Image Details

www.holylandphotos.org

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. In the photo, student excavators with their heads in the stone headrests demonstrate how the bodies were laid out in the First Temple period.