King Herod's Tomb Found at Herodium

Friday, 11 May 2007 23:35

You know King Herod.  The Bible says he murdered every boy in Bethlehem under the age of three to prevent the rise of a new king of the Jews. But Jesus, Mary, and Joseph escaped to Egypt, and--according to the Jewish historian Josephus--Herod suffered an excruciating death.  Now, Israeli archaeologists think they've found Herod's tomb.  It's at Herodium, on the edge of the Judean desert not too far south of Jerusalem.  Built as fortress, palace, sanctuary, and tomb by Herod around the year 20 BC, Herodium has been combed and excavated by archaeologists for decades.

aThey've found much of what Josephus described in his history: " hill, raised to a height by the hand of man and rounded off in the shape of a breast," "round towers," "royal apartments," and "pleasure grounds built in such a way as to be worth seeing."  But not the tomb Herod went to on a bier of solid gold, escorted by his foreign troops--"the Thracian contingent, Germans, and Gauls, all equipped as for war."

That changed this week, when archaeologists announced that they've found limestone fragments of a sarcophagus at Herodium so massive and so decorative that it can only be King Herod's.  A monumental flight of stairs, likely built for his funeral procession, leads to the burial site. 

While archaeologists look for an inscription that would definitively tie the tomb to Herod, we're looking at maps of the Holy Land in Herod's time.  What exactly did Herod rule?  Judea? Samaria?  Galilee?  What was his relationship to Rome?  And why does he show up in the Bible even after he's dead? 

Herod (73-4 BCE) was the pro-Roman king of the small Jewish state in the last decades before the common era.  He started his career as a general, but the Roman statesman Mark Antony recognized him as the Jewish national leader. During a war against the Parthians, Herod was removed from the scene, but the Roman Senate made him king and gave him soldiers to seize the throne. As 'friend and ally of the Romans' he was not a truly independent king; however, Rome allowed him a domestic policy of his own.  Although Herod tried to respect the pious feeling of his subjects, many of them were not content with his rule, which ended in terror.  He was succeeded by his sons.

Herod's reign

Herod's monarchy was based on foreign weapons; the start of his reign had been marked by bloodshed.  His first aim was to establish his rule on a more solid base. Almost immediately, he sent envoys to the Parthian king to get Hyrcanus back from Babylon.  The Parthian king was happy to let the old man go, because he was becoming dangerously popular among the Jews living in Babylonia.  Although Hyrcanus was unfit to become high priest again, Herod kept his father-in-law in high esteem.  The support of the old monarch gave an appearance of legality to his own rule.

The new king started an extensive building program: Jews could take pride in the new walls of Jerusalem and the citadel which guarded its Temple.  (This fortress was called Antonia, in order to please Herod's patron Mark Antony.) Coins were minted in his own name and showed an incense burner on a tripod, intended to signify Herod's care for the orthodox Jewish cult practices.  These coins had a Greek legend -HÈRÔDOU BASILEÔS- which indicates that Herod considered his standing abroad.  And the new king continued to please the Romans, to make sure that they would continue their support.  He sent lavish presents to their representative in the East, Mark Antony, and to his mistress, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra