The Western Palace Complex

The western palace complex was entered through a guardroom, which, like the other guardrooms at Masada, had benches along the walls and was decorated with stucco molded in imitation of marble panels. From the guardroom, an elongated hall bisected the administrative offices, servants' quarters/workshops, and storerooms (long, narrow rooms as in the northern palace complex). The hall provided access to the royal wing of the western palace, which consisted of a large courtyard surrounded by rooms that were decorated with Second Pompeian Style wall paintings. The throne room was located on the far side of the courtyard. Holes sunk into the floor at one end of this room show where the legs of the throne had been placed.

A waiting room or reception hall adjacent to the throne room was decorated with the most elaborate mosaic floor found at Masada. The mosaic is made of colored tesserae (cut stone cubes), and displays a rosette surrounded by bands decorated with geometric and floral motifs. The floral motifs include olives, pomegranates, and grapes, which are among the seven species of agricultural produce that symbolized the fertility of the Land of Israel, according to biblical tradition. The seven species are depicted frequently in Jewish art of the late Second Temple period, when many Jews refrained from using the figured images that are so common in Roman art, in strict observance of the Second Commandment, which prohibits the making of images for worship. It is interesting that despite Masada's remote location, Herod chose typically “Jewish" motifs to decorate his palaces and refrained from using figured images. This

10.6 Mosaic floor in the western palace. Courtesy of Zev Radovan/BibleLandPictures. com.

Likely reflects Herod's concern not to offend Jewish visitors to Masada rather than his own religious observance or leanings, as outside of Judea he dedicated pagan temples (at Caesarea and Samaria, for example).

Across the courtyard from the throne room was a two-story suite of rooms that included another bath house. Instead of a hypocaust, this bath house had an earlier type of heating system, consisting of a bathtub supplied with heated water. The rooms of the bath house were paved with simple colored mosaics. One mosaic depicts a rosette and is located by the entrance to a deep but narrow stepped pool that apparently was a miqveh. During the First Jewish Revolt, the rebels who occupied Masada installed a small, square bin (for storage or rubbish?) in the corner of this room, which cut through the mosaic with the rosette.