THE TOMBS OF PALESTINE

Burning the Dead. Cave Burials. Cistern Burial. Burial under Menhirs. Earth-graves. Rock-hewn Shaft Tombs. Doorway Tombs. Tombs with a Rolling-stone.

1. Burning the Dead.—As noted in a previous chapter,[215] the cave-dwellers of Gezer burned their dead. The Semitic inhabitants of Palestine did not follow this custom, but buried theirs. At Gezer the caves that had formed the dwellings of the first inhabitants were put by the Semites to various uses. Sometimes they, too, lived in them; sometimes they made cisterns of them; and sometimes they utilized them as places of burial for their dead.

2. Cave Burials.—A cave that became a tomb after the Semitic occupation was the one that had been the crematorium of the pre-Semitic inhabitants.[216] All over the floor of the cave above the burned bones was another stratum of bones that had never been burned. These were scattered over the floor of the cave, and, although they had been much disturbed by rats, it appeared that they belonged to that early type of burial in which the body is placed on its side with the knees drawn up toward the chin. These bodies had apparently been deposited in all parts of the cave. Ranged around the sides of the cave was a series of enclosures marked off from the floor by lines of stones. In these, portions of various skeletons were found. These enclosures seem to have been reservations made for persons of distinction. For a time, therefore, the cave seems to have been used as a general place of burial. In some of the other caves of Gezer evidence was found that they had been used as tombs.[217] Beautiful pottery and alabaster vessels were found with the bones. Wine and possibly food for the dead had been placed in these. Underneath the pottery in one cave a considerable number of scarabs were found, some of them mounted in gold. This must have been, accordingly, the burial place of persons of comparative wealth. Similar cave burials were found by Mackenzie at Beth-shemesh.[218]

Such cave burials as these at once recall Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah as recorded in Gen. 23. The kind of burial presupposed in that chapter is just that found at Gezer. The mouth of the cave could be closed up and opened at will for later burials. (See Gen. 50:13.)

The custom of placing food or drink or both in the sepulcher was all but universal in Palestine. It is silent testimony to a faith in a kind of after-life. That that life as they conceived it was of a shadowy and an unsatisfactory nature is shown by the references to it in Isa. 14:9-11 and Ezek. 32:22-32.[219] Nevertheless, these evidences that the mourners who stood by every ancient tomb provided food for their loved ones to eat in the after-life is eloquent testimony to the fact that even in that age the loving heart found it impossible to believe that the life of its dear ones had been altogether terminated.

3. Cistern Burial.—Another burial at Gezer that must have been connected with some unusual circumstance led to the deposit of fifteen bodies in a cistern,[220] and a number of spear heads were found with them. The skeletons were all males except one, which was that of a girl about sixteen years old, whose spine had been severed and only the upper part of the skeleton deposited in the cistern; (see Fig. 229). The cistern is too deep to favor the supposition that the bodies had been deposited at successive times. Macalister hazards the conjecture that the men died of plague and that the girl was offered as a sacrifice to propitiate the deity. A plague, however, would have attacked women as well as men. Perhaps the men were slain in defending Gezer from the attack of an enemy that had succeeded in severing the body of the girl. The real cause of the tragedy is, however, unknown to us.

4. Burial under Menhirs.—A very old form of burial, still practised by the half-nomadic tribes east of the Jordan, is to place the dead in the earth within one of the prehistoric gilgals or menhirs. How old this form of burial is, it is impossible to tell. It is assumed by some writers that it was practised by the neolithic people who erected these monuments, and who are believed by such writers to have been ancestor worshipers. If, however, these neolithic men were akin to the neolithic cave-dwellers of Gezer, they burned their dead. Another explanation is, accordingly, more probable. All through the history of Palestine the sanctity of certain spots has persisted. A place once considered as holy, if not so regarded by the next wave of conquerors, nevertheless often has enough sanctity clinging to it to make it taboo. No thief will disturb objects left within its precincts, lest the spirit of the place bring disaster upon him. It seems probable that the wandering tribes on the border of the Arabian Desert have utilized the sacred places of these prehistoric men for the burial of their dead, in order that the fear of violating the taboo pertaining to these places may secure the bodies from disturbance. Whatever the reason may be, they still bury their dead in such precincts and place their tribal wasms or marks on such stones.[221]

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.

Rock-cut tombs, whether large or small, were regarded as important possessions, and the people who might be buried in them were frequently carefully specified by their builders. An example of this may be found in Part II of the present work, p. 442.

8. Tombs with a Rolling-stone.—One other type of tomb must be noticed even in this hasty sketch. To close a “doorway” tomb securely must always have been a matter of difficulty in Palestine. It was not easy with the kind of locks they had to keep intruders out of tombs. This led to the cutting of a large groove by the side of the doorway into which a rolling-stone was fitted. When it was desired to open the tomb, the stone could be rolled back. The stones were too heavy to be easily disturbed. It was in a new tomb of this type that the body of Jesus was laid, and it was such a stone that the women found rolled away on the resurrection morning. (See Matt. 28:2; Mark 16:3, 4; Luke 24:2; John 20:1, and Fig. 238.)