Maresha is one city that has been definitively identified based on that rarest of archaeological finds, an inscription naming the place. The location of ancient Jerusalem is not disputed the location of the “true” Bethsaida has unleashed quite the quarrel, for instance. It can be difficult to link specific archaeological sites in Israel to tales in the Bible, Josephus’ writings or other historical sources. Now the archaeologists believe they have uncovered a destroyed fort from that time. Maresha was the biggest city in the area, strategically located, Ganor explains, and as the Hasmoneans gained power and spread south, their forces set out to seize Maresha from the Hellenistic overlords. Ultimately, a couple of decades after the abortive Maccabean Revolt, internal strife among the Seleucids and their conflicts with Rome would create the opportunity for the rise of the Hasmonean kingdom in about 140 B.C.E., and in about a year the Hasmoneans gained control of Jerusalem. He issued onerous anti-Jewish decrees and ordered that Zeus be adored in the Temple, the Book of Maccabees says. As the second Book of Maccabees describes it, he vowed to turn Jerusalem into “a cemetery of Jews” in retaliation. But during that time he held sway over Judea and was not loved.ĭuring an abortive campaign to capture Egypt, Antiochus (whom some contemporaries suspected was barking mad) heard about an uprising in Judea that he believed was a full-blown rebellion.
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The seals thought to have been on papyri are long gone.Īnd then came the Maccabean Jewish rebellion against the Hellenistic Seleucid regime, starting in about 167 B.C.E., following anti-Jewish decrees by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes.Īntiochus IV didn’t rule the Seleucid domain for long from 175 B.C.E. This was found in an underground closet carved into the bedrock. Testimony to the city’s Hellenistic character appeared in previous excavations, which found more than a thousand seal impressions featuring Greek gods, symbols and erotica. It bears adding that for all the shade thrown at them by the Bible, some suspect they were a type of Jewish community, worshipping the same god. The Revolt of the Maccabees: The true story behind Hanukkah Also on the list are Lachish and Bethlehem).Īrchaeologists find hoard of Islamic coins in Israel: 'It's like a Hanukkah present' Yahweh promised Maresha to the children of Judah, according to the Book of Joshua (chapter 15), and the second Book of Chronicles names it as one of 15 cities to be built and fortified by King Solomon’s son King Rehoboam, according to Josephus (“Antiquities of the Jews,” Book 8, Chapter 10. Saar Ganor / Israel Antiquities Authority Of course the second story is long gone, but the archaeologists found the staircase leading to it, the Israel Antiquities Authority explained when announcing the discovery on Tuesday.Īnother look at the destroyed stronghold.
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The outer stone walls were 3 meters thick, and the building featured a sloping glacis, or outer bank. It was 225 square meters large (2,422 square feet), rose two stories to possibly 5 meters high, and the interior was divided into seven rooms. “The ash in the destruction layer is half a meter thick,” says Saar Ganor, co-director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, adding that he has never seen anything like this.īefore being burned to the ground, this stronghold was not small. Now archaeologists say they’ve found the ruins of a stronghold on a hilltop 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the city itself, which they believe was destroyed, utterly and completely, by the raging Judean forces en route to conquering Maresha under the command of the Hasmonean king and high priest John Hyrcanus in 112 B.C.E. Macalister, Maresha is still capable of surprises. Even dovecotes were built underground.įirst excavated over a century ago by the famed team of F.J. Going back at least 2,800 years, the city is in the middle of the territory purportedly promised by Yahweh to the children of Judah, and is famed partly because of its multiple biblical mentions and mainly because of its extraordinary subterranean domain: thousands of cavities carved out of the soft limestone bedrock during the Hellenistic phase of its existence. In the heart of central Israel lies the ancient city of Maresha. Emil Aljam / Israel Antiquities Authority Remnants of the Hellenistic stronghold in central Israel destroyed by the Hasmoneans in 112 B.C.E.