Hyrcania (fortress)

Coordinates: 31°43′11″N 35°21′56″E / 31.71972°N 35.36556°E / 31.71972; 35.36556
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the fortress in the West Bank. For the land near the Caspian Sea, see Hyrcania.
Hyrcania
Ὑρκανία
Byzantine
Site notes
ArchaeologistsOren Gutfeld and Michal Haber (2023, HUJI)[1]

Hyrcania (

Hellenistic part of the Second Temple period). The fortress was rebuilt and greatly expanded by King Herod (r. 37-4 BCE; Roman period).[1][2] After Herod's death Hyrcania was abandoned, only to be resettled during the Byzantine period, when a late-5th century monastery named Kastellion was established on the ruined fortress, which remained active until the early 9th century.[1] There was a short-lived attempt by monks to rebuild in the 1920s-30s.[2]
The ancient ruins can still be seen today.

Water reservoir
Herodian-period mosaic floor

The site is located on an isolated hill about 200 m above the Hyrcania valley, on its western edge. It is about 5 km west of Qumran, and 16 km east of Jerusalem. Until the start of a 2023 archaeological campaign, the site had not yet been thoroughly excavated.[1] Until then, knowledge about the ruins of the site was based on a limited number of test pits.

History

Hasmonean fortress

Hyrcania is thought to have been founded by the

Pharisee party.[3]

The fortress is mentioned again in 57 BCE when Alexander of Judaea, son of Aristobulus II, fled from the Roman governor of Syria, Aulus Gabinius, who had come to suppress the revolt Alexander had stirred up against Hyrcanus II. Alexander made to re-fortify Hyrcania, but eventually surrendered to Gabinius. The fortress was then razed.[4] The Greek geographer Strabo also notes the destruction, along with that of Alexandrion and Machaerus, the "haunts of the robbers and the treasure-holds of the tyrants", at the direction of Gabinius's superior, the Roman general Pompey.[5]

Herodian fortress

Hyrcania is next reported in 33–32 BCE being used in an uprising against Herod the Great led by the sister of Herod's executed former rival Antigonus.[6] The fortress was retaken, and extended;[7] it became notorious as a place where Herod imprisoned and killed his real or presumed enemies,[8][1] ultimately including his own son and heir Antipater.[9]

Monastery of Kastellion

In later times

cenobium) for hermits on the site in 492 CE, called the Kastellion, part of the satellite community or lavra associated with the monastery at Mar Saba 4 km to the south-west. Hermits remained until the 14th century, with a brief attempt made to re-establish the community between 1923 and 1939.[10][2] This identification is based on Vita Sabae, the vita or biography of St Sabbas, and is generally accepted by researchers.[11]

Name

The Greek name, Kastellion, means 'little castle'.[1] The

Euthymius, for Masada, the Herodian palace-fortress near the Dead Sea which was briefly resettled by Byzantine monks.[11]

Archaeology

Biblical identification?

Some have identified the Hyrcania valley below the fortress with the Biblical valley of Achor.[12]

Looting

The valley of Achor is identified in the Copper Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls as the site of a great treasure. This has led to interest by treasure hunters in the area, despite it being subject to live-fire exercises by the Israeli army.[12]

There was looting of Herodian- and Byzantine-period graves in the remote past,[1] and destruction of the modern monastery by de Bedouin in the 1930s.[2]

Ancient tunnels

In a closeby narrow, canyon-like

carbon-dated to 590 BCE.[13] All of the findings are of little use at dating the tunnels, as they could have been washed inside by the seasonal flashfloods regularly occurring in this wadi.[13] The two excavated tunnels end abruptly at 80 and 120 metres of depth, respectively.[1]

Archaeologists proposed several dates and purposes for the tunnels, none going beyond conjecture.[1] [13] They could have been part of a monumental tomb associated with the fortress; part of the water system of a Iron Age II settlement located 2 km to the east;[13] or, as hypotesised by Michal Haber of the Hebrew University, a Herodian "slave labour" project, either abandoned, or without any practical purpose beyond punishment to begin with.[1]

Papyri/parchments

A large group of

Colossians 1:16c–18a; 20b–21.[17][18][19][20]
It also produced the only find of a letter on papyrus in this Western Aramaic dialect.[21]

Other findings

Among other findings are two pieces of a

Jesus Christ, the community responsible for this adapted Psalm inscription is that of the Byzantine Christian monks, founded in the 5th century CE.[1]

See also

Hasmonean desert fortresses

References

  1. ^
    Times of Israel
    , 27 Sep 2023. Accessed 2 Oct 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Wright, G. R. H., and J. T. Milik. "The Archaeological Remains al El Mird in the Wilderness of Judaea." Biblica, vol. 42, no. 1, 1961, pp. 1–27. Accessed via JSTOR, 2 Oct. 2023.
  3. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIII, §416
    (tr. William Whiston, 1895). "So Alexandra, not knowing what to do with any decency, committed the fortresses to them, all but Hyrcania, and Alexandrion, and Macherus, where her principal treasures were."
  4. Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War 1.8.5; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, §89
  5. ^ Strabo, Geography, 16.2.40
  6. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War, 1.19.1
  7. ^ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVI 12
  8. ^ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XV 365
  9. ^ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVII 182
  10. ^ Dave Winter (1999), Israel handbook. Footprint travel guides, p. 254
  11. ^
    ISBN 9783545230422
    . Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  12. ^
    Ha'aretz, 23 April 2007.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Nahal Sekhakha. BibleWalks.com, last updated on Feb 18 Feb 2013. Accessed 2 Oct 2023.
  14. ^ Oren Gutfeld, Hyrcania's Mysterious Tunnels, Biblical Archaeology Review 32(5), September 2006.
  15. ^ Watteeuw, Lieve. "Khirbet Mird Papyri – Research and Conservation Project in the Book Heritage Lab". KU Leuven. Retrieved 23 September 2018.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ Metzger, Bruce (1994). A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament, second edition a companion volume to the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (4th rev. ed.). London; New York: United Bible Societies: United Bible Societies.
  17. ^ C. Perrot, Un Fragment christo-palestinien découvert à Khirbet Mird (Actes des Âpotres, X 28-29; 32-41), Revue Biblique 70 (1963), pp. 506–555.
  18. ^ Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic Old Testament and Apocrypha, A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, I (Groningen, 1997), pp. 84–85. ISBN 90-5693-007-9.
  19. ^ Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Gospels, A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic, IIA (Groningen, 1998), p. 166 ISBN 90-5693-018-4.
  20. ^ Christa Müller-Kessler and Michael Sokoloff, The Christian Palestinian Aramaic New Testament Version from the Early Period. Acts of the Apostles and Epistles, A Corpus of Christian Palestinian Aramaic. IIB (Groningen, 1998), p. 154. ISBN 90-5693-019-2.
  21. ^ J.-T. Milik, Une inscription et une lettre en araméen christo-palestinien,Revue Biblique 60 (1953), pp. 526–527, 533–537.
  22. ^ Jozef-Tadeuzs Milik, "The Monastery of Kastellion,Biblica 42 (1961), pp. 21–27, pl. XII.
  23. OCLC 663773367.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link
    )

Further reading

  • O. Gutfeld (2008), "Hyrcania", in: E. Stern (ed.), The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, Vol. 5, pp. 1787–1788.

External links

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