Image Details

Courtesy École biblique et archéologique français de Jérusalem

Damaged remains of the intricately carved entrance’s double frieze, one above the other, can still be seen. Interlaced leaves and fruit with a rosette at the center adorn the lower frieze—as can be made out in this very precise reconstruction of the tomb entrance executed in the early part of the century by master draftsman Father Louis-Hugues Vincent of the École Biblique. At the center of the upper frieze is a cluster of grapes flanked by flower wreaths. On the other side of the wreaths are three-leafed acanthuses. The decorations continue along the length of the entrance, alternating between embossed circles and triglyphs.³⁶