The Excavation of Masada 1963-1965

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject History - Miscellaneous, grade: 1, University of Innsbruck, language: English, abstract: According to Josephus Flavius, who was a Jewish historian, wrote about the battle of Masada that occurred around 73 A.D. There, the Jews lost their land to the Romans. Masada was the last straw of the fight, where multiple people committed suicide before they were able to be murdered. Referring to Flavius, as he was the only source, had great impact on the excavation of Masada in the 20th century since without him, the amazing archeological structures would just be ruins in the Judean desert. As important as the 'buildings' themselves is the connection between archeology in the context of politics. Goal of this fusion was to construct personal and national identities. Yigael Yadin was the head of the excavation of Masada. He was born in in Jerusalem in 1917. After accomplishing various studies, he started his military career. When he resigned, he took up his work as an archeologist and was part of the excavation of the major site of Hazor. This term paper will focus on the excavation of Masada during 1963-1965. This will be done by analyzing the history of the battle which is the mythical narrative of the story by Yadin. Moreover, it is essential to talk about the Josephus Flavius Narrative. Third, how the mentioned politics and Masada correlate with each other. Lastly, the process of the excavation will be described as it was one of Yigael Yadin's greatest work and the topic of the primary source called 'Excavating Masada. The Politics-Archeology Connection at Work' by Ben-Yehuda Nachman.