Did the later Hasmoneans really become Hellenized, as many have theorized? Or were they like their palaces – Hellenist on the outside but Jewish within? The Hasmoneans were among the first to struggle to forge a distinctively Jewish ethnic identity

Famed for its fertility and rare plants, Jericho was the garden of Judea during the Second Temple period, second only to Jerusalem as an urban center. Hot baths and flowing streams, balsam plantations and the most delicious dates anywhere – small wonder that, according to rabbinic tradition, at least half the priestly class called Jericho home. The jewel in the crown of the archaeological remains of this era are without doubt the Hasmonean and Herodian palace complexes, uncovered along with an adjacent farm in a decade of excavations (1973–83) led by the late Prof. Ehud Netzer. 

Netzer attributed four such structures to Hasmonean kings who doubled as high priests: the “buried palace,” dated to the end of the rule of John Hyrcanus (r. 134–104 BCE), son of Simeon, the last of the five Maccabee brothers to govern Judea; the “fortified palace,” erected by John Hyrcanus’ younger son, Alexander Jannaeus (r. 103–76 BCE), on the foundations of its buried predecessor; and the “twin palaces,” apparently built for the two sons of Salome Alexandra and Alexander Jannaeus, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. The rival brothers threw Judea into civil war after their mother’s death, until Hyrcanus enlisted Roman general Pompey and his army to help defeat Aristobulus.

The palaces and their artifacts allow us to reconstruct some aspects of the Hasmoneans’ lifestyle and belief system. Through their reception areas and other public spaces, these palatial estates expressed the persona and intentions that their distinguished inhabitants wished to convey to their subjects.

 

Where’s the Guest Room?

Historians basing their study of the later Hasmonean rulers on historical texts – the most obvious being the writings of Jewish historian Josephus Flavius (c. 37–100 CE) – tend to characterize these leaders as Hellenists. A sad irony accompanies such conclusions: the heirs of the five Hasmonean brothers who fought off the Seleucid Hellenist Empire ostensibly succumbed to the very culture their ancestors abhorred. The second-generation Hasmoneans had Greek-sounding names such as Antigonus and Alexander, hired mercenaries, and called themselves kings despite their disconnection from the royal house of David. One of their womenfolk even reigned over Judea. Seemingly, then, the Hasmoneans embraced Hellenism, with their lifestyle and thinking not substantially different from that of the Egyptian Ptolemies and Syrian Seleucids with whom they alternately fought and negotiated.