Masada siege "quicker and more efficient"

[Duncan Head]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/sep/04/romans-siege-wall-masada-archaeology-israel

"Our workload calculations show that 5,000 men could have built the siege system around Masada in 11-16 days,"

[Imperial Dave]

Amazing proposition

[Jim Webster]

Given the British army military handbooks had these sort of engineering details back before 1914, I'm surprised it hasn't come up sooner?

[lionheartrjc]

Wish my builders could work that quickly!

I visited Masada about 40 years ago.  Amazing site. The outline of the Roman camps were clearly visible from the fortress.

The amount you would have to drink to support that amount of physical effort, they would need a good water supply.  There are a number of streams that flow into the Dead Sea in the area. You also need firewood for baking. Patrols to protect the foragers. All tasks which reduce the available numbers to actually construct the works.

[DBS]

It is causing a bit of upset in Israel, despite it being a proposition from Israeli archaeologists, because Masada is such a part of modern Israeli identity and received knowledge; given current political context, could not have come at worse moment.  I still have fond memories of the tv miniseries where all the Judaean white hats were played by US actors, and all the dastardly Roman black hats were British actors headed bu Peter O'Toole...

[Nick Harbud]

As one TV critic put it at the time "...thus handing the Roman Empire yet another victory."

 

[Imperial Dave]

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