Lookit these super bitchin’ swords! This past week (Sept 6, 2023), archaeologists working in Israel announced their discovery of four Ancient Roman swords and the head of a javelin (called a pilum), found in amazingly preserved condition in a cave near the Dead Sea in Israel.
Three of the swords were of a kind known as “spatha,” or longswords, their blades measuring about two feet or between 60-64 centimeters. What’s more, they were still in their wooden scabbards, a rarity made possible because of the region’s dry climate. The fourth sword was a ring-in-pommel type.
These weapons — and the remote and secreted location of the cave in which they had been stashed — speak much about the situation of Jewish people in the early second century in Rome, as well as to the far-flung trade routes of the time. Archaeologist Guy Stiebel of Tel Aviv University argues that the swords were probably made far-off, in a European province. But Roman armies connected the Empire, and the archaeologists who are working on this find speculate that Jewish rebels likely seized these armaments from some Roman soldiers. Perhaps their plan was to stash them away for a rebellion. In fact, there was a Jewish attack against the Roman occupation with the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-135 CE, which went very badly for the Jews.
The discovery happened while archaeologists were trying to make out an ancient Hebrew inscription on a stalactite on the cave — the hidden swords were a spectacular and serendipitous find.
Sources: Photo Ronald Schmidt, Getty Images. _Smithsonian Magazine_, “Archaeologists unearth four 1,900-year-old Roman swords in Israeli cave,” Christopher Parker, Sept 8, 2023. BBC, “Dead Sea reveals four 1,900-year-old Roman swords in cave,” David Gritten, Sept 6, 2023.
