YADIN, Yigael - Masada : Herod`s fortress and the Zealots` last stand - (Hardcover in Wrapper)

Book and wrapper still in very good condition.    >>>   Ancient historian Josephus records a dramatic end to the Siege of Masada in AD 73. As the final act of the Jewish Revolt of AD 66-73 the subject of Josephuss Jewish War the writer records the mass suicide of 960 men, women, and children. These hardline revolutionaries the original Zealots preferred death by their own hands to slaughter, rape, or enslavement at the hands of their enemies.   -   Yigael Yadin, who fought in the Israeli armed forces, describes himself as privileged to have been invited by the Israeli authorities to carry out two seasons of intensive excavations from October 1963 to May 1964, and from November 1964 to April 1965 at the site. Masada represents for all of us in Israel and for many elsewhere, archaeologists and laymen, a symbol of courage, a monument to our great national figures, heroes who chose death over a life of physical and moral serfdom. The political significance of the Zealot resistance at Masada is contested, but there is no question that the new Israeli state regarded the site as a potent symbol of the Zionist cause, that Yadin shared this perception, and that it helped him attract a small army of young volunteers, both Israeli and foreign, to carry out the work. A total of 11 months work took place over the two seasons, the break between May and November 1964 being necessitated by the scorching summer heat.