"Exploring the vegetation in Masada"

This project aims to reveal the botanical components in Masada, situated on top of an isolated rock plateau in the Judaean Desert. Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain, the most impressive among them from the architectural perspective is no doubt the northern palace with its outstanding views towards the desert and the Dead Sea.

Within the frame of this project we are searching for traces for royal display by plants as well evidence for agricultural activities within the site. The latter are mentioned in Flavius Josephus's texts.

During the 2017 field season two areas have been excavated by our lab: Area E at the northern palace supervised by M. Cavanagh and Area F at the southern sector of the site, supervised by S. Ben-Dor Evian.

Together with Dr. Guy Stibel

Staff involvement (from the lab) – Dr. Eitan Kremer, Mark Cavanagh, Vala Epstein and Macy Moore.

The project is funded by the Porter Foundation.