world >> travel

Herod The Great Opens
in Jerusalem

The William Davidson Foundation sponsors extraordinary exhibition.

Beata Andonia and Elise Moed
Special to the Jewish News

d or the first time ever, Herod the
Great is the subject of an extraor-
dinary exhibition at the Israel
Museum titled "The Kings Final Journey"
The exhibit, which opened to great fanfare,
includes more than 250 artifacts collected
from the archaeological remains of sev-
eral buildings and palaces constructed by
Herod the Great, including pieces from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The exhibition was made possible
by a grant from the William Davidson
Foundation of Detroit.
The display features reconstructions and
artifacts from Herod's edifices at Herodium
and Jericho. Starting with the funeral pro-
cession of Herod, which began at the third
palace in Jericho, the visitor first arrives in
Herod's reconstructed throne room, com-
plete with restored frescos.
As visitors walk from room to room
within the exhibit, they are taken through
many of Herod's major building feats
including Caesarea and Masada. Artifacts
from these sites and others, along with dig-
ital restorations, are on display. However,
it is the newly excavated (as believed)
Herod's tomb, which takes center stage.
The reddish sarcophagus of Herod, dis-
covered outside the palace at Herodium in
2007, was found shattered in hundreds of
pieces and was meticulously restored for
the exhibit. It is on display in the last room
of the exhibit, adjacent to the magnificent
royal room.
Why did Herod build his tomb on the
northeastern slope of Herodium? While no
one really knows the answer, it is believed
that he wanted the tomb to be seen from
Jerusalem. As to why it was not within the
palace grounds, speculation is that Herod,
with his vast knowledge and respect of
Jewish culture and its rules regarding
impurity, understood that should his tomb
be within the palace complex, priests
would not be able to visit. He therefore
constructed the mausoleum on the highest
possible spot outside the palace.
The exhibition is dedicated to Professor
Ehud Netzer, a prolific archaeologist who
devoted much of his professional career
to searching for Herod's tomb. In 1972,

F

Netzer came within one meter of the
tomb's location during a dig at Herodium.
However, it took him another 40 years
until he finally discovered the tomb in
2007. Knowing that this find would require
a professional restoration team in order to
protect and restore the significant artifacts
discovered, he conceived the initial idea of
Herod's exhibit and brought in the Israel
Museum to assist.
Unfortunately, during the initial site tour
at Herodium accompanied by members
of the Israel Museum's restoration team,
Netzer fell from the theater site and died
from his injuries three days later.
The Israel Museum team, led by
co-curators David Mevorah and Silvia
Rozenberg, and designed by Iddo Burn,
spent the last three years planning the
exhibit, which contains more than 30 tons
of material from Herodium and 250 arti-
facts from the site and other related sites
throughout the region, as well as related

artifacts on loan from other museums
worldwide.
The exhibit pays tribute to Herod the
man and his achievement as a regional
imperial ruler with an obligation to be
loyal to his imperial mandate with an
understanding that he was presiding over a
magnificent golden age of Jewish life.
According to museum director James
Snyder, the exhibit "explodes this moment"
of Jerusalem's golden age by showcasing
the grandeur of buildings constructed
by Herod during this period. The exhibit
"brings into context remote imperial rule
during a pivotal time:' says Snyder.

Herod the Great

Herod the Great (73/74 BCE-4 BCE) in
39/40 BCE was appointed the client king to
the Roman province of Judaea, consisting
of geographical regions of Judea, Samaria
and Idumea.
Herod was the second son of Antipater

the Idumean, a high-ranking official of
Hyrcanus II, and his mother was Cypros,
who was a Nabatean.
After the conquest of Idumea by John
Hyrcanus, all its residents were obliged to
convert to Judaism or leave the area. Thus,
Herod followed the Jewish faith. However
due to his Idumean blood, religious Jews of
Judea did not consider him Jewish.
When Herod was 25, his father appoint-
ed him a governor of Galilee, but it was his
brother Phasel who governed in Jerusalem.
In the middle of the first century BCE,
Hyrcanus' nephew Antigonus took his
uncle's throne by force. At that time, Herod
escaped to Rome to ask for help in bring-
ing him back into power.
Herod, with the support of the
Romans, managed to win the kingdom
from Antigonus — the Hasmonean
dynasty came to the end giving way to the
Herodian one.

Herod on page 38

36

March 21 • 2013