A really excellent introduction to Masada’s archaeology and history, this museum combines 500 evocative artefacts unearthed by archaeologists (and five replicas) with introductions to Masada personalities – eg Herod the Great, who built a palace here in the 1st century BCE, and Josephus Flavius – to make the dramatic events of 73 CE seem close enough to touch. Visitors receive an audio headset, available in seven languages.
Objects on display include Roman arrowheads; a leather sandal once worn by a Roman legionnaire; the remains of Roman-era dates, wheat, barley and olives; and 11 pot shards that – as Josephus writes – may have been used to select those who killed everyone else as the Romans breached the ramparts.
