Archaeologists find structure corroborating Hanukkah stories
Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,100-year-old stronghold they believe constitutes physical evidence of the years-long armed conflict whose crucial battle is celebrated by Jews during Hanukkah.
What the archaeologists have found, they say, was built by the losers of that conflict: the Seleucids, forces of the occupying Greek empire, who were doing their best to stave off attacks by the Hasmonaeans—a family of Jewish priests led by Mattathias and his son Judah, known as Judah the Maccabee. The Seleucids were trying to eradicate Jewish worship and replace it with paganism.
Hanukkah, which began this year on November 28, commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees defeated the Hellenistic army about 164 BCE, opening the way for Jewish high priest John Hyrcanus to complete his conquest of the region of Idumea, the biblical Edom. Hyrcanus subsequently ruled the country from 135 to 104 BCE.
