Difference between revisions of "Category:Machaerus (subject)"

Machaerus (see Places)

History

Machaerus was a fortress on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, originally built by Alexander Jannaeus and later rebuilt by Herod the Great.

The site was chosen by Alexander Jannaeus to protect the Eastern border of the Hasmonean kingdom.

The fortress was demolished by the Roman general Gabinius in 57 BCE.

Herod the Great rebuilt the fortress, which was then inherited by his son Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. It was in Machaerus that John the Baptist was imprisoned and put to death.

Agrippa I took then control of the site. At his death in 44 CE, the fortress came under the direct administration of the Roman governor of Judea.

The Roman garrison abandoned the fortress at the outbreak of the Jewish War in 66 CE. One of the last strongholds of the rebels with Herodium and Masada, Machaerus was reconquered only in 72 CE by the Roman Legio X Fretensis under the command of Lucilius Bassus.

Archaeology

The site was first visited in 1807 by the explorer Ulrich Jasper Seetzen, who noticed the similarity between the Arabic name of the site, Muqawir, and the Greek Machaerus.

In 1936 Giuseppe Ricciotti identified in the jumbled rock heap piled up at the north west base of the fortress, the beginning of the siege ramp (agger).

The first excavation attempt of the fortress was started by Jerry Vardaman in 1968.

In 1973 August Strobel careful surveyed and mapped the Roman siege works with the vallum, the camps and the towers.

The work was resumed in 1978-81 by the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum directed by Virgilio Corbo, Stanislao Lofreda and Michele Piccirillo, and continued in 1992-93 by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

In Depth

• Machaerus (sources)

• Machaerus (research)

Related categories

• Herod Antipas / John the Baptist

References

• Fortresses and Palaces: Machaerus / Adam Marshak and Daniel C. Harlow / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), edited volume, 650

Select Bibliography (articles)

• Das römische Belagerungswerk um Macharus. Topographische Untersuchungen / A. Strobel / In: ZDPV 90 (1974) 128-184

• La fortezza di Macheronte. Rapporto preliminare della prima campagna di scavo: 8 settembre - 28 ottobre 1978 / Virgilio Corbo / In: Liber Annuus 28 (1978) 217-238

• La reggia-fortezza erodiana. Rapporto preliminare alla seconda campagna di scavo: 3 settembre- 20 ottobre 1979 / Virgilio Corbo / Liber Annuus 29 (1979) 315-326.

• La fortezza di Macheronte (Al-Mishnaqa). Rapporto preliminare alla terza campagna di scavo: 8 settembre - 11 ootobre 1980 / Virgilio Corbo / Liber Annuus 30 (1980) 365-376

• Le monete della fortezza di Macheronte (El-Mishnaqa) / Michele Piccirillo / Liber Annuus 30 (1980) 403-414.

• Nuove scoperte alla fortezza di Macheronte. Rapporto preliminare alla quarta campagna di scavo: 7 settembre-10 ottobre 1981 / Virgilio Corbo and Stanislao Loffreda/ Liber Annuus 31 (1981) 257-286

External links

• Wikipedia
• Jewish Virtual Library / Jewish Encyclopedia
• Franciscan Archaeological Institute

Pictures from the Web

• Map <www.holylandphotos.org>

• Panoramic views: <www.wikimedia.org>; <www.atlastours.net>

• [Areal view] <www.bible-architecture.info>

• Areal view <www.netours.com>