Inscription found in Alexandrium fortress could shed new light on Jewish Revolt

Who was Eleazar Bar Ger, and what brought him to the magnificent Alexandrium, a fortress built 2,000 years ago by Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus?

Israeli researchers recently identified the mysterious man’s name scribbled on an ostracon, or inscribed pottery sherd, found in the fortress over 40 years ago, Bar-Ilan University announced last month. The presence of the artifact at the site could open dramatic developments in the understanding of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-74 CE), as it might testify that Jewish rebels used Alexandrium for their military efforts.

“We are talking about an impressive structure built in the first century BCE,” Dr. Dvir Raviv from Bar-Ilan University told The Times of Israel via telephone. “The site was last excavated in the early 1980s on behalf of the Hebrew University [of Jerusalem] by Prof. Yoram Tsafrir and Prof. Yitzhak Magen, and the results of the excavation were never fully published. Today, we are examining them again.”

Alexandrium, or Sartaba as it is referred to in Hebrew sources such as the Talmud, is located in the Jordan Valley, in what is now the West Bank, around five kilometers (three miles) north of the settlement of Yafit.

The finds from the 1980s encompass several ostraka, including the one bearing the name of Eleazar. According to Raviv, these ostraka could open unprecedented insights into the end of the Second Temple period.

“These inscriptions, mostly in ancient Aramaic, are very similar to those found in archaeological sites connected to the Jewish Revolt, like Masada and Herodium,” Raviv noted. “However, we do not have any historical sources that suggest Alexandrium was used during the rebellion.”

In the 1st century CE, Judea was no longer independent but a province of the Roman Empire. Governed with an iron fist, the province was tainted by political unrest and religious tensions, including between different Jewish groups.

The crucial written source about the period is the works of Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus (c. 37-100 CE).

“Josephus sporadically mentions Alexandrium in connection with the Hasmonean period and repeatedly covers its vicissitudes under Herod but does not say anything about the Jewish Revolt,” Raviv noted.

Herod the Great, a Jewish Roman leader, reigned over Judea in the first century BCE with the support of the Roman Empire. He is known, among other things, for his monumental public works in Jerusalem and across its kingdom, which included the construction of Herodium, an imposing fortress around 12 kilometers (7.45 miles) south of Jerusalem.

Raviv posited that Herod might have been inspired by what Alexander Jannaeus had done a few decades earlier with Alexandrium.

“Both built a fortress and named the site after themselves; both chose the location of an important battle they had fought, and in both cases, there are reasons to believe they might have been buried there,” he said.

Jewish rebels extensively used Herodium during the Great Revolt.

To decipher the inscription found at Alexandrium, Bar-Ilan scholars Prof. Esther Eshel and Prof. Hagai Misgav employed an innovative system combining hyperspectral photography and artificial intelligence developed by Dr. Ariel Schwarz, Dr. Amir Shemer and Dr. Yosef Danan from Jerusalem’s Azrieli Academic College of Engineering. The special photography brought the faded letters, previously almost invisible to the eye, back to life.

The text reads, “Eleazar bar Ger[…] from Beit Akiman.”

“We are not sure whether Elazar was the son of a convert or maybe the letters just marked the beginning of a longer name,” Misgav told The Times of Israel.

“The most interesting part is the reference to the man’s place of origin, Akiman,” he added.

No Judeaen village named Akiman appears in any historical record. Dr. Doron Sar-Avi of Herzog Academic College, who also studied the inscription, suggested that the place might be identified with the nearby location of Khamuniyya.

Misgav said that Eleazar was among the most common Jewish names in the first century CE. According to Misgav, pottery inscribed with names was common during that period and connected to simple tasks of everyday life, like food distribution.

“The most important question we need to address is whether we can connect the artifact with the Jewish Revolt,” Misgav said. “The sherd looks like other pottery fragments from that time found in other sites, but without additional archaeological context, there is no way to know if we are talking about 50 to 60 years earlier or 20 to 30 years later.”

The researchers are working to decipher the rest of the 14 ostraka unearthed in the 1980s. So far, some appear to carry other common Jewish names, like Pinhas and Levi. One is written in Greek and features a Greek name.

Meanwhile, to solve the archaeological mystery, a new excavation opened at Alexandrium led by Raviv on behalf of Bar-Ilan University and in cooperation with the Staff Officer for Archaeology – Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria.

The excavation could help determine whether Eleazar, as well as Pinhas and Levi, were indeed Jewish warriors ready to fight the Romans.

“We hope that we will find more evidence of the use of the site during the Great Revolt,” Raviv said.

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