Biblical Archaeology Review

See The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2 vols., (Garden city, NY: Doubleday, 1983–1985), ed. James H. Charlesworth, vol. 1, p. 633.

This is apparent from the Targum of the verse: “God shall slay the mighty men of his army strong as iron, and his warriors shall fall upon the land of Israel.” Cf Geza Vermes, Scripture and Tradition in Judaism (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973), p. 27.

The larger weapons, which would have been much more valuable, would have been taken by the Romans when they left Masada.

See R. Knox et al., “Iron Objects from Masada: Metallurgical Studies,” IEJ 33 (1983), pp. 97–107.

The main reference for this section is R.F. Tylecote, “Furnaces, Crucibles, and Slags,” in The Coming of the Age of Iron, ed. T.A. Wertime and James D. Muhly (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1980), pp. 183–228.

See Yadin, “Excavation of Masada,” where he incorrectly states that the arrowheads were found “in the eastern part of the mosaic” (p. 62).

Josephus, The Jewish War 7.8.

I am grateful to Dr. Ehud Netzer and Professor Gideon Foerster of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Joseph Aviram of the Israel Exploration Society, for their permission and encouragement to publish this article. My report on the arms and armor from Masada will appear in Masada, The Yigael Yadin Excavations 1963–1965, Final Reports, Vol 5, ed. J. Aviram, G. Foerster and E. Netzer (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, forthcoming). The ballista stones will be published in the same volume by Andrew E. Holley.

Lipaz Vinitzky, “The Date of the Dolmens in the Golan and Galilee—a Reassessment,” Eretz-Israel 21 (1991), pp. 167–173 (in Hebrew with English summary).