Maresha: a city of Idumea under Ptolemies, Seleucids and Hasmoneans

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

The introduction to the volume Maresha II: Hellenistic Terracottas, in the Israel Antiquities Authority's reports series, summarises the city's history: Maresha flourished under Ptolemaic, and later Seleucid rule, until it was finally destroyed by the Parthians in 40 BCE. The Hasmonean occupation of the place, in 112-111 BCE, "left conspicuous fingerprints" on its archaeological record. According to the introduction, only in the Persian and Hellenistic periods did the city attain considerable importance as a leading city of Idumea, as reflected in the Zenon papyri and in the writings of Josephus, and in the Hellenistic period it was inhabited both by Idumeans and by other peoples, as attested in the personal names recorded there. Source 1.

The Lower City and what lies beneath it

Bliss and Macalister had already surveyed the Lower City, which extends over 320 dunams around the mound, but an in-depth study of it took place only in the second half of the twentieth century. The excavations explored the Lower City's houses, streets, fortifications and other structures, as well as numerous rock-cut subterranean complexes: halls, cisterns, columbaria, oil presses, stables, quarries and tombs. The most extensive soundings were conducted by Amos Kloner for the Israel Antiquities Authority in the late 1980s and during the 1990s. Source 1.

283 figurines and what can be dated

The volume presents 283 pieces, which the introduction calls the predominant collection of Hellenistic terracottas from Israel, second in volume only to the one from Kharayeb. All the figurines come from the Lower City, except for specimens from Upper Area 100 on the acropolis. Most of the finds were recovered from fills of some of the subterranean complexes cut into the bedrock under the houses, and thus lacked a defined context. The terracottas range from the beginning of the Hellenistic period to the late second century BCE. Source 1.

The city's phases and the site's periods

The city's history does not fit on a single page of this site. Its Hellenistic period is 331-64 BCE, after the line "Hellenistic rule: Seleucid dynasty" in the Met's timeline, where the Roman period begins about 64 BCE. Source 2. The regional line names the whole range after the Seleucids, while the Maresha introduction describes a Ptolemaic phase before the Seleucid one. The Hasmonean occupation and the figurines fall within this site's Hellenistic period, but the Parthian destruction in 40 BCE already falls within the range of the Roman period page. The article is placed in the Hellenistic period, to which the finds it describes are dated, and the destruction keeps its date rather than being trimmed to the boundary.

Maresha and Nazareth

The Hellenistic period page of this site also lists the article "Nazareth: reading a settlement through its layers", in which one building unit is assigned to the late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. The two cases put the same question from different directions: at Nazareth, one archaeological unit that crosses the period boundary; at Maresha, a city whose documented history crosses it, and a collection most of which was found in fills without a defined context.

Scope of reading: the introduction (chapter 1) to the volume Maresha II: Hellenistic Terracottas was read on 24 October 2026, together with the Met timeline page for 1000 BCE-1 CE. The catalogue of the figurines, the volume Maresha I and the excavation reports were not read, so no individual figurine is described here.