Israel to open exhibit on King Herod
National museum preparing exhibition on Jewish ruler under Roman occupation two millennia ago. Palestinians object to display of artifacts from West Bank sites, say international law violated
Israel's national museum is preparing an exhibition on King Herod,
the Jewish ruler under Roman occupation two millennia ago.
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| Theater box found at Herod's palace /Associated Press |
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Archaeologists excavate lavish, private room in 400-seat facility at king's winter palace in Judean desert. Hebrew University: Further evidence of Herod's famed taste for extravagance.
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The display, billed as the world's first on Herod, includes a reconstructed tomb and sarcophagus of Herod, known for huge building projects, including the biblical Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem.
The exhibit features about 30 tons of findings from his lavish palaces.
Israel Museum
director James Snyder said Tuesday it's the museum's largest and most expensive archaeological project to date. The exhibit opens February 12.
Palestinians object to the exhibit because it displays artifacts from West Bank sites. Archaeology official Hamdan Taha says the project was not coordinated with the Palestinians and violates international law.
The museum says it will return the antiquities after the exhibit closes in nine months.
Theater box found at Herod's palace
Archaeologists excavate lavish, private room in 400-seat facility at king's winter palace in Judean desert. Hebrew University: Further evidence of Herod's famed taste for extravagance
Israeli archaeologists have excavated a lavish, private theater box in a 400-seat facility at King Herod's winter palace in the Judean desert, the team's head said last week.
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Ehud Netzer of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said the room provides further evidence of King Herod's famed taste for extravagance.
Herod commissioned Roman artists to decorate the theater walls with elaborate paintings and plaster moldings around 15 B.C., Netzer said. Its upper portions feature paintings of
windows overlooking a river and a seascape with a large sailboat.
Part of exposed theater box (Photo: Gabi Laron)
This is the first time this
painting style has been found in
Israel, Netzer said.
Herod was
the Jewish proxy ruler of the Holy Land under Roman occupation from 37 to 4 B.C. He is known for his extensive building throughout the area.
The team first excavated the site – sitting atop a man-made hill 2,230 feet high – in 2007. Netzer described the site as a kind of "country club," with a pool,
baths and gardens fed by pools and aqueducts.
But archaeological evidence shows the theater's life was short-lived, Netzer said. Builders deliberately destroyed it to preserve the conic shape of the man-made hill.
After Herod's death in the 1st century B.C., the complex became a stronghold for Jewish rebels fighting Roman occupation, and the palace site suffered significant battle damage before it was destroyed by Roman soldiers in A.D. 71, a year after they razed the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4333012,00.html
