Recent Excavations Detail

View of the recent (2018) excavations at Masada.  The excavated area is surrounded by a metal fence.  It looks like there is a plastered cistern in the center of the image and one to the right of the center.

In this area, Stiebel and Gross discovered two water cisterns from the time of Herod the Great (37–4 BC).  During the Byzantine period, the 16–foot–deep southern cistern was replastered by Christian hermits.   One of the cisterns filled with water during a rainstorm in April 2018—the monks' plaster job still held water!

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The excavations are described in Stiebel, Guy and Boaz Gross. “Masada Shall Never Fail (to Surprise) Again.” Biblical Archaeology Review 44, no. 5 (September/October, 2018): 30–40.