Some scholars maintain that Josephus' account of the tragedy at Masada is contradicted by archaeological evidence. Read the conclusions from Shaye Cohen's article Masada: Literary Tradition, Archaeological Remains, and the Credibility of Josephus The Wars of the Jews, Book 7 1. (389) Now as Eleazar was proceeding on in his exhortations, they all cut him off short, and made haste to do the work, ...

According to Josephus the death of the 960 inhabitants of Masada and the destruction of the palace and the possessions were the premeditated acts of all the people acting in unison. But the archaeological remains cannot be reconciled with this view. Josephus says that all the possessions were gathered together in one large pile and set on fire but archaeology shows many piles and many fires (in ...