Machaerus
Győző Vörös

The historical place, where Salome danced and John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. This information that complements the Gospels is based not only on Christian tradition, but founded on the 1 st -century account of Josephus (Antiquitates Judaicae XVIII.5.2), the Philo-Roman Jewish historian. The historical data of the Antiquitates on John’s arrest and imprisonment by Tetrarch Herod Antipas is attested by all the Gospels, and their accounts are consistent with and complement that of Josephus. The archaeological excavations of the historical site started in 1968, and have been directed by Prof. Dr. Győző Vörös since 2009 on behalf of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, in close scientific collaboration with three academic institutions: the Jerusalem Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem and the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University. The mountain-top site that overlooks the Dead Sea is a time-capsule between ca. 90 BC and AD 72, between the period of its establishment, when the Hasmonean King Alexander

Jannaeus erected the first fortress, and when the Roman army destroyed the citadel, which served as the penultimate stronghold of the Zealots.

 Website