The King’s Baths Jewish, Greek, and Roman Baths in Hasmonean and Herodian Palaces

In the Hasmonean palaces in Jericho several Jewish ritual baths (miqwā ōt) were found side by side with Greek heated bathtubs. Several decades after the Hasmoneans, Herod built some ten Roman bathhouses in his palaces in Jericho, Masada, Herodium and Cypros. Each one the frigidarium or cold bath was in the shape of a ritual bath (miqwē). While Herod imitated the Hasmoneans by using two types of baths, he went further by combining Roman and Jewish baths in a single installation. This attested to his attempt to blend the two cultures and perhaps even to create a unified, Jewish-Roman identity. The custom of bathing in both Greek/Roman and Jewish baths is interpreted in light of the concept of the body and its embodiment in social theory. Sociologists and critical theorists maintain that the body is a vehicle for social communication and the development of individual and social identity. It is suggested that both the Hasmoneans and Herod employed two types of baths to underscore their royal status and create a court society. But above all, bodily performance was their way of experiencing and signifying their dual identity as Jewish rulers functioning in the Greco-Roman political and cultural milieu. By frequently using both types of baths, they also demonstrated the balance between Jewishness and Hellenistic or Roman culture, as well as the balance between Jewish halakha and pleasure.