Footnotes
See Zvi Greenhut, “Burial Cave of the Caiaphas Family,” BAR 18:05 and Ronny Reich, “Caiaphas Name Inscribed on Bone Boxes,” in BAR 18:05; and Neil Asher Silberman, “Ossuary: A Box for Bones,” BAR 17:03.
Endnotes
See Amos Kloner, “The Necropolis of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period” (in Hebrew, with English summary) (Ph.d. diss., Hebrew Univ., 1980); Levi Y. Rahmani, “Ancient Jerusalem’s Funerary Customs and Tombs,” parts 1 and 2, Biblical Archaeologist 44 (1981), pp. 171–178, 229–236, “Ancient Jerusalem’s Funerary Customs and Tombs,” parts 3 and 4, Biblical Archaeologist 45 (1982), pp. 43–53, 109–118, and “Ossuaries and Ossilegium (bone-gathering) in the Late Second Temple Period,” in Hillel Geva, ed., Ancient Jerusalem Revealed (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994), pp. 191–205; Boaz Zissu, “The Necropolis of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period: New Discoveries, 1980–1995” (masters thesis, Hebrew Univ., 1995).
Twenty-five of these field graves, which measure about 1 foot deep (some in natural niches or depressions in the rock), were discovered at five sites around Jerusalem: in Mamilla; on the western slope of Mt. Zion; on Ketef Hinnom; in Ramot; and near the Damascus Gate. See Ronny Reich, “The Ancient Burial Ground in the Mamilla Neighborhood, Jerusalem,” in Geva, Ancient Jerusalem Revealed, p. 117; Reich and Eli Shukron, “Jerusalem, Mamilla,” Excavations and Surveys in Israel 14 (1994), pp. 93–94; B. Bagatti and Jozef T. Milik, Gli Scavi del “Dominus Flevit” (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1958), vol. 1, p. 18, no. 425; Gabriel Barkay, “Excavations at Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem,” in Geva, Ancient Jerusalem Revealed, p. 92; “Ramot” (in Hebrew) Hadashot Archeologiyot 67 (1981), p. 24; J.B. Hennessy, “Preliminary Report on the Excavations at the Damascus Gate, 1961–1964,” Levant 2 (1960), pp. 22–27.
The main cemetery at Qumran is located 650 feet east of the site. Another small graveyard was found south of Wadi Qumran. See Roland de Vaux, “Fouilles de Khirbet Qumran, Le cimetiére,” Revue biblique 60 (1953), pp. 95–105, Revue biblique 61 (1954), pp. 207, Revue biblique 63 (1956), pp. 569–572, and Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls (London, 1959), pp. 45–48. See also Jean-Baptiste Humbert and Alain Chambon, Fouilles de Khirbet Qumran et de Ain Feshka I, Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus, Series Archaeologica 1 (1994), pp. 213–228, and the following: Rachel Hachlili, “Burial Practices at Qumran,” Revue de Qumran 62 (1993), pp. 247–264; Solomon H. Stekoll, “Preliminary Excavation Report in the Qumran Cemetery,” Revue de Qumran 23 (1968), pp. 323–336; Magen Broshi, “The Archaeology of Qumran—A Reconsideration,” in Devorah Dimant and Uzi Rappaport, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research, Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 10 (Leiden: Brill, 1992), pp. 111–113; and Zdzislaw J. Kapera, “Recent Research on the Qumran Cemetery,” The Qumran Chronicle 5 (1995), pp. 123–132, no. 2.
The salvage excavation was carried out under the direction of the author together with Haim Moyal. Participants included Naser Sanduka (site manager), Raz Nicolescu and Vadim Esman (surveyors), Nili and Abraham Graicer (photography), Dan Amir (logistics) and Yael Gurin-Rosen (glass). We were also aided by Avshalom Dadosh, Asael Lavie, Yoram Frumkin, Gideon Avni, Jon Seligman, Debby Tor and Gideon Solimany. I wish to thank Hanan Eshel for his comments on my manuscript. The full publication of this excavation is forthcoming in Atiqot. I also wish to thank Dan Barag, my teacher, and Amos Kloner for helpful comments and discussion.
The examination was undertaken by Israel Antiquities Authority anthropologists Jacques Verden, Joseph Nagar and Vered Eshed.
A total of 49 graves have been excavated at Qumran—39 by Roland de Vaux, 9 by Solomon Stekoll and 1 by Charles Clermont-Ganneau. The gender of the skeleton Clermont-Ganneau found is unknown. Stekoll’s nine graves, excavated in the main cemetery, yielded the remains of six men, two women, a little girl and a baby of indeterminate gender. Twenty-six of the graves de Vaux excavated in the main cemetery contained the remains of men. In the nine graves he excavated in the northern and eastern extensions of the main cemetery were the remains of one male, six females and a child of uncertain gender. The four graves he excavated in the small southern cemetery held the skeletons of a woman and three juveniles whose gender could not be ascertained.
One bottle dated to the second to third century C.E.; the bracelet dated to the third to fourth century C.E.; and the other bottle dated to the fourth to fifth century C.E. We cannot convincingly explain the later finds. Perhaps they are intrusive in old graves, or perhaps new graves were hewn in the ancient method. We suppose that at least two Second Temple period tombs were cleaned and reused later. Sherds of ribbed jars were found in the earthen fill of the shafts. For a discussion on secondary use of Second Temple period burial caves during the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, see Gideon Avni and Zvi Greenhut, “The Akeldama Tombs, Three Burial Caves in the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem,” IAA [Israel Antiquities Authority] Reports 1 (1996), pp. 35–36. The evidence for secondary use of Second Temple period tombs had previously been limited to burial caves because very few individual burials had been uncovered in the Jerusalem area until our excavations at Beit Safafa.
Based on the earlier glass bottle, we conclude that the cemetery remained in use until the time of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 C.E.).
For the Talpiyot graves, see Kloner and Yosef Gat, “Burial Caves in East Talpiyot” (in Hebrew, with English summary) Atiqot 8 (1982), pp. 74–76, 171–172.
See Pesach Bar Adon, “Another Settlement of the Judean Desert Sect at ‘En el-Ghuweir on the Shores of the Dead Sea,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 225 (1977), pp. 2–25. At Hiyam al-Siyagha, in the Judean Desert, 20 shaft graves were surveyed, 2 of which were excavated. See Hanan Eshel and Zvi Greenhut, “Hiam El-Sagha, A Cemetery of the Qumran Type, Judaean Desert,” Revue biblique 100–102 (1993), pp. 252–259.
Josephus, The Jewish War 2.124. Philo, too, says they lived in the towns and villages of Judea (Hypothetica 7.11.1.).
See Bargil Pixner, “Jerusalem’s Essene Gateway: Where the Community Lived in Jesus’ Time,” BAR 23:03.