Archæology and the Bible

by George A. Barton

5. Earth-graves.—The simplest form of burial was to place the body in the ground without accessory of any kind. In the course of the excavation of Gezer a few burials of this sort came to light.[222] The skeleton was in these cases stretched out; sometimes it was lying on its back; sometimes on its side. As these bodies were buried without accessories, so contrary to the custom of the Palestinians who placed food or drink by the dead, the excavator thought that they were probably the graves of murdered persons, who had been hastily concealed in the earth.

Another form of burial, when the interment occurred within a city, is illustrated by the five “Philistine” graves found at Gezer.[223] These graves were excavations in the earth, lined with cement, and, after the interment, covered with four or five massive stones and earth; ([Fig. 226]). In these graves the usual deposits of food and drink had been made in beautiful bronze and silver vessels, which show kinship to the art of Cyprus; (see [Fig. 137]). They are probably, therefore, Philistine.

6. Rock-hewn Shaft Tombs.—A form of tomb of which many examples are to be found in all parts of Palestine is the rock-hewn tomb. The limestone of the country is easily cut, and lends itself readily to the construction of this kind of burial-place. Such tombs are of two kinds—“shaft” tombs and “doorway” tombs.

The structure of a shaft tomb is as follows:[224] The tomb chamber or chambers are cut in the rock and are approached by a perpendicular rock-hewn shaft, which is usually rectangular. This shaft is closed at the bottom with slabs and then the shaft is filled with earth. Such tombs are usually constructed in ledges covered over with soil, so that, when the hole leading to the rock-cut shaft is filled, the tomb is effectually concealed. Such tombs are very numerous all the way from pre-Israelitish times to the Greek period. For a plan of one, see [Fig. 228].

7. Doorway Tombs.—The “doorway” tombs are sometimes cut in a ledge that is altogether under ground. In that case a flight of steps is excavated leading down to the door; ([Fig. 232]). Often the tomb is cut in a ledge on the slope of a hill, so that the doorway is approached from the level of the ground; (see [Fig. 227]). Doors were, no doubt, fitted into the doorways. The places cut in the rock for the latches or bars of such doors are sometimes still visible. These tombs consisted sometimes of one room, sometimes of several. Sometimes the bodies were laid on the floor of the tomb; sometimes elevated benches or shelves were cut in the rock on which bodies might be placed. Quite as often shafts or niches were cut into the rock, into which a body or a sarcophagus could be shoved endwise. Such a shaft is called technically a kôk, in the plural, kôkim. For examples of them, see Figs. [233], [237]. The date at which this kind of tomb was introduced has not been satisfactorily determined.

Sometimes numerous small tombs, each one resembling somewhat a kôk, were cut in a hillside. Archæologists call such a group of tombs a “columbarium”; (see [Fig. 230]).

In the Hellenistic and Roman periods efforts were made to give adornment to such tombs. The so-called “Tombs of the Judges”[225] near Jerusalem, of which the writer was the first to make a scientific examination, is a good example of this kind of tomb[226]; (see [Fig. 231]). This tomb consisted of three rooms in its upper level and three in its lower level; (see [Fig. 235]). The ledges and kôkim in it made provision for seventy bodies, and a rough chamber opening out of room D was evidently used for the deposit of the bones of those who had been long dead, when a niche or kôk was needed for the reception of another body. Sometimes the pillars of a porch were carved out of the solid rock. A number of such tombs are to be found near Jerusalem. There is one in the Kidron Valley near Gethsemane, cut wholly out of the rock and finished to a spire at the top. This is the so-called “Absalom’s pillar.”

In the time of Christ the tombs of Israel’s heroes were adorned and venerated. Jesus alludes to this in Luke 11:47, 48. Elisha must have been buried in a doorway tomb, into which by opening the door the body of a man could be easily thrown. (See 2 Kings 13:20, 21.) It was, no doubt, the memory of such narratives as this that led to the reverence paid to the tombs of the prophets in the time of Christ.

Another tomb at Jerusalem, called the “Tombs of the Kings,” has a large open court cut down into the rock, from the different sides of which entrances lead to the other tomb chambers. This tomb was built for Queen Helena of Adiabene, the ancient Assyria, who, in the days of Herod the Great, was converted to Judaism and removed to Jerusalem. She died and was buried there.[227]

Sometimes in the Seleucid period the interior of the tombs was also made very ornate. Such were the tombs, discovered in 1902,[228] of some wealthy Greek-speaking citizens of Marissa. A plan of one of them is shown in [Fig. 234], and examples of its inner ornamentation in [Fig. 236]. These tombs were also adorned with pictures of vases, trees, animals, etc.; (see [Fig. 239]). The figures, as well as the interior generally, were decorated with red, yellow, and brown paints. One of them was that of Apollophanes, chief of the Sidonians at Marissa. Over the different niches in the tombs the names of the persons buried were inscribed in Greek letters.