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RENEWED EXCAVATIONS

Three more excavation seasons were conducted at Lower Herodium between 1997 and 2000, by an expedition of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the direction of E. Netzer, with the assistance of Y. Kalman and R. Laureys-Chachy. The work concentrated in two areas: southwest of the pool complex; and in the vicinity of the monumental building at the western end of the “artificial course,” an elongated man-made platform north of the remains of the large palace.

EXCAVATION RESULTS

The large bathhouse at the southwestern corner of the pool complex, excavated in parts in the 1980s, was completely exposed and partially reconstructed. The latest excavation results clearly indicate two distinct phases within Herod’s lifetime.

The earliest bathhouse comprised a peristyle court (palaestra), 25 by 15 m in size, surrounded by colonnades; a dressing room (apodyterium); a large tepidarium; a spacious caldarium; a frigidarium consisting of a stepped pool (which was later eliminated); two other small rooms whose purpose is not known; and a narrow service court (for the heating system) entered through the palaestra.

Radical alterations and some additions mark the bathhouse’s second phase. Major changes took place in the caldarium. Following the dismantling of its heating system (the hypocaust), a heated swimming pool (only 10.5 by 5.2 m) was built into this large room. The pool (piscina calda) was heated by a newly built installation, constructed at the expense of a niche located at the center of the western wall (behind the service court). The installation included two cauldrons on top of furnaces. Although not large, the pool made bathing and swimming possible when winds or cold weather ruled out swimming in the pool complex.

A circular room (4 m in diameter) was added in this phase. It was previously identified as a laconicum (sweating room) but may have functioned as a caldarium (with a furnace of its own, to the east). The room was elaborately decorated with frescos and paved in mosaic, the circular frame of which boasted a vine design with clusters of grapes. Also during this phase the original frigidarium was dismantled and replaced by a second tepidarium; a new, partly rock-hewn frigidarium was built adjoining it. A third tepidarium was now installed at the entrance to the round caldarium. These two new tepidaria were also decorated with frescos and mosaic floors, which featured colorful central panels. Several changes to the palaestra were carried out, including the addition of a small, circular open-air swimming pool in its center and the breaching of a door between the court and the newly installed piscina calda. The court’s western colonnade was also closed and attached to the service court.

More fragments of a magnificent labrum, parts of which were encountered in the 1980s, enabled its restoration by the Israel Museum’s laboratory. This object, with carved heads of Silenus, was clearly imported. It may have been a gift presented to Herod by Marcus Agrippa following his visit to the site in 15 BCE, and probably stood at the center of the round caldarium, which may have been specially constructed to accommodate it.

Further excavations were also conducted in the expansive hall, 110 by 9 m, to the west of the pool complex. Worthy of note is an octagonal room exposed at its center, opposite the center of the pool. This large room, which was surrounded by engaged columns on pedestals (at its corners) and decorated with frescos, might have been a throne room. Also revealed were remains of fresco decorations at the southern edge of the hall, adjacent to and lower than the bathhouse.

Extensive building remains from the Byzantine period were uncovered throughout the excavated area to the east and southeast of the monumental building. Most of the buildings constructed in this period apparently served as dwellings for a monastic community that engaged in agriculture. The renewed excavations yielded evidence for this occupation in the form of a large winepress located in the northeastern corner of the large pool (at the center of the pool complex) and a well-preserved oil press (see below). A square four-room building (originally with two stories) that stood in the middle of the densely built-up area was excavated east of the Central Church. Most of this building’s rooms were paved in predominantly white mosaics. Among the finds there was a beautifully designed horseshoe-shaped dining table.

Remains of a large Herodian structure were revealed below these Byzantine structures. Its main feature is a thick U-shaped foundation wall, perhaps belonging to a vestibule fronted by a portico. Adjacent to the U-shaped wall was a mikveh consisting of two pools. The U-shaped structure and the mikveh—both part of what appears to have been an earlier tomb compound—were dismantled during Herod’s reign.

Of special interest was a three-room structure (25 by 7 m) located at the course’s southern side, 30 m east of the monumental building, at the northern edge of the densely constructed dwelling area. This appears to have initially been a Herodian structure that was dismantled during the Byzantine period and shortly thereafter rebuilt upon the Herodian foundations. Its eastern room now served as an oil press.

At its northern edge, the densely constructed Byzantine dwelling area was bounded by a broad wall, constructed by the Romans in c. 70–71 CE during the First Jewish Revolt. The 4.2 m-wide wall, c. 30 m long, consists of two stone faces with earthen fill between them. It was erected as protection against large round stones that were rolled down by the Jewish rebels from the mountaintop. Dozens of such stones were exposed along the southern side of this wall, which lies beyond the range of other projectiles fired from the mountain. A Byzantine street was exposed between the dwellings and this Roman wall.

The stratigraphy of the area to the east of the monumental building consisted of four strata (from bottom to top): (1) the annulled U-shaped structure, with adjacent mikveh; (2) the monumental building, the large mikveh to its east, the three-room structure, and the artificial course, apparently built for Herod’s funeral procession; all of these structures probably comprised Herod’s tomb complex; (3) the Roman wall protecting against falling stones; and (4) Byzantine structures including the Central Church and the densely constructed dwelling area to its east. The Byzantine structures generally display two sub-phases. Additional Byzantine structures remain to be exposed on the nearby western section of the course.

The question of the exact location of Herod’s tomb remains unanswered. The excavator believes that the artificial course and the monumental building with adjacent structures were parts of Herod’s burial compound. The original location of the well-carved Herodian ashlars (some decorated), reused in the construction of the Central Church, also remains unknown. They would appear to have been dismantled from the tomb entrance, leading into a cave or an underground room which has not yet been revealed, or to a freestanding monument which was entirely dismantled and looted (perhaps the abovementioned three-room structure). Further excavations may answer these questions.

EHUD NETZER

Main publication: S. Loffreda, La Ceramica di Macheronte e dell’Herodion: (90 a.C.–135 d.C.) (SBF Collectio Maior 39), Jerusalem 1996.

Studies: T. Braxmeier & P. Beckmann, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Evangelischen Instituts für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes 2 (1990), 79–82; M. T. Shoemaker, BAR 17/4 (1991), 58–60; A. Strobel, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Evangelischen Instituts für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes 2 (1990), 73–78; 3 (1991), 82–84; 6 (1999), 109–115; J. Michel, Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome, Antiquite 103 (1992), 735–783; E. Netzer, ABD, 3, New York 1992, 176–180; id., Ancient Churches Revealed (ed. Y. Tsafrir), Jerusalem 1993, 219–232; id., Judaea and the Greco-Roman World in the Time of Herod in the Light of Archaeological Evidence, Göttingen 1996, 27–54; id., Die Paläste der Hasmonäer und Herodes’ des Grossen (Antike Welt Sonderhefte; Zaberns Bildbände zur Archäologie), Mainz am Rhein 1999; id., Roman Baths and Bathing, 1: Bathing and Society (JRA Suppl. Series 37), Portsmouth, RI 1999, 45–55; id., One Land—Many Cultures, Jerusalem 2003, 277–285; id., The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder, Tübingen (forthcoming); J. Patrich, IEJ 42 (1992), 241–245 (Review); G. Foerster, BA 56 (1993), 143–144; D. Amit, Cathedra 71 (1994), 198; id., LA 44 (1994), 561–578; id., The Aqueducts of Israel, Portsmouth, RI 2002, 253–266; H. Eshel, JSRS 4 (1994), 108–109, 112; J. Magness, Revue de Qumran 16/63 (1994), 397–419; id. (& E. E. Cook), BAR 22/6 (1996), 37–52; id., OEANE, 3, New York 1997, 18–19; I. Nielsen, Hellenistic Palaces: Tradition and Renewal (Studies in Hellenistic Civilization 5), Aarhus 1994; id., Roman Baths and Bathing, 1: Bathing and Society (op. cit.), Portsmouth, RI 1999, 35–43; A. Ovadiah, 5th International Colloquium on Ancient Mosaics, Bath, 5–12.9.1987 (JRA Suppl. Series 9; eds. P. Johnson et al.), Ann Arbor, MI 1994, 67–77; K. Fittschen, Judaea and the Greco-Roman World in the Time of Herod in the Light of Archaeological Evidence, Göttingen 1996, 139–161; R. Förtsch, ibid., 73–119; P. Richardson, Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans (Studies on Personalities of the New Testament), Columbia, SC 1996; id., Building Jewish in the Roman East (Suppls. to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 92), Waco, TX 2004, 253–269; A. Schmidt-Colinet, Basileia: Die Paläste der hellenistischen Könige. Internationales Symposium, Berlin, 16–20.12.1992 (Schriften des Seminars für klassische Archäologie der Freien Universität, Berlin; eds. W. Höpfner & G. Brands), Mainz am Rhein 1996, 250–251; Le opere fortificate de Erode il Grand, Firenze 1997; S. Verhelst, RB 104 (1997), 223–236; D. W. Roller, The Building Program of Herod the Great, Berkeley, CA 1998; A. Speransky-Marshak, IEJ 48 (1998), 190–193; D. M. Jacobson, BAIAS 17 (1999), 67–76; id., PEQ 134 (2002), 84–91; A. Lichtenberger, Die Baupolitik Herodes des Grossen (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 26), Wiesbaden 1999; S. Santelli et al., Les Dossiers d’Archéologie 240 (1999), 78–80; E. M. Laperrousaz, Trois hauts lieux de Judee, Paris 2001; A. Mazar, The Aqueducts of Israel, Portsmouth, RI 2002, 211–244; G. D. Stiebel, One Land—Many Cultures, Jerusalem 2003, 215–244; L. B. Kavlie, NEAS Bulletin 49 (2004), 5–14; L. I. Levine, The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years, 2nd ed., New Haven, CT 2005, 63; A. Lewin, The Archaeology of Ancient Judea and Palestine, Los Angeles, CA 2005, 116–119.

Lower Herodium: E. Netzer (et al.), JSRS 9 (2000), xv–xvi; 10 (2001), xviii–xix; id., BAIAS 19–20 (2001–2002), 186–187; J. Magness, Hesed ve-Emet (E. S. Frerichs Fest.; eds. J. Magness & S. Gitin), Atlanta, GA 1998, 313–329; id., BASOR 322 (2001), 43–46; Y. Kalman, JSRS 10 (2001), xix–xx; S. Bonato-Baccari, Latomus 61 (2002), 67–87; N. Kokkinos, BAR 28/2 (2002), 28–35.