THE EARLIEST RECORDS OF CHRISTIANITY E. L. SUKENIK PLATES LXXVIII-LXXXVIII AT the beginning of September 1945 we were informed by the Department of Antiquities of the Governmentof Palestine that duringbuilding operations on groundbelonging to Mr. A. David Kiraz, in the vicinity of the Talpioth suburb of Jerusalem (see fig. 1), a Jewish chamber tomb had been discovered containing a number of ossuaries. The Depart- ment proposed that the Museum of Jewish Antiquities of the Hebrew University excavate the tomb and examine its contents. The excavation was carried out by us in four days, from the 10th to the 13th of September. Mr. N. Avigad of our Museum Staff assisted the writer in the supervision of the work and in the preparation of the present report and the plans and drawings accompanying it. DESCRIPTION OF THE TOMB (See figs. 2-3, pl. LXXVIII) The plan of the tomb is shown in fig. 2, and cross-section drawings of it in fig. 3. The tomb is approached through a courtyard or dromos cut out of the living rock, which is from 2.30 to 2.80 meters wide. In the eastern part of the courtyard, which we cleared down to bed-rock, the floor was some 2.30 m. below the level of the surrounding rock. The natural rock surface slopes down toward the west and we may therefore assume that only a few steps were needed to enter the courtyard. This part could, however, not be cleared owing to the height of the accumulated building debris on this spot. The entrance to the tomb chamber proper is situated on the southern side of the court- yard, close to its eastern corner. In front of the entrance was found a rectangular stone block, 1.00 by 0.82 m., and 0.24 m. thick, which had originally blocked the entrance. Such stones usually consist of a thick rectangular slab with a projection on one side intended to fit into the opening of the entrance and to close it. The stone just described still had a small part of such a projection preserved. An oblong frame 1.18 m. high, 0.94 m. wide and 0.30 m. deep was cut around the en- trance, its purpose being to receive the blocking stone. The entrance proper is 0.58 m. wide, 0.64 m. high and 0.62 m. deep. The entrance leads into a burial chamber, nearly square in plan, its sides measuring from 3.36-3.42 m. in length; the height of the chamber is 1.14 m. Its floor is 0.30 m. below the level of the courtyard. The floor of the chamber in front of the entrance contains a rectangular pit, 2.15 m. long, 1.14 m. wide and 0.70-0.80 m. deep. Such pits are often found in burial chambers, their purpose being to allow head-room within the chamber, without the labor which would have been involved in cutting the whole floor area to the required depth. Besides, the deceased might be placed on the benches which were left on the three sides around the pit before they were buried inside the loculi. Ossuaries were sometimes placed on the benches. See fig. 4. In some cases a step was cut into the rock to facilitate the descent from the courtyard into the cave proper. In the tomb in question a loose stone 0.95 m. high was placed in front of the entrance for this purpose. Into the walls of the burial chamber were cut five loculi (kakhim), two each in the southern 351 352 E. L. SUKENIK and eastern walls respectively, and one in the western wall. They vary between StationRaitwa-y 2.20 and 2.40 m. in length and 0.47 and 0.50 m. in width, except for one in the southern wall which is 0.84 m. wide; they are all 0.73 m. high. Their floors are 0.08 m. above the benches. The openings of the loculi are roughly rec- ,/s tangular in shape. An additional locu- lus was cut under the southern bench, opening from the wall of the pit; it is / 1.95 m. long, 0.46 m. wide, and 0.74 m. ), high. The single loculus cut in the western / wall of the chamber differs from all the I,"/ others in being divided into two stories by means of a number of stone slabs. As may be seen in section CD (fig. 3), the original loculus was deepened to a total TALPIYOTH depth of 1.65 m., and its lower part was extended 0.45 m. into the area of the bench. Grooves were cut on both sides of the loculus at the level of the floor TOMB and seven stone slabs were inserted in them; they are 0.37-0.45 m. wide and 0.13 m. thick. These slabs served as floor for the loculus and upper as roof ARtONA for the lower one. All the slabs except the second were found in situ. The openings of the loculi were closed with flat stone slabs, which were found during the excavation in the earth which filled the cave. Some of these are shown in pl. LXXVIII. A small hollow was cut in the floor of the bench close to the northwestern corner of the cave, measuring 0.84 by 0.33 m. and 0.50 m. RAMATH deep. This hollow contained human RAHEL bones and was covered with thin stone slabs, one of which was found in situ. In the eastern wall of the courtyard MAR ELYAS o 5o9M there was a cutting where another bur- ial chamber had been started. (See the FIG. 1. MAP OF THE TALPIOTH SUBURB OF JERUSALEM, plan, fig. 2.) The entrance, 0.44 by SHOWING THE POSITION OF THE TOMB 0.70 m., was surrounded by a counter- sunk frame measuring 1.58 by 0.93 m. and executed in exactly the same way as the entrance to the main chamber, described above. The rock was cut out for a distance of 1.60 m. from THE EARLIEST RECORDS OF CHRISTIANITY 353 the inner end of the entrance; the limits of the usual pit were outlined in the floor and within these limits the rock was deepened to a depth of about 0.45 m.; the benches on both sides were started but left unfinished. PLAn - I ; 10 II III I I II 2 3 M. iA FIG. PLAN OF THE TOMB. 354 E. L. SUKENIK In the northern wall of the courtyard an unfinished roughly vaulted cutting was found, measuring 1.10 by 0.88 m., and 0.76 m. high. It contained only a few potsherds. The rock in which the tomb was cut consists of soft ndri limestone and as a result the workmanship lacks precision. The walls are not smooth, the lines are not straight and the edges are not sharp. The ceiling of the burial chamber was damaged by blasting during recent building operations. There was clear evidence that the tomb was entered once and left open; masses of earth penetrated through the opening into the burial chamber and filled it up to about two-thirds of its height. am-mSECTION A-B SECTION E-F 5ECTIOI C-D ?me FIG. 3. CROSS SECTIONS OF THE TOMB. DESCRIPTION OF THE OSSUARIES All the ossuaries found are made of local limestone called ka'kiila. Ossuaries nos. 1-11 were taken out by ourselves during the clearance of the tomb and their position when found is indicated on the plan. Nos. 12-14 were taken out by the workmen before notice was given to the Department of Antiquities. 1. Plain ossuary with flat lid, 0.475 m. long, 0.235 m. wide, and 0.26 m. high. A graffito in square Hebrew letters is scratched on one of the long sides, close to the upper edge (see below, inscription no. 1). 2. Decorated ossuary covered with red paint, 0.52-0.54 m. long, 0.26 m. wide and 0.34 m. high; resting on four small legs. The front side is bordered by double zigzag bands and is THE EARLIEST RECORDS OF CHRISTIANITY 855 divided by a single vertical zigzag band into two square panels. In each of these panels is engraved a six-pointed rosette surrounded by an incised circle. The four corners of each panel and the spaces between the leaves and the rosettes are filled with small incised circles. This ossuary was found broken and no illustration of it is given here. We shall, however, meet its designs again on some of the following ossuaries. 3. Plain ossuary with flat lid, 0.445 m. long, 0.975 m. wide and 0.305 m. high. Not il- lustrated. 4. Decorated ossuary covered with yellow paint, 0.555-0.615 m. long, 0.28-0.30 m. wide and 0.38 m. high; resting on four small legs (pl. LxxIX, A). The front is bordered with zigzag bands. Two twelve-pointed rosettes, enclosed within serrated circles which meet at the center, form the principal decoration. A deeply carved leaf, shaped like a spearhead, issues from between the circles and reaches to the upper border. Below the circles runs a row of triangular carvings resting on the middle of the lower border. There seems to be some con- nection between the upper and lower carvings, as they occur together on some other os- suaries found in this cave and elsewhere (cf. nos. 9 and 13 of this group and another ossuary, now in the Palestine Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem).