Bar Kokhba hiding complexes
The Bar Kokhba hiding complexes are underground hideout systems built by Jewish rebels and their communities in Judaea and used during the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire. The hiding complexes are believed to have played a significant role during the revolt, particularly in Judea proper. Functioning as hiding places during times of emergency, these systems facilitated defense strategies and guerrilla warfare tactics. Researchers distinguish among the concealment complexes between those constructed in conjunction with the revolts, which include hiding complexes and cliff shelters, and a different category, the natural refuge caves used as ad hoc hiding places toward the end of the wars.
By 2005 hiding complexes had been identified in over 100 settlements across Judea, mainly concentrated in the Shephelah, Hebron Hills, and Beit El Mountains, with fewer in Galilee. Most of these complexes were strategically located beneath or near homes in settlements. Some were established in preparation for the revolt, while others were built during its course. A few of these structures, though smaller and less intricate, date back even earlier to the First Jewish–Roman War.
Carved into the rock – primarily the limestone and chalk typical for the region – the complexes comprised interconnected chambers linked by narrow passages. These complexes typically feature entrance shafts, rooms, halls, ventilation shafts, and various amenities such as locking mechanisms, lighting systems, sanitation facilities, and provisions for water storage. This architectural design allowed inhabitants to conceal themselves while maintaining essential functions for survival and warfare.
Exploration and study
The refuge systems were known to locals for hundreds of years and were first systematically investigated by the Palestine Exploration Fund in the 19th century. Their dating to the Bar Kokhba revolt was determined only in the late 1970s, and as of 2008, only a few of them have been thoroughly investigated. In the Shephelah, for example, less than a quarter of all known refuge systems have been examined and mapped. According to the researchers, most of these refuge complexes were used or prepared by Jews for times of distress, matching those during the revolts against the Romans in the Roman period.Types and location
In total, over 300 concealment complexes were known as of 2011, discovered near about a hundred settlements and sites in the Shephelah, and in about thirty-five settlements in Galilee.In a summarizing study published in 2019, Yinon Shivtiel summed up the research in Galilee and pointed to hundreds of what he calls "cliff shelters", and over 74 "hiding complexes" throughout the Lower Galilee that are identical to those in Judea.
Background
About sixty years after the First Jewish–Roman War that led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Simeon bar Kokhba led yet another revolt, with the goal of expelling the Romans from the Land of Israel and rebuilding the Temple. The revolt lasted for three years, and initially the rebels achieved great success, even gaining the support of the sages of the generation, led by Rabbi Akiva. As time passed, the revolt was crushed. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, and the Jewish community in the Land of Israel was destroyed.The rebels operated mainly in the Shephelah and to a lesser extent in Galilee, and in the years preceding the revolt they engaged in comprehensive and serious planning. They collected weapons and hewed hiding complexes, in which they would live and from which they would go out to attack during the revolt, as described by the Roman historian Dio Cassius.
The hiding complexes served as bases for surprise attacks on camps of Roman soldiers, and also as hiding places in case of a Roman siege on the settlement. The rebels would emerge at an agreed upon day and hour, attack nearby legion camps, and flee back to their starting points. The assumption is that the "convenient places of the land" in Cassius' description are the hiding bases from which the rebels emerged quickly to seize important strategic positions, which gave them a significant advantage for continuing the fighting.
Findings
The ceramic and numismatic finds in the hiding complexes are meager and disorganized, due to extensive antiquities looting.Pottery
As mentioned in the "dating" section, much of the pottery findings have been dated based on their typology, as they were found to be similar to ceramic and stone vessels from Jerusalem and the Judean Desert dated to c. 50-150.Coins
Dozens of coins have been discovered in the hiding complexes, the vast majority from the various years of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Many coins from the Bar Kokhba revolt have also been discovered in settlements under which hiding complexes were dug out, as well as Hellenistic, Hasmonean and Early Roman coins, all pre-dating the Bar Kokhba revolt. In some sites a small find of coins from the Great Revolt has also been discovered.Many of the Bar Kokhba coins found in hiding complexes are actually "recycled Roman coins": the rebels overstruck Roman silver coins, thereby invalidating them. Such spolia has been found on coins of Emperor Nero and up to Hadrian, as well as local coins of Ashkelon and Gaza. Researchers Amos Kloner and Yigal Tepper believe that most Bar Kokhba coins that reached the markets following looting originate from the refuge systems, but this cannot be scientifically proven.
The relatively short period between the Great Revolt and Bar Kokhba Revolt makes accurately dating the installation of the hiding complexes difficult. However, the finds indicate they were certainly used during the latter revolt. Because of this, and because of the difference in historical descriptions between Josephus and Cassius Dio, most researchers believe that the hiding complexes were installed by Bar Kokhba's people, while a minority claim it cannot be proven that they did not reuse hiding systems from the time of the Great Revolt. In any case, all agree the refuge systems were used by Jews in their revolts against the Romans in the Roman period. Since hiding complexes have only been discovered under settlement remains and not between them, it can be deduced these settlements were Jewish at that time. Therefore, it is not surprising that some flourished and thrived until the 2nd century, and after that, probably following the revolt's suppression, suffered serious damage.
Weights
Weights known to have been used during the Bar Kokhba revolt indicate the existence of an orderly central government with an orderly administrative system. Of the seven weights found, six originated in the antiquities market, and only one was discovered in an archaeological survey, published by Amos Kloner. The lead weight was found in 1987 in an underground hiding complex at Horvat Alim near Beit Govrin. It weighs 803 grams, decorated with stylized roses and surrounded by an inscription in square Hebrew script: "Shimon son of Kosba, Prince of Israel and his redemption of Jerusalem". A rosette is depicted in the center of the weight. In the article, Kloner mentions another weight purchased in 1967 for the Eretz Israel Museum and stolen from there in 1976. The weight was around 400 grams. Until Kloner's finding of 1987, it was unknown that this weight belonged to the Bar Kokhba period. It too had an inscription in square Hebrew readable as "Shimon son of Kosba and his redemption of Jerusalem", with a rosette in the center.Construction strategy
Most of the Shephelah consists of soft chalk rock, covered by a hard crust called caliche, up to two meters thick. The soft chalk was very useful for Shephelah residents in all periods, especially the Hellenistic period, as it allowed them to quarry their building stones near the building site rather than in a distant quarry, reducing construction costs. To avoid unnecessary effort hewing the caliche layer, locals made narrow openings in it, expanding the hewn-out spaces once they reached the soft chalk. The unique structure of wide spaces with stable, narrow openings, allowed maintaining the chalk's moisture content, preventing its disintegration. These spaces, still abundant in the Shephelah, are called bell caves. These artificial caves were used by residents as storerooms and underground facilities for a wide variety of uses like cisterns, storage rooms, winepresses, columbaria, stables, and more. The extensive use of such underground facilities brought about thousands of caves and pits in the Shephelah area.Bar Kokhba's rebels, many of whom lived in Shephelah settlements, used the underground facilities to create hiding complexes, as a sort of "secondary use". They sealed the openings of the original facilities, connecting them through tunnels and narrow passages, creating long systems based on existing cavities, which saved much time and effort. It also enabled camouflaging the hiding complexes under existing settlements, making it difficult for the Romans to track them.
Some of the earlier facilities were reused in their original capacity, like cisterns, storerooms etc. Other facilities underwent a change of purpose, serving the fugitives for various needs like assembly halls, living quarters, and so on. Expropriating earlier facilities for the refuge systems certainly disrupted the settlement's normal lifestyle, which indicates that the settlers cooperated with the rebels, who were determined in their war even at the cost of the ability to rebuild the settlement's normal life in the future.
Constituent elements
and Yigal Tepper, having researched many hiding complexes, comprehensively summarized their components into types:Entrance shaft
In most hiding complexes, access was via a vertical entrance shaft, accessed only by ladder or rope. The entrance section was actually a winding tunnel, comprising a vertical shaft, short horizontal tunnel and second vertical shaft, so even if the refuge system's entrance was discovered by the enemy, immediate entry was almost impossible. In Galilee hiding complexes, the entrance shaft was hewn identically, despite the very different rock type there. The entrance shaft's efficacy was in neutralizing the infiltrating enemy, as the shaft's shape forced the entrant to shimmy twice down, hands and feet gripping the walls, unable to wield weapons or defend himself. The upper shaft's depth was usually that of the hard caliche layer, with the horizontal tunnel and second shaft hewn into the chalk layers.Under the entrance shaft was usually a tunnel junction. Where two large earlier facilities were connected into one hiding complex, the entrance shaft was usually built between them. In large hiding complexes an actual room was built under the entrance shaft, from which tunnels branched in various directions. Researchers term this room the 'entrance chamber', and it is rare to find them in small systems.