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www.holylandphotos.org

Headrests adorn a burial bench in a late Iron Age (eighth-sixth century B.C.E.) tomb at Ketef Hinnom, northwest of Jerusalem’s Old City. Tombs in ancient Jerusalem were a family affair mainly for the city’s well-to-do. Iron Age tombs were hewn in the bedrock around the city and consisted of several chambers containing rock-cut benches upon which the bodies of the deceased were placed. After the bodies had decomposed, the bones would be removed from the benches and placed in a pit or repository to make way for new burials.