Masada IV: The Yigael Yadin Excavations 1963-1965, Final Reports: Lamps; Textiles, Basketry, Cordage and Related artifacts; Wood Remains; Ballista Balls; Addendum: Human Skeletal Remains.

• Author: Dever, William G.

This is the fourth in a six-volume series of final excavation reports of the late Yigael Yadin's excavations at the renowned site of Masada on the shores of the Dead Sea. They are being issued by a coterie of Yadin's devoted colleagues, to whom we are all indebted. Volume I (1989) covered the Aramaic and Hebrew inscriptions; volume II (1989) covered the Greek and Latin documents; and volume III (1991) covered the stratigraphy and architecture. Volumes V-VI will cover the remaining architecture, art, pottery, and remaining materials.

In the present volume miscellaneous items (see the volume's subtitle) are analyzed, presented lavishly, and discussed in formidable detail.

Section one (pp. 3-147; D. Barag and M. Hershkovitz; with D. M. Bailey and J. Yellin) presents a catalogue and comparative discussion of nearly 1200 lamps and identifiable fragments dated to the years just before A.D. 73-74, when Masada fell. This is the largest corpus of first-century A.D. lamps from Israel ever recovered. They include both familiar radial, bow-spouted, multiple-spouted, and other local mold-made lamps, as well as several imported varieties and a few bronze lamps. Yellin's neutron activation analysis (pp. 107-24) indicates that many of the lamps originated in Jerusalem, and others elsewhere in Palestine, in keeping with Josephus' legend of the "last stand of Jewish refugees" at Masada.

Section two (pp. 152-282; A. Sheffer and H. Granger-Taylor; with V. C. Koren and O. Shamir) covers textiles, dyes, and loom weights/looms. The unusual corpus of textiles preserved in Masada's dry climate includes fragments of both men's and women's tunics, mantles, and cloaks; hair-nets; coverlets; linen towels; and goat-hair sacks. Many give evidence of wear and repair, but some show little use and heavy fire damage - witness to Masada's severe destruction. This exhaustive analysis, lavishly illustrated (some photographs are in color), is for the specialist and would seem to be definitive. The attempt to reconstruct provenance and the owners' socioeconomic class is particularly intriguing, as are the comparisons, for instance, with the well-known third-century A.D. wall paintings from Dura Europos.

The third section (pp. 285-317; K. Bernick) treats basketry, cordage, and related artifacts. Again, the remains...