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In Israel's columns, frescoes, and desert palaces, Herod the Great lives on
King Herod the Great is best known to Christians for trying to kill
the infant Jesus. But he also left his mark with stunning architectural
achievements, as seen in a new exhibit at the Israel Museum.
Archeological
excavations at Herodian, West Bank, Thursday, the artificial mountain
where Herod the Great built his largest and most lavish palace, yielded
much of the material for an immense Herod the Great exhibit at The
Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Christa Case Bryant/The Christian Science Monitor
Herod the Great
may be best known among Christians as the cruel ruler who sought to
kill Jesus as an infant, and whose son book-ended Jesus’ earthly
travails, mocking him en route to his crucifixion.
But this shrewd politician, appointed by
Rome, left a far broader imprint on history.
From
Corinthian columns to lavish frescoes, Herod etched the latest fashions
of the Roman world into the Holy Land in rare and costly colors such as
cinnabar. Even rabbinic literature of his day recognized Herod as the
greatest builder of the land, though he was controversial among some
Jewish subjects who doubted his Judaism and saw him as a puppet of Rome.
Among
the monuments to Herod’s terrific construction are the imposing
mountain fortress of Masada, perched on a desert plateau with cliffs on
all sides;
Caesarea,
the largest artificial port of its day, complete with an amphitheater
for 10,000 spectators of chariot races; and Herodian, an artificial
mountain that punctuates the skyline just south of
Jerusalem, a palatial complex which he is believed to have built as his final resting place.
After decades of excavation at these sites by the late Israeli archeologist Ehud Netzer, The
Israel Museum in Jerusalem
recently launched a nine-month exhibit, “Herod the Great: The King’s
Last Journey.” The exhibit includes more than 30 tons of material, a
massive undertaking that required the museum to shore up its foundations
and heighten its ceilings.
While packed with eager visitors during the
Passover
holiday this week, the Herod exhibit has also received a fair amount of
negative attention. Much of the material for the exhibit was taken from
Herodian, which is located in an Israeli-controlled part of the
West Bank, drawing Palestinian accusations that
Israel is using archeology to expand its occupation.
And
Prof. Netzer's excavations and subsequent conclusions are
not universally accepted; Herod's presumed sarcophagus, for example,
has no inscription proving it was indeed his. Many details of the
exhibit have been pieced together based on the writings of 1st century
Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus.
It
is perhaps noteworthy that the exhibit is not controversial among
Israelis themselves. But why would the Jewish people seek to honor such a
leader, who murdered his own wife and children and was seen by more
than a few Jews as a Roman sellout?
“He was the last great Jewish king here,” responds Ilya Burda, an employee at Herodian.
As for his more savage exploits, well, that was par for the course in his day, Mr. Burda suggests.
“He
was a great builder, a great administrator, and a great killer, and all
these things came together,” he says, taking a break from the busy cash
register where crowds of Israelis are waiting for a ticket.
“In the
ancient world, you could not be the great something without killing
someone.”
Herod, who also built
a magnificent theater at Herodian before changing his mind and filling
it all in, was a key figure in the drama of Roman rule in ancient
Israel.
The son of a Nabatean mother and a father from an
influential Idumean family who had converted to Judaism, he was born in
73 BC and was appointed by the Roman senate in 40 BC to be “king of the
Jews.” His original patron was
Marc Antony, who ruled
Syria,
Egypt,
and Judea, with Herod as his man. But after Antony’s demise with his
Egyptian lover Cleopatra, Herod deftly switched his alliance to the
victorious Octavian.
Octavian, later known as Augustus Caesar,
accepted Herod’s continued rule and even expanded the borders of his
kingdom, which eventually stretched from
Gaza
up the coast to Caesarea, which Herod named after his new patron. Herod
also showed his strong connection to Rome in other ways, such as
sending two sons to be educated in Rome.
Ever conscious of the
importance of banquets to forge social and political ties, he sought to
reveal to his high-ranking Roman guests “not only his fondness for Roman
culture but also that he had good taste and was ‘one of them,’”
explains one plaque at The Israel Museum exhibit.
But there were
clear tensions between Herod’s loyalty to Rome and his Jewish subjects,
perhaps seen most clearly after 10,000 laborers and 1,000 priests
completed Herod’s rebuilding of the Second Temple – a huge feat of
ancient stonework, with one stone weighing more than 500 tons.
“Torn
between his desire to show respect for Jewish tradition and an equally
compelling desire to please his Roman overlords, he dedicated [the
temple] to the God of the Jews but later placed a golden eagle, a symbol
of the might of Rome, above the temple gate,” according to the exhibit.
While
the temple was considered the pinnacle of Herod’s architectural
achievement, Herodian was the largest and most lavish of his palaces.
Set atop a cone-like mountain with the top shaved off, it commands a
360-degree view of Jerusalem and the Judean hills.
Herod is
believed to have created the complex, complete with a large pool with
boats and a mausoleum for his burial, as a memorial to himself.
Today the small peak is surrounded by Palestinian villages and the Israeli settlements of Tekoa and
Nokdim, home to former Israeli Foreign Minister
Avigdor Lieberman.
Local
Palestinians say they used to frequent the site before the second
intifada broke out in 2000, but today there is heightened security.
“People
from [surrounding] neighborhoods could go and sell ice cream and
chocolate,” says Eyad Ali, a local whose father and grandfather worked
on the archeological excavations. “It’s become more difficult for them
to go there now…. It’s like a military zone, because it protects the
settlements.”
The site lies within Area C, which covers 62 percent
of the West Bank and has remained under full Israeli control according
to the 1993
Oslo
Accords. Meant to be merely an interim division of land, the accords
are but the latest in a long history of shifting political boundaries in
this ancient land.
After Herod’s death, his kingdom was divided between four of his children. Herod Antipas, who conferred with Roman prefect
Pontius Pilate
ahead of Jesus’ crucifixion, reigned the longest, until 39 AD. But by
then the Herodian kingdom had been overtaken by direct Roman rulers, who
destroyed the Second Temple in 70 AD, though much of Herod's stamp on
the land can still be seen today.
Labels: Archaeology, culture, Heritage, Israel, Judaism