A 2,000-year-old burial cave - one of the most impressive in Israel - is being uncovered in the Lachish Forest as part of an Israel Antiquities Authority project.
The cave was first exposed 40 years ago by antiquity looters and came to be known as the Salome Cave. The name stems from the belief that the biblical figure Salome - the midwife who helped during the nativity of Jesus - is buried there.
Salome Cave is comprised of several chambers with multiple tomb complexes carved into the rock and broken stone boxes that were made to serve as the final resting place for skeletal remains, attesting to the Jewish burial custom.
However, crosses and inscriptions - some in Arabic - were engraved on the cave walls in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, leading excavators to believe the chapel was dedicated to Salome.
The burial cave itself was excavated many years ago, and now the Israel Antiquities Authority is exposing the elaborate cave forecourt. So far, the latest excavation uncovered a row of shop stalls that, according to the excavators, sold or rented clay lamps.
“In the shop, we found hundreds of complete and broken lamps dating from the 8th–9th centuries,” said Nir Shimshon-Paran and Zvi Firer, excavation directors in the Israel Antiquities Authority Southern Region.
“The lamps may have served to light up the cave, or as part of the religious ceremonies, similarly to candles distributed today at the graves of righteous figures, and in churches.”
Additionally, the entrances leading into the cave and the interior chapel have been exposed. Excavators found that some of the stones were carved with fine decorative vegetal designs, including rosettes, pomegranates and acanthus vases, characteristic Jewish features.
Saar Ganor, the Israel Antiquities Authority Director of the Judean Kings’ Trail Project, said that once the restoration and development works are completed, the forecourt and the cave will be opened to the public.