Endnote 13 – What Did Jesus’ Tomb Look Like?

See Joseph Patrich, “Graves and Burial Practices in Talmudic Sources,” in Itamar Singer, ed., Graves and Burial Practices in Israel in the Ancient Period (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1994), pp. 191-192 (in Hebrew). In Rome, too, the poor were buried in simple holes dug into the ground; see Jon Davies, Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity (New York: Routledge, 1999), p. 148. The corpses of paupers and criminals were disposed of in mass graves; see John Bodel, “Graveyards and Groves, A Study of the Lex Lucerina,” American Journal of Ancient History 11 (1994), p. 38.