Tuesday, January 05, 2021

Salome's dance floor excavated?

ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Dance floor where John the Baptist was condemned to death discovered, archaeologist says (Owen Jarus, Live Science).
A courtyard uncovered at Machaerus is likely the place where Salome's dance was performed and where Herod Antipas decided to have John the Baptist beheaded, wrote Győző Vörös, director of a project called Machaerus Excavations and Surveys at the Dead Sea, in the book "Holy Land Archaeology on Either Side: Archaeological Essays in Honour of Eugenio Alliata" (Fondazione Terra Santa, 2020). The courtyard, Vörös said, has an apsidal-shaped niche that is probably the remains of the throne where Herod Antipas sat.
Could be. But not all archaeologists are convinced.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Machaerus, its excavation, and its relation to John the Baptist, see here and links. For posts on Salome, daughter of Herodias, see here and links. Josephus gives her name, but the she is unnamed in the Gospel stories about her dance for Herod.

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