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Raz Nicolescu, Vadim Esman & Natalia Zak/Israel Antiquities Authority
The Beit Safafa graveyard lies above a broad stretch of cleared ground, marked “damaged area” on the plan. Construction workers leveling terraces in preparation for a new highway stumbled on the graveyard in 1997. No one knows how many graves were destroyed during the leveling; archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have since excavated 41 of the 50 identified at the site.