By the first century C. E., Jerusalem was surrounded by a necropolis of rock-cut tombs.
These tombs are characterized by the following features:
1) The rock-cut tombs are artificially hewn, underground caves cut into the bedrock slopes around Jerusalem.
2) With few exceptions, the tombs were located outside the walls of the city.
3) Each tomb was used by a family over the course of several generations, as reflected by the biblical expression “he slept with [or was gathered to] his fathers" (for example Judges 2:10; 2 Chronicles 32:33; 2 Chronicles 33:20; 2 Chronicles 34:28).
4) When a member of the family died, the body was wrapped in a shroud and sometimes placed in a coffin, and was then laid in the tomb as an individual inhumation, even if the bones were later collected and placed elsewhere.
5) Because of the expense associated with hewing a burial cave into bedrock, only the wealthier members of Jerusalem's population — the upper classes — could afford rock-cut tombs. The lower classes apparently disposed of their dead in a manner that has left fewer traces in the archaeological record — for example, in individual trench graves or cist graves dug into the ground.
6) From the earliest periods, the layout and decoration of Jerusalem's rock-cut tombs exhibited foreign cultural influences and fashions. Evidence for such influence — and indeed, for the use of rock-cut tombs — is attested only in times when Jerusalem's Jewish elite enjoyed an autonomous or semi-autonomous status; that is, in the late First Temple period (late Iron Age) and the late Second Temple period (Herodian period). During these periods the Jerusalem elite adopted foreign fashions that were introduced by the rulers or governing authorities. We begin with a brief review of rock-cut tombs in the late Iron Age.
11.1 Burial cave at Ketef Hinnom with rock-cut benches.
Rock-Cut Tombs in Jerusalem: The Late First Temple Period/late Iron Age (eighth to early sixth centuries B. C.E.)
Rock-cut tombs of the late First Temple period have been discovered to the west, north, and east of the Old City. They include tombs at Ketef Hinnom (on the northwest side of the Ben-Hinnom Valley), St. Ictienne (the Ecole Biblique, to the north of the Old City), and in the Silwan (Siloam) village (across the Kidron Valley from the City of David). These tombs typically consist of one or more burial chambers that were entered through a small, unadorned opening cut into the bedrock. Each burial chamber was surrounded on three sides with rock-cut benches, on which the bodies of the deceased were laid. When the benches were filled and space was needed for new burials, the earlier remains (bones and burial gifts) were moved onto the floor or were placed in a pit (repository) hewn under one of the benches. An undisturbed repository in the Ketef Hinnom cemetery contained large numbers of skeletons as well as accompanying burial gifts, including ceramic vases and oil lamps, jewelry, seals, a rare early coin, and two silver amulets. One of the amulets is inscribed with the priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24—26), which is the earliest citation of a biblical text ever found. Many of the decorative elements in late Iron Age burial caves, such as the benches with carved headrests and parapets, and the cornices carved around the top of the burial chambers (as, for example, at St. Ictienne) reflect Phoenician influence (or Egyptian styles transmitted directly from Egypt or through Phoenician intermediaries). Phoenician influence on the tombs of
Jerusalem's elite in the First Temple period is hardly surprising in light of the biblical accounts of Phoenician involvement in the construction of Solomon's Temple, as well as later contacts between the Israelites and their neighbors to the north.
Rock-Cut Tombs in Jerusalem: The Late Second Temple Period
After 586 B. C.E., Jerusalem's rock-cut tombs ceased to be used because the elite families who owned them were dead or dispersed. Rock-cut tombs reappeared only in the Hasmonean period (second half of the second century B. C.E.), when Jerusalem again came under Jewish rule and an autonomous Jewish elite reemerged. In the meantime, in 353 B. C.E., a local dynast named Mausolus of Caria died and was buried in a monumental tomb in his capital city of Hali-carnassos (modern Bodrum on the southwest coast of Turkey). Although little survives of this tomb because of the ravages of humans and nature, ancient literary accounts and depictions on coins indicate that it consisted of a Greek-temple-style building surrounded by columns with a pyramidal roof on a tall, raised podium (in which the burial chamber was located). The tomb was decorated with hundreds of statues and reliefs carved by the most famous Greek sculptors of the day (most of the surviving sculpture is now in London's British Museum). In fact, it was because of the high quality and lavishness of the decoration that the tomb of Mausolus became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Since then, it has become conventional to refer to all monumental tombs as mausolea (singular: mausoleum).
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassos inspired rulers and elites around the Mediterranean to construct their own tombs in imitation, including the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome. When an autonomous Jewish elite emerged in Judea after the Maccabean revolt, its members, too, adopted this type of monumental tomb. Ironically, although the Maccabees were renowned for their opposition to the imposition of Greek customs on the Jews, the Hasmonean rulers showed signs of Hellenization soon after the establishment of their kingdom. Nowhere is this better illustrated than by the monumental family tomb and victory memorial built by Simon in their hometown of Modiin, in which he interred the remains of his parents and brothers. Although no remains of this tomb survive, ancient literary sources leave little doubt that it was inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus:
And Simon built a monument over the tomb of his father and his brothers, he made it high so that it might be seen, with polished stone at the front and back. He also erected seven pyramids, opposite one another, for his father and mother and four brothers. For the pyramids he devised an
11.2 Reconstruction of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassos. From G. B. Waywell, The FreeStanding Sculptures of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1978),p. 58Fig. 8. By permission of the Trustees ofthe British Museum.
Elaborate setting, erecting about them great columns, and on the columns he put suits of armor for a permanent memorial, and beside the suits of armor he carved ships, so that they could be seen by all who sail the sea. This is the tomb that he built in Modein; it remains to this day. (1 Macc. 13:27-30; NRSV)
However, Simon sent some to the city Basca to bring away his brother's bones, and buried them in their own city Modin; and all the people made great lamentation over him. Simon also erected a very large monument for his father and his brethren, of white and polished stone, and raised it to a great height, and so as to be seen a long way off, and made cloisters about it, and set up pillars, which were of one stone apiece; a work it was wonderful to see. Moreover, he built seven pyramids also for his parents and his brethren, one for each of them, which were made very surprising, both for their largeness and beauty, and which have been preserved to this day. (Josephus, Ant. 13:210—11; Whiston's translation)
These descriptions indicate that like the Mausoleum, the tomb of the Maccabees consisted of a tall podium with a temple-like building surrounded by columns and capped by a pyramidal roof (or in the case of the tomb of the Maccabees, seven pyramids, one for each family member). In contrast, late Iron Age rock-cut tombs typically had plain, undecorated exteriors.
Jason's Tomb in Jerusalem indicates that the Jewish elite soon began to imitate the new tomb style introduced by Simon, which was inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassos (see Chapter 5). Jason's Tomb continues the earlier tradition of rock-cut burial caves in Jerusalem but with several innovations. On the one hand, the Jerusalem elite revived the ancient tradition of interring their dead in rock-cut family tombs consisting of one or more burial chambers that were used over the course of several generations. Furthermore, the custom of making space for new burials by depositing the earlier remains elsewhere in the tomb continued. On the other hand, newly introduced elements reflect foreign influence and fashions. These elements included the use of loculi instead of benches to accommodate the bodies inside the burial chamber(s), and decorating the tomb's exterior, sometimes with a Greek-style porch and a pyramid or other monument marking the site of the tomb.
The features that appeared in Jason's Tomb remained characteristic of Jewish rock-cut tombs in Jerusalem until the end of the Second Temple period. The differences between individual rock-cut tombs of the late Second Temple period in Jerusalem mostly concern their size and degree of elaboration — that is, the number of burial chambers, the presence or absence of a porch (with or without columns), the addition of decoration (typically around the entrance to the burial chambers and/or on the porch facade), and the presence or absence of one or more monumental tomb markers. Many burial chambers are encircled by rock-cut benches just below the loculi, on which the bodies of the deceased could be placed as they were prepared for interment. Herod's tomb and memorial to himself — the mountain of Herodium — displays the same features as others but on a much larger scale: a tomb structure containing a burial chamber and a monumental conical marker (see Chapter 8).
Rock-cut tombs of the late Second Temple period surround Jerusalem on the north, east, and south. Well-known examples include the tomb of Bene Hezir, the tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene (the so-called Tombs of the Kings),
11.3 The Tomb of Bene Hezir (left) and the Tomb of Zachariah (center), looking east.
The Sanhedria tombs, and Nicanor's tomb (all discussed later). Most of Jerusalem's rock-cut tombs are more modest than these examples, having an undecorated or simply decorated entrance and a single burial chamber with loculi.
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