Masada

Josephus, a first-century Jewish Roman historian

significant disagreement among historians as to the veracity of the Josephus story

There is also considerable controversy in the archaeological reporting

The primary archeologist, Yigael Yadin, has recently come under charges of professional misconduct

After extensively studying Yadin's work documents, transcripts, and conversations, Ben-Yehuda concluded that Yadin conducted "a scheme of distortion which was aimed at providing Israelis with a spurious historical narrative of heroism"

The actual record shows evidence of "different factions of Jews fighting and killing each other, of collective suicide by a group of terrorists and assassins whose "fighting spirit" was questionable

there are the admissions of falsification by Yadin himself

he later admitted he was pressured by the Israeli government to make that connection, even though the cave contained pig bones among the skeletons, a common sacrificial burial practice for Roman dead