings - with the aim of collecting data, and performing an in-depth analysis of the material in the laboratories of the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University and in collaboration with quite a few researchers, which has the potential to shed new light on the riddle: What really happened there? "
More of the topic in Hayadan: