Archeologists: Hasmonean rule extended further than ever thought before

Ahead of the upcoming Hanukkah festivities, Israel's Antiquity Authority revealed on Thursday that the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled in Israel during the time of the Maccabean revolt, was larger than previously estimated.

According to the findings of Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini, the Hasmoneans also controlled the Negev.

"We are talking about a revolutionary discovery that will redraw the maps of the region which describe that era and greatly increase the territory governed by the Hasmoneans into the heart of the Negev Highlands as we know it," said Dr. Erickson-Gini.

"Despite the evidence of the historian Josephus, according to which King Alexander Jannaeus conquered the southern coast of the Land of Israel and the harbor in Gaza and even further south, no clear archaeological proof of this has been found in the field," she added.

"It was because of this lack of proof that historians were inclined to dismiss the possibility that the Hasmoneans did indeed control the Negev," concluded Dr. Erickson-Gini.

Researchers at the Israel Antiquities Authority are currently processing the finds from archaeological excavations at sites located along the "Incense Road" in the Negev, which has revealed that after Gaza was conquered in 99 B.C.E., King Alexander Jannaeus - the great-grandson of Matityahu the High Priest - built a fortress with four towers inside an earlier Nabataean caravanserai.

It was because of the fortress' shape that archaeologist, Dr. Rudolph Cohen, assumed at the time it was a stronghold from the Roman period (end of the third century C.E.) But a new analysis of the artifacts which were discovered inside the fortress, and the architectural features of the fortress itself, has led to the unequivocal conclusion that the fortress is Hasmonean.

It is now clear that the Hasmoneans kept hold of the fortress located on the Nabataeans' principal trade route until the year 66 B.C.E., and by means of it, prevented any movement by their Nabataean enemies along the road between Halutza and Northern Sinai.

The discovery also reinforces the claim that another Nabataean site, Nessana, where a multitude of coins of Alexander Jannaeus were discovered, was ruled by him.

"Another interesting fact", Dr. Erickson-Gini said, "is that the army that Alexander Jannaeus engaged was for the most part a mercenary force that was composed of non-Jewish soldiers."

She added that "apparently Alexander Jannaeus and his widow Queen Salome Alexandra could not depend on Jewish soldiers because of the sharp political divisions that existed among the people."