Archaeology and Zionism
For Zionism, archaeology became a connection to the Land of Israel and proof of the existence of Jewish life in the area in ancient times. Prof. Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, Produced by Down Low Pictures for COJS
First Revolt to Bar Kokhba
Jewish Archaeology – Discoveries
Every once in a while, you can find one artifact which summarizes a whole lot of information and gives you a new or better vision of what existed before. Prof. Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, Produced by Down Low Pictures for COJS
Ancient Synagogues
Jews came together in synagogues because Jews need holy places when there is no Temple. There is an architectural identity between synagogues and the Temple. Prof. Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, Produced by Down Low Pictures for COJS
Babatha Letter
À la mode, Babatha’s document registering her En-Gedi date orchards was drawn up according to the prevalent Roman legal customs of the early second century C.E. Like the majority of her other documents, her land registration is written in Greek, the official language of government and business used in the Roman courts, not in Aramaic, […]
Cave of Letters
The entrances to the Cave of Letters (the two openings slightly right of center in the photo) lie 300 feet below the desert plateau and 650 above the valley floor. Forty years ago, Yigael Yadin explored the cave and found a trove of items that he associated with warriors of Bar-Kokhba, the leader of the […]
Bar Kokhba Weights
Lead weight inscribed with the name “Simeon son of Kosiba…Nasi (prince) of Israel.” discovered near Beth Guvrin, Judean Shephelah.
Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. “Where Was the Capitol in Roman Jerusalem?” Bible Review 13, 6 (1997).
When Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, the site of what would one day be the Holy Sepulchre Church was an abandoned stone quarry. A catacomb cut into the western side of the quarry attests that the quarry had fallen into disuse. The innermost chamber of the catacomb contains kokhim tombs. These deep recesses into the […]
Hanan Eshel. “Aelia Capitolina- Jerusalem No More.” Biblical Archaeology Review 23, 6 (1997).
Unlike the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66–70 C.E.), which was chronicled in detail by the first-century historian Josephus, the Second Jewish Revolt, the so-called Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 C.E.), is known only from scraps of ancient literature.1 Archaeology alone can fill in the gaps. And it has been doing so in an amazing way in […]
Anthony J. Saldarini. “Babatha’s Story.” Biblical Archaeology Review 24, 2 (1998).
Personal archive offers a glimpse of ancient Jewish life The column of Roman soldiers marched slowly south along the western shore of the Dead Sea toward En-Gedi, one of the region’s major governmental and commercial centers and a stronghold of Simon Bar Kosiba,a leader of the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome. Two years earlier, in […]
Ehud Netzer. “Jewish Rebels Dig Strategic Tunnel System.” Biblical Archaeology Review 14, 4 (1988).
At Herodium, the isolated mountain palace-fortress complex originally created by Herod the Great in the midst of the Judean desert,1 an underground tunnel system dating to the Bar-Kokhba revolt, the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132–135 A.D.), has recently been discovered. Unlike the low, narrow underground burrows Amos Kloner describes in “Name of Ancient Israel’s […]