The Jewish army of the Hasmoneans raged in the spring of 107 BC. 400 BC: A combination of clues has enabled the precise chronological location of the destruction of the Hellenistic city of Nysa-Scythopolis in the Jordan Valley. While the year emerges primarily from coin finds, remains of seasonal foods and literary references also provide evidence of the season of the sinking, the scientists report. According to them, the more accurate time information can now be helpful in researching historical developments in this era.
The view is directed towards the Jordan Valley south of the Sea of Galilee: in ancient times there was a city on the hill of Tell Iẓṭabba, which is known as Nysa-Scythopolis or also as Beth Shean. The settlement was expanded into a Hellenistic city when Palestine was part of the Seleucid Empire that had formed in the era following the conquests of Alexander the Great. As part of an archaeological project, Israeli and German researchers are conducting excavations at Tell Iẓṭabba to shed light on the city's interesting history.
Successful uprising against the Seleucids
It is known that Nysa-Scythopolis was destroyed in an era of weakness of the Seleucid Empire. At that time, the Judean ruling family of the Hasmoneans took the opportunity to rebuild an independent Jewish state in the region. Through a campaign they succeeded at the end of the 2nd century BC. to conquer many Seleucid bases in Palestine. The city of Nysa-Scythopolis was destroyed under the leadership of the Jerusalem high priest John Hyrcanus. When exactly that was, however, remains unclear.
"The destruction of the Hellenistic city by the campaign of the Hasmoneans has so far been dated between 111 and 107 BC. B.C.,” says Achim Lichtenberger from the University of Münster. As Lichtenberger reports, the time frame could now be extended to 108/107 BC thanks to coins found by the team of scientists. be narrowed down. "With our multi-proxy approach, which takes into account several analysis methods, we can now even date the events back to the spring of 107 BC with certainty for the first time. Chr.,” says Lichtenberger.
"Spring was the time of destruction"
"In the homes destroyed by the Hasmoneans, we found chicken leg bones," reports Lichtenberger's colleague Oren Tal of Tel Aviv University. "Their analysis brought forth pith-containing deposits that were used for eggshell production during the laying season in spring. This indicates that the chickens were slaughtered in the spring,” explains the archaeologist. In addition, the scientists discovered traces of a special food in the layers of destruction: shells of field snails. According to them, they could only have been collected in the comparatively damp and cool spring and eaten shortly before the destruction. As the researchers report, traces of spring-flowering plants also fit the temporal classification.
The picture was rounded off by a search of literary mentions of the campaign: "The contemporary Hebrew scroll - the Megillat Ta'anit - on the conquest by the Hasmoneans, also known as the Scripture of the Fast, records the expulsion of the inhabitants in the Hebrew month of Sivan, which corresponds to our May/June,” says Tal.
Thus the spring of 107 BC is now clearly visible. as the time of the destruction of Nysa-Scythopolis. Finally, Lichtenberger emphasizes: “The individual dates would not justify a clear determination of time. Only the overall view of the results of all analysis methods enables us to get more precise information about the time of the destruction and thus about the course of the Hasmonean campaign," the archaeologist sums up.
Source: Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster