It is an ancient royal communiqué that details the appointment of a new tax collector. And its text, newly deciphered after four recent archeological finds were put together, brings demonstrable veracity to the events that precipitated the Maccabean Revolt in 167-164 BCE and the story of Hanukka.

The significance of the communiqué, sent from the Syrian-Greek King Seleucus IV (187-175 BCE) to the ruling leadership in Judea, emerged when it was realized that three inscribed pieces of stone found at Beit Guvrin's Tel Maresha between 2005 and 2006 belonged together with a larger stele piece that was donated to the Israel Museum in 2007.

The reconstituted stele, or inscribed tablet, yielded a text from the king dated 178 BCE - 11 years before the Maccabean Revolt. It set out instructions to his chief minister Heliodorus concerning the appointment of one Olympiodorus to begin collecting money from all of the temples in the region, marking the start of a significant, negative shift in Seleucid policy on Jewish autonomy. That shift culminated in a vicious Seleucid crackdown on the Jews of Judea and the looting of the Temple in 168-167 BCE, which prompted the Maccabean Revolt as memorialized in the Hanukka story...

Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini of the Israel Antiquities Authority: "The Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus conquered Gaza and the Negev and for decades prevented the Nabataeans from using the Incense Road."

According to a recent important archaeological and historical discovery, the Hasmoneans also controlled the Negev.

Researchers at the Israel Antiquities Authority are currently processing finds from archaeological excavations at sites located along the "Incense Road" in the Negev that were previously excavated by Dr. Rudolph Cohen of the Department of Antiquities. One of the sites that were excavated was Horvat Ma'agurah, which is located on a ridge, c. 3.4 kilometers west of the Sede Boqer region. The site is situated at a strategic point that overlooks Nahal Besor where the famous "Incense Road" ran, which connected Petra with Gaza. It was along this road that the Nabataeans transported precious goods such as myrrh and frankincense to the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt.

An analysis of the finds has revealed that after Gaza was conquered in 99 BCE, King Alexander Jannaeus - the great-grandson of Matityahu the High Priest - built a fortress with four towers inside an earlier Nabataean caravanserai. With the aid of this fortress he was able to halt any Nabataean activity along the Incense Road and in effect force them out of the Negev.

It was because of the fortress' shape that archaeologist, Dr. Rudolph Cohen assumed at the time it was a stronghold from the Roman period (end of the third century CE). But a new analysis of the artifacts which were discovered inside the fortress, and the architectural features of the fortress itself, has led to the unequivocal conclusion that the fortress is Hasmonean...