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and items like furnishings and sacks and other unknown to the loyal commanders of the peo-
equipment. ple, the zealots secretly admitted the Idumeans
through one of the city gates. There ensued
'Most of these textiles were perfectly pre- frightful carnage; the Idumeans letting loose
served in the desert conditions, and their con- their hatred of the Jews to such an extent that
servation is in the hands of the experts in they grew weary of the slaughter (Josephus,
Britain's Textile Conservation Centre at Hamp- Wars IV, v:2).
ton Court Palace, London. They are on loan to
the British Museum by the Israel Antiquities 'These dreadful atrocities were made doubly
Authority, and are being exhibited there at shameful by the fact that the zealots confessed
present. to the Idumeans that together they had wrought
such disaster in support of false accusations
'The conservation program, begun in 1993, has against the priesthood, '...they had taken arms,
achieved much, and analysis of the textiles has as though the high priests were betraying their
brought to light new information about first- metropolis to the Romans, but had found no in-
century A.D. trade and fashion and, signifi- dication of such treachery...' (Josephus, Wars
cantly, about life on Masada. For example, IV, v:5). Perhaps further research and analysis
David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent for of these important finds at Masada will resolve
The Independent, 31st July, 1995, informs us this historiographic controversy. Meanwhile
that: the Masada Textiles will be on show at the
British Museum until 29th October, 1995.
'Around five percent of the textiles found were
IMPORTED, HALF OF WHICH APPEAR TO -- Wake Up! magazine, September/Oct. 1995
HAVE COME FROM WESTERN EUROPE,
possibly INCLUDING BRITAIN. Indeed, Israel's Caucasus Trek
some of the Jewish resistance fighters may
have been wearing ORIGINAL SCOTTISH- The movement of peoples and tribes during the
STYLE IMPORTED TARTANS -- several late centuries B.C. and the early centuries A.D.
fragments have been identified.' were so sporadic and involved that ethnolo-
gists have has difficulty in establishing the
'We also learn, however, that the textiles and original identity or habitat of any of them with
other material are at the centre of a controversy certainty. For centuries the position -- particu-
concerning the IDENTITY of those Jewish de- larly in the Near and Middle East -- was so
fenders. One school of thought sees them as fluid that any one locality might have been oc-
'middle-class Hellenised anti-Roman refugees cupied by totally different peoples within the
from Jerusalem.' Another looks upon them as space of a few generations.
having been a 'bunch of fanatical brigands,
robbers and terrorists who drew their member- The general final movements of most of this
ship from the rural poor and did nothing to help agglomeration of peoples were in a westward
the real leadership of the Jewish uprising direction from the vast, interdeterminate Eura-
against Rome.' sian territory northwards and eastwards of the
Black Sea, anciently known as Scythia. Israel-
'Whichever of these opinions one is disposed ite customs still survive in the Caucasus re-
to support, the action of the zealots at the time gions, furnishing sure proof that Israelites
of the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus passed that way in their ever-westward trek.
does not show them in a kindly light, quite

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