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Most of what we know about Masada comes from Josephus Flavius. He said that rather than being captured and enslaved by the Romans, the Zealots at Masada chose suicide instead.
He wrote:
“...then, having chosen by lot ten of their number to dispatch the rest...these, having unswervingly slaughtered all, ordained the same rule of the lot for one another, that he on whom it fell should slay first the nine and them himself last of all.”
A historical marker at the site where the ostraca were found reads:
“Here several hundred inscribed pottery shards [ostraca] were found. Outstanding among them was a group consisting of names and nicknames, including the name ‘Ben Ya’ir.’ Yigael Yadin, the most distinguished of Masada’s excavators, connected this group with Josephus Flavius’ story of the drawing of lots on the last night of the revolt.”
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