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Abstract

A rock-cut burial complex, comprising a courtyard and a cave, was excavated at ‘En Ya‘al, Jerusalem. The cave contains a burial chamber, a standing pit, loculi (kokhim) and a repository. The excavation yielded many ceramic oil lamps and vessels dating to the fourth–seventh centuries CE, with a few dating to the Early Islamic period; glass vessels, beads and metal objects, dating to the Early Roman–Byzantine periods; and a Christian bronze pendant. The plan of the cave is characteristic of Second Temple-period burial caves. The next phase of use was during the mid-first–second centuries CE, and the final use of the cave was during the fourth–seventh centuries CE.The cave was probably in use until the late Byzantine period, and may have been plundered in the Abbasid period, as attested by an oil lamp of that period.

Keywords

burial, grave goods, anthropology

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