No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
The first installation to be identified as an ancient Jewish ritual bath ( miqweh ) was discovered by Yigael Yadin at Masada in 1964, and consisted of a stepped pool connected to an adjacent pool via a hole in the wall shared by the two installations. Yadin identified one installation as the immersion pool of the miqweh , and the second as an ̓ôṣār (lit. ‘reservoir’), used to ritually purify the water in the immersion pool. Yadin’s explanation regarding the functioning of this double-pool ritual bath has gone unchallenged since it was first suggested half a century ago, and set the stage for future identifications of ̓ôṣār installations found adjacent to other Second Temple-period ritual baths. This article argues that the ̓ôṣār is an innovation of the modern period, and that the commonly accepted view that an ̓ôṣār was employed in ritual baths dating to as early as the Second Temple period is no more than an unqualified anachronism.
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.