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Here's another idea - just speculation! :wink:
Apparently a legion was destroyed during the Bar Kokhba revolt, and in the earlier uprising in 69AD another legion (XII?) was severely mauled. Some of you have suggested that the cave might have been used as a refuge by a Jewish rebel group in one or other of these wars - might the 'legion standard' carved into the wall be a commemoration that that either this group or some other connected to them were responsible for destroying a legion and capturing its standards?
That would at least explain why the standard itself looks so odd - an actual Roman soldier would have accurate knowledge of its construction and appearance, but a Jewish rebel who might only have seen one from a distance and be relying on memory might easily come up with something like this symbol.
Nathan Ross
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Interesting point.
Of course at this stage in the excavation, with so little information, any thing is possible. That being said, your speculation is not only possible but really rather intriguing.
I wonder if we will ever know.
:?
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David Reinke
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Quote:That would at least explain why the standard itself looks so odd - an actual Roman soldier would have accurate knowledge of its construction and appearance, but a Jewish rebel who might only have seen one from a distance and be relying on memory might easily come up with something like this symbol.
Did other armies ever use standards? I know the Judean mandate not to make idols or images, but some form of standard must have been used for identification of different units. And in armies of the other civilizations who came through the regions at different times, were there not standards of one sort or another?
I guess my central question is, just because some artifacts in a cave can be positively dated to a certain time, does it stand to reason that the engravings on the wall were necessarily made at the same time? Could not those engravings have been there already when the occupants who left the artifacts arrived? or added some decades later? Just rambling as usual. :|
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I have been looking very hard at this symbol in this cave and I begin to wonder if some one has not gone off with a total misconception about it being a Roman standard.
Is is not a funerary symbol as we find on the reverse of Roman coinage such as on commemorative coins of Late Emperors, a bit like the Castell St Angelo or the Tomb of Avgvstvs. just a thought !!
Brian Stobbs
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Quote:I have been looking very hard at this symbol in this cave and I begin to wonder if some one has not gone off with a total misconception about it being a Roman standard.
Is is not a funerary symbol as we find on the reverse of Roman coinage such as on commemorative coins of Late Emperors, a bit like the Castell St Angelo or the Tomb of Avgvstvs. just a thought !!
Interesting idea, any images?
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