Lachish Regional Council, Israel. 20th December, 2022. A 2000 year old Second Temple Period burial cave, designated the Salome Cave, one of the most impressive discovered in Israel according to archaeologists, is being uncovered in the Lachish Forest. A popular tradition identifies it as the burial place of Salome, the midwife of Jesus. Excavations of the courtyard uncovered a row of shop stalls that apparently sold or rented clay lamps in the 8th and 9th centuries CE. Lamps may have served for light or as part of religious ceremonies. The cave comprised several chambers with multiple rock hew

• Contributor: Nir Alon / Alamy Stock Photo
• Image ID: 2M4B2R9
• File size: 68.7 MB (4.8 MB Compressed download)
• Releases: Model - no | Property - no
• Dimensions: 6000 x 4000 px | 50.8 x 33.9 cm | 20 x 13.3 inches | 300dpi
• Date taken: 20 December 2022

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Lachish Regional Council, Israel. 20th December, 2022. A 2000 year old Second Temple Period burial cave, designated the Salome Cave, one of the most impressive discovered in Israel according to archaeologists, is being uncovered in the Lachish Forest. A popular tradition identifies it as the burial place of Salome, the midwife of Jesus. Excavations of the courtyard uncovered a row of shop stalls that apparently sold or rented clay lamps in the 8th and 9th centuries CE. Lamps may have served for light or as part of religious ceremonies. The cave comprised several chambers with multiple rock hewn burial niches and broken ossuaries, attesting to the Jewish burial custom. Researchers were surprised by the adaptation of the cave into a Christian chapel, as crosses and dozens of inscriptions were engraved on the cave walls in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. The name Salome may possibly have appeared on one of the no longer existant ossuaries in the tomb developing the tradition identifying the site with Salome the midwife thus venerating the cave by Christianity. Credit: Nir Alon/Alamy Live News.