Whose Bones?

040

040

On July 7, 1969, with due solemnity, the earthly remains of the last defenders of Masada were buried near the foot of the Roman ramp leading up to the site. The chief chaplain of the Israeli army, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, officiated. The dead were buried with full military honors, as befitted those who had withstood a Roman siege for three years nearly 2,000 years ago (70–73 A.D.). Various dignitaries, including Menachem Begin, who later became prime minister and signed the Camp David accords, attended. Yigael Yadin, Israel’s most illustrious archaeologist and the excavator of Masada, read from the final speech of Eleazar Ben Yair, commander of the Jewish defenders, as recorded by the first-century A.D. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.

Such pomp would be all well and good were it not for one problem: Most of the skeletons buried in this ceremony were probably those of Roman soldiers and civilians, not of the Jewish defenders.

Unfortunately, the mistake in identity was not only the result of scholarly error; the story has all the earmarks of a deliberate attempt to avoid facing the evidence at hand.

Human bones were found during the very first excavation season at Masada, in October 1963,¹ in a cave identified as Locus 2001/2002.² In his popular book on Masada, published in 1966, Yadin wrote: “From the very beginning of our excavation we concerned ourselves with the problem of finding the remains of the defenders … According to Josephus, General Silva [the Roman commander] established a Roman garrison on the Masada summit after its conquest, a fact confirmed by our excavations, and it could be assumed that this garrison would have disposed of the bodies in one way or another for sanitary reasons … One of the sites where it seemed probable that we might find skeletons of bodies buried or thrown by the Roman garrison was the network of caves near the top of the southern cliff of the Masada rock, only a few yards below the casemate wall.”³

And that is exactly where Yadin found the human bones—in cave 2001/2002.

Yadin went on to report that there were “about 25 skeletons … scattered in disorder about the floor.” These he 043turned over to Dr. Nicu Haas, of Hebrew University, who examined the bones and concluded that “most of the skulls belong to the same type” as those found in nearby Nahal Hever, which were then thought to be those of Jews killed in the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132–135 A.D.). On this basis, Yadin concluded that “the only feasible assumption is that [the bodies at Masada] were flung irreverently by the Roman troops when they cleared the bodies after their victory [ending the First Jewish Revolt] … [The skeletal remains] can be only those of the defenders of Masada.”⁴

As a result of Yadin’s excavation, Masada became a metaphor for the new state of Israel—a place where, according to Josephus, Jews making their last stand against the Romans, three years after Jerusalem fell in 70 A.D., finally chose mass suicide over surrender. “Never again will Masada fall” became the refrain.

There is no doubt that the Jews made their last stand here after the First Jewish Revolt effectively ended in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Jerusalem. Even the Roman camps at the foot of Masada have been found. Nor is there any doubt that the Romans were eventually victorious here, as they were at Jerusalem. But whether the Jewish defenders committed mass suicide, as reported by Josephus, is a hotly debated matter.⁵

What seems clear, however, is that Yadin’s confident assertion that he had found the skeletons of the Jewish defenders is vastly overstated. And Yadin may have been aware of it! In his scientific report on the first season of his excavations, he was considerably more cautious than in his popular book. In his preliminary scientific report of the excavation, he reported Haas’s conclusion that the skulls resemble the skulls from Nahal Hever. He then went on to write, “Are [the bones], then, the remains of some of the defenders of Masada? Some of the 960 heroes of the Revolt? We hope to be able to answer this question after the conclusion of our excavations” (emphasis added).⁶

Yadin died in 1984 without ever returning in writing to the question.

The reason appears to be that Yadin knew at the time that pig bones were also found in the cave along with the human skeletons. He knew this from Dr. Haas’s report and admitted as much to me in the early 1980s. Unfortunately, Dr. Haas has also since died (after being hospitalized from January 1975 until November 1987 044as the result of a fall). However, between 1964–1965, when the skeletal remains were turned over to him, and January 1975, Haas did have an opportunity to publish at least a preliminary report on these highly important finds, but he failed to do so. One wonders why. Even today, more than 30 years later, no scientific report on the excavation of this cave has been written, although Yadin’s students and colleagues have published a huge five-volume set of final reports.^a Aside from a plan showing an outline of the cave (vol. 3, p. 489), this set contains no discussion or even mention of either the human or the material remains from the locus where the bones were found, and this despite the statement in the area supervisor’s field diary that the cave was “rich” in material remains, including textiles, lamps, ostraca and basketry.

That no scientific description of the finds in Locus 2001/2002 was included in the final report was first brought to my attention by Professor James D. Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.⁷ He had noticed that information on the skeletons was scarce to nonexistent, even after checking with authorities at the Israel Exploration Society, the group responsible for the final reports, as well as with principals who had been involved in the excavation itself. He had discussed the matter with BAR editor Hershel Shanks as an idea for a possible article on the question of human remains at Masada. Much of the new evidence recounted in this article is a result of Tabor’s efforts. He has graciously allowed me to use this new material, though he may not agree with all my conclusions.

One of the results of Tabor’s research (conducted with the help of the Israel Exploration Society and its associate editor Alan Paris, who also served as associate editor of the Masada final report) was the discovery of Dr. Haas’s notes in the attic of one of his relatives.⁸ There Haas twice mentions the presence of pig bones. In this connection, it should be noted that identifying skeletal remains of pigs in an archaeological context, particularly if the mandible or teeth are involved, is a simple matter for an experienced anatomist like Professor Haas, due to the unique morphological patterning of pigs’ teeth.

The mention of pig bones in Haas’s notes was not surprising. Rumors about the pig bones found in the burial cave at Masada were common in the Jerusalem archaeological community as early as the 1970s. In 1982, Yadin admitted as much to a Jerusalem Post reporter.⁹ That Yadin knew this information from the beginning is suggested by his failure to call a press conference to announce the finding of skeletal remains in the cave. Just one month later, he did call a press conference to excitedly report that he had found the remains of three skeletons in Masada’s northern palace (more about these skeletons later). But he made no mention of the skeletons found in Locus 2001/2002.¹⁰

045

The pig bones are important, of course, because of the Jewish aversion to pigs. Pigs are treif, that is, they are not kosher, and pork may not be eaten by observant Jews. Therefore, what would pig bones be doing among the human remains of those believed to be Jews?

By 1967, however, there were calls in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to give the remains a proper Jewish burial. Despite the conclusion in his book that the bones “can be only those of the [Jewish] defenders of Masada,” Yadin told the press in 1969 that only the three skeletons found in the northern palace were definitely Jewish, and that the identification of those found in the cave was uncertain.¹¹ He opposed the plan to bury the bones in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. He wanted them buried at Masada, where they had been discovered. On July 7, 1969, the bones were finally given a Jewish burial at the foot of the Roman ramp leading up to the site.

Were the bones in the cave those of Jews? The basis for Yadin’s conclusion (based on Haas’s report)—that the skulls were of the same type as the Nahal Hever skulls thought to belong to Jews killed in the Second Jewish Revolt—was demolished in 1973 when the archaeologists who had found the Nahal Hever skulls admitted that they had been mistaken; the skulls were Chalcolithic (fourth millennium B.C.), not Roman.¹²

If the Masada remains were not Jewish, how else can we account for the fact that they seem to have 064been tossed into the cave helter-skelter, apparently by Roman soldiers cleaning up the site so that they themselves could inhabit Masada, which they did until 111 A.D.? This question leads us to a more careful examination of just what was found in the cave.

As it turns out, the bones were not just thrown haphazardly into the locus. The excavation of the cave was directed by the then-young Yoram Tsafrir, now one of Israel’s leading senior archaeologists. According to Tsafrir, there was one fully intact, undisturbed skeleton separate from the others, which were found in disarray in two loci in the cave. This individual was lying on his or her back with hands folded neatly across the abdomen and with head turned to the side, as though carefully laid out for burial. Tsafrir has recently provided us with clear photos of both this exceptional case and the other unpublished skeletal material. Moreover, a close look at the photograph in Yadin’s popular book (pp. 198–199, and reprinted here—the original photograph can no longer be found) reveals that these skeletons were primary burials, as the bones of the hands and feet show correct anatomical positioning.

In addition, the number of different skeletons in the cave seems highly exaggerated. Yadin estimated 25; Haas’s report says 24. Tsafrir wrote in his field diary that he saw the remains of only 10 to 15 skeletons. And in the excavation photograph taken after what appears to be a very careful excavation by Tsafrir, we see only five skulls.¹³ Haas’s notes catalogue only 220 bones. There are 206 bones in an adult skeleton. If there are only 220 bones in the collection, then 96 percent of the bones are missing.^b

What can we conclude from all this? The answer can be found by a careful examination of the long bones in the photograph Yadin published in his book. They show unmistakable signs of predation by carnivores such as the hyenas and jackals native to the area: There are tooth puncture marks, and several long bones have been splintered for the purpose of extracting the bone marrow.

Thus, what we seem to have in this cave is simply a small cemetery that has been severely disturbed by predators. According to the photographic evidence, there are two, perhaps three single inhumations and conceivably a mass grave of five or six individuals. Aside from the single burial, the human remains in the cave were severely disturbed shortly after burial by animal predation, which accounts for the chaotic state in which the skeletons appear in the photos. At the base of one of the skulls, a large hole can be seen, clear evidence of animal predation: The animal attempted to scavenge the brain.

Recent zoological surveys of hyena dens in the Judean Desert, performed to determine the dietary patterns of these predators, provide clear evidence of human skeletal remains being dug up and brought back to the den by the hyenas.¹⁴ This problem has no doubt plagued cemeteries in the area for centuries and probably accounts for the fact that in the northern Negev both Jewish and Christian graves in antiquity were covered on all sides with stone slabs. More stone slabs covered the deceased, presumably to make it difficult for animal predation to occur. Modern-day Bedouin burials are similarly covered with piles of stones to prevent predation.

In short, the photographic evidence is clear that the Masada burial cave 2001/2002 was severely disturbed by animals.

This of course does not solve the problem of the ethnicity of the skeletons. At one time, it was suggested that they might be those of Byzantine Christians, who had inhabited the site from the fifth to the seventh century A.D., a hypothesis to which I myself once subscribed. However, carbon 14 tests on fabric found in the cave with the human remains has established the date between 40 and 115 A.D.¹⁵ Clearly, the remains cannot be those of Byzantine Christians.

The pig bones suggest that the remains are those of Roman soldiers and perhaps of their women (a well-preserved three-month-old fetus was also among the finds).

Now, according to Yadin, officials from the Religious Affairs Ministry noted that the Jewish community in the 1940s brought pigs into their Warsaw ghetto to deal with the garbage problem; perhaps, they suggested to Yadin, the same idea may have occurred to the last defenders of Masada under similar siege conditions. The absurdity of this assertion was hardly lost on Yadin. If the Zealots of Masada had had a garbage disposal problem, the easiest way 065to solve it would have been simply to throw it over the sides of the casemate walls and let the Romans below deal with it.

A more likely explanation for the pig bones has to do with Roman burial customs. Pagan sacrificial offerings for the dead were a common practice in Greek and Roman cultures.¹⁶ According to the Roman philosopher Cicero (106–43 B.C.), “Only when a pig had been sacrificed was a grave legally a grave.¹⁷ Thus, pig remains are a common find in Greek and Roman burial grounds, particularly in Europe and Cyprus. In Israel, pig remains are on rare occasions found in Roman period burials, although cultural attitudes and biases among those in the profession, including myself, often lead to the conclusion that these pig bones are intrusive.¹⁸ Moreover, most physical anthropologists and archaeologists who deal with human skeletal remains are not sufficiently familiar with nonhuman bones to say anything beyond the fact that anatomically they belong to animals. Thus, animal bones in tombs are often disregarded as of no major scientific consequence.

In Israel, evidence of the custom of including animal bones in human burial plots can be found at two human cremation sites uncovered at Megiddo, in northern Israel, where several bone fragments probably belonging to a pig were recovered.¹⁹ This suggests that sacrificing a pig in order to give legal status to the grave was, at least on occasion, practiced in the Holy Land as well as in Greece and Rome. The Megiddo cremations are especially significant because they are thought to be the remains of soldiers and civilians who acted in strict accordance with Roman law, thus giving legal status to their graves.

Does the inclusion, according to Haas, of the bones of six women in Locus 2001/2002 suggest that the burials were those of Jews rather than Romans? According to Yadin’s diary, Yoram Tsafrir mentioned that these remains were separated from the floor in the cave by a sterile layer of earth, which suggests that these remains were archaeologically not contemporary with the period of the Zealots. Had this layer of earth not existed, and had the remains been found at the surface, I would have had to agree that these may indeed have been the defenders of Masada. However, since that is not the case, it is my view that these remains are from the post-revolt period.

It is thus highly unlikely, in my view, that the skeletal remains in this cave belonged to Jews.

Yadin believed that a better case could be made for the skeletons found in Masada’s northern palace, although here too certainty eludes us. According to Yadin, the three skeletons found there belonged to a young man, a woman and a child. Yadin gives the impression that he found three distinct skeletons. Here is Yadin’s description of the moment when the skeletons were discovered:

“We were arrested by a find which it is difficult to consider in archaeological terms, for such an experience is not normal in archaeological excavations. Even the veterans and the more cynical among us stood frozen, gazing in awe at what had been uncovered; for as we gazed, we relived the final and most tragic moments of the drama of Masada. Upon the steps leading to the cold-water pool and on the ground nearby were the remains of three skeletons. One was that of a man of about twenty—perhaps one of the commanders of Masada. Next to it we found hundreds of silvered scales of armor, scores of arrows, fragments of a prayer shawl (tallith), and also an ostracon (an inscribed potsherd) with Hebrew letters. Not far off, also on the steps, was the skeleton of a young woman, with her scalp preserved intact because of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere. Her dark hair, beautifully plaited, looked as if it had just been freshly coiffeured. Next to it the plaster was stained with what looked like blood. By her side were delicately fashioned lady’s sandals, styled in the traditional pattern of the period. The third skeleton was that of a child. There could be no doubt that what our eyes beheld were the remains of some of the defenders of Masada. In describing the last moments, Josephus writes:

“‘And he who was the last of all, took a view of all the other bodies lest perchance some or other among so many that were slain, should want his assistance to be quite dispatched; and when he perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with the force of his hand ran his sword entirely through himself, and fell down dead near to his own relations.’

“Could it be that we had discovered the bones of that very fighter and of his kith? This, of course, we can never know for certain” (emphasis added).²⁰

Later, in the same book, Yadin seems less cautious:

“We did find three skeletons on the lower terrace of the palace-villa, as has been mentioned, and they were almost certainly those of the final Jewish defenders.”²¹

Professor Ehud Netzer, of Hebrew University, who was in charge of the publication of the final Masada report, recently allowed us to look at the archival evidence for the loci in the northern palace. We had expected to see three distinct skeletons. However, the field 066diaries and photographs revealed only very fragmentary human remains. This is consistent with the one picture of the locus Yadin published in his popular book (p. 196 and reprinted here); there we see human hair lying directly beside a woman’s sandal. In one picture in the archives, I recognized Amnon Ben-Tor, now the Yigael Yadin Professor of Archaeology at Hebrew University, excavating the locus. In a recent conversation, Ben-Tor confirmed that the skeletal material was quite fragmentary and severely disturbed.

Moreover, the trio of skeletons is composed of relatively few bones and does not give the impression that they belonged to a single family. In Haas’s unpublished report, both of the men unearthed are described as adults—one about 22 years old and the other about 40. One of the men is represented by his legs and feet only. The scales of armor were not found, as Yadin implies, in association with the skeleton, but in four different loci (8, 9, 10 and 16). How Yadin could possibly associate body armor in four loci with the skeletal remains of a man represented only by his legs and feet is difficult to understand. Yadin’s field diary includes a note that animal dung, along with seeds of barley and other grains, was found in the locus with the fragmentary skeletal material. This fact, buttressed by the photographs in the archives, indicates that we have another case of predation by hyenas and jackals, which not only seriously disturbed the human remains but, I suspect, brought the woman’s skull along with the remains of the two men into the locus from some area outside the bathhouse. The presence of animals would explain the sandal’s proximity to the woman’s skull. The feet of the adult male were probably hyena “leftovers”—feet offer little nutritional value to predators. In the zoological surveys of hyena dens mentioned earlier, human skulls are on occasion found along with postcranial bones, but the long bones (arms and legs) predominate: Long bones are preferred by scavengers because they contain the most flesh and marrow.

In short, what we have in this Masada locus is not a resting place for a family of humans, but a temporary shelter for a family of hyenas, the human skeletal remains having been brought in from elsewhere.

The Romans inhabited Masada for 38 years after capturing the site from the rebels. Wouldn’t they have removed the bones of these “Jewish defenders” from Herod’s luxurious villa where Yadin found them? Is it possible that this was actually a small burial ground from the Roman occupation? Yadin tells us that the northern palace fell into a state of disrepair following its takeover by Jewish Zealots during the Great Revolt against Rome. It seems entirely possible that during the subsequent years of Roman occupation the area served as a Roman burial ground similar to the southern cave. Jews never buried an individual with his or her sandals, nor with armor and arrows, all of which were found here. This fact certainly suggests that if this was a cemetery, the three individuals interred here were not Jewish. Yadin asserted they were Jewish on the basis of a fringed garment that he identified as a tallith (prayer shawl). Fringed garments were quite common in antiquity, however, and cannot necessarily be classified as Jewish prayer shawls. Volume 4 of the final report on the Masada excavation, which deals extensively with the Masada textiles and which was published ten years after Yadin’s death, makes no mention of this fragment being a tallith. Another textile fragment, found near the synagogue, is described as possibly being a tallith, which suggests that the authors of the final report had some doubt at the very least that the northern palace fragment was a tallith.

All in all, we must conclude that the picture Yadin draws of the skeletal remains at Masada is highly exaggerated in an apparent attempt to dramatize his finds by having them corroborate Josephus’s description of the Jewish rebels’ last stand. This was true from the very beginning of Yadin’s dig. At the end of each day, Yadin and his senior staff would tape record their discussion of the day’s discoveries. As Yadin’s biographer, Neil Silberman, writes after having listened to the tape concerning the skeletons in the northern palace: “Yadin seemed intent on making some sort of family out of these remains by speculating that the two were perhaps married and that the young man was the man’s son by another wife, or a brother of one of them. … Before long, the unambiguous image of a Jewish rebel family dying in the ruins of the northern palace, just as Josephus had described it, would become a central element in the modern legend of Masada’s archaeological rediscovery.”²²

It is time to set the record straight.

On July 7, 1969, with due solemnity, the earthly remains of the last defenders of Masada were buried near the foot of the Roman ramp leading up to the site. The chief chaplain of the Israeli army, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, officiated. The dead were buried with full military honors, as befitted those who had withstood a Roman siege for three years nearly 2,000 years ago (70–73 A.D.). Various dignitaries, including Menachem Begin, who later became prime minister and signed the Camp David accords, attended. Yigael Yadin, Israel’s most illustrious archaeologist and the excavator of Masada, read from the […]