In Time for Chanukah: 6 Ancient Findings in the Footsteps of the Maccabees
Look what Israeli archeologists have dug up
from the Hasmonean dynasty that ruled the land following the Maccabees’
Chanukah triumph.
By Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL21c
Just in time for Hanukkah, archeologists revealed new evidence of the
long battle between Hellenists and Hasmoneans in the holy land.
Hanukkah celebrates the 164 BCE victory of an army, led by a father
and sons known as the Maccabees, over Hellenist (Seleucid) conquerors
who’d outlawed Jewish practices and defiled the Temple in Jerusalem.
In the years after the Maccabees purified and rededicated the Temple,
battles against the Seleucids continued under Maccabee descendants as
they established the Hasmonean dynasty.
And now archeologists have unearthed a Seleucid fortification destroyed 2,100 years ago by the Hasmoneans in Lachish Forest.
Israel Antiquities Authority archeologists and student diggers found weapons, burned wooden beams, jugs and dozens of coins in the structure.
“The excavation site provides tangible evidence of the Hanukkah
stories,” said excavation directors Saar Ganor, Vladik Lifshits and
Ahinoam Montagu.
“It appears that we have discovered a building that was part of a
fortified line erected by the Hellenistic army commanders to protect the
large Hellenistic city of Maresha from a Hasmonean offensive. However,
the finds from the site show that the Seleucid defenses were
unsuccessful.”
“The excavation site provides tangible evidence of the Hanukkah
stories,” said excavation directors Saar Ganor, Vladik Lifshits and
Ahinoam Montagu.
“It appears that we have discovered a building that was part of a
fortified line erected by the Hellenistic army commanders to protect the
large Hellenistic city of Maresha from a Hasmonean offensive. However,
the finds from the site show that the Seleucid defenses were
unsuccessful.”
They believe the building was destroyed under Hasmonean leader John
Hyrcanus around 112 BCE. His conquests are described in the Books of the
Maccabees and by Roman-era historian Josephus.
“The stories of the Maccabees are coming to life before our eyes,”
said Israel Antiquities Authority General Director Eli Eskozido.
But this is hardly the first find relating to the heroes of Hanukkah.
Maccabee Mansion Hiding Under Modern Home
When Theo and Miriam Siebenberg built a house in Jerusalem’s Old City
in 1970, Theo had a hunch that ancient Jewish leaders had inhabited
this area close to the Temple Mount.
Eighteen years of digging confirmed that the Siebenberg house sits on
several layers of Jewish history going back about 3,000 years.
Among these layers are the remains of a Hasmonean mansion that
Biblical Archaeology Review called “an engineering and structural
marvel.”
The Siebenbergs turned the excavations under their home into a museum.
Visitors can see 200-pound stones from the ancient mansion piled
along one wall as a tangible “memorial to the Maccabee house that stood
here 2,000 years ago,” Miriam Siebenberg told ISRAEL21c in 2013.
Sixteen silver coins dating to the Hasmonean period (135–126 BCE)
were discovered in April 2016 in an Israel Antiquities Authority
excavation near Modi’in, hometown of the Maccabees.
The treasure was hidden in a crevice against a wall of a Jewish agricultural estate also discovered during the excavation.
While the silver coins honor Seleucid emperors, numerous bronze coins
were also discovered, bearing the names of Hasmonean kings such as
Yehohanan, Judah, Jonathan and Mattathias.
Excavation director Avraham Tendler said the
cache is “compelling evidence that one of the members of the estate
needed to leave the house for some unknown reason. He buried his money
in the hope of coming back and collecting it, but was apparently
unfortunate and never returned. It is exciting to think that the coin
hoard was waiting here 2,140 years until we exposed it.”
Hasmonean Village Discovered
In 2019, remains of a 2,000-year-old Hasmonean village were
discovered during the digging of the foundation for a new school
building in Jerusalem.
The village contained a large wine press, fragments of storage jars, a
large columbarium (dovecote), an olive press, a large ritual bath
(mikveh), a water cistern, rock quarries and a many-chambered burial
cave leading to a large courtyard.
“It seems that this burial estate served a wealthy or prominent
family during the Hasmonean period. The estate was in use for a few
generations as was common in that era,” said IAA excavation director Ya’akov Billig.
Winter Palaces in Jericho
The Jordan Valley city of Jericho, about 15 miles east of Jerusalem, was the relatively warm spot chosen by three kings of the Hasmonean dynasty to build their winter palaces.
Constructed in stages from the end of the second century BCE, the palaces apparently were destroyed by an earthquake in 31 BCE.
Excavated over 10 seasons beginning in the 1970s by Hebrew University
archeologist Ehud Netzer, the Hellenist-style palaces featured an open
courtyard surrounded by rooms.
There were elegant colonnaded rooms for entertaining, bathtubs
decorated with colored frescos, ritual and swimming pools, towers and
moats, orchards and ornamental gardens. A building believed to be a
synagogue was found in 2001 in the northeastern part of the Hasmonean
palace complex.
Hasmonean Oil Lamp in City of David
A perfectly preserved oil lamp from the Hasmonean era was discovered in 2020 during excavations of the Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem’s City of David, just outside the Old City walls.
The Pilgrimage Road is the monumental thoroughfare through which
pilgrims ascended to the Temple Mount in the Second Temple period (516
BCE to 70 CE).
The clay oil lamp is decorated with geometric patterns including a
branch and leaves on the spout. Israel Antiquities Authority
archeologists say it is typical of the first century BCE, in the final
years of Hasmonean rule.
Excavation Director Ari Levy said such lamps were used for lighting
buildings and streets, and in Shabbat and Hanukkah candle-lighting
rituals.
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