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The Talpiot Tomb (or Talpiyot Tomb) is a tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighbourhood five kilometers south of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) commissioned a team of archaeologists led by Joseph Gath to excavate the tomb. It contained ten ossuaries, six of them with epigraphs, including one with the inscription that has been interpreted as "Jesus, son of Joseph", though this text is disputed. The tomb also yielded various human remains and several carvings.

The Talpiot find was first published in 1994 in "Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries in the Collections of the State of Israel" numbers 701-709. Then it was discussed first in the media in England in March/April 1996.^{[citation needed]} Later in 1996, an article describing the find was published in volume 29 of Atiqot, a publication of the Israel Antiquities Authority. In 2005 a thriller titled "Cross Bones" mentioned it in several pages. In April 2006 an academic work titled "The Jesus Dynasty" discussed the find in its introduction. In July 2006 a thriller titled "The Bone Box," fully premised on this find, was published. It presents symbolism and also statistical evidence for the proposition that this tomb housed the skeletal remains of Jesus and some of his immediate family. A controversial 2007 documentary film produced by James Cameron of Hollywood fame and investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus and a book written by Jacobovici, together with Charles Pellegrino, The Jesus Family Tomb theorize that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth, as well as several other figures from the New Testament. This claim is disputed by many archaeologists and theologians, as well as language and biblical scholars.

History

The tomb, dating from the fifth century B.C. to the first century A.D. was discovered in 1980 and excavated by an IAA archaelogical team led by Joseph Gath that same year. It was then resealed by the IAA in 1982, and remained closed until 2005, when Jacobovici's crew opened it again. The IAA promptly resealed it.

Provenance

The archaeological team that excavated the tomb in 1980 determined it to be from the Second Temple period, from the end of the first century B.C or the beginning of the first century A.D, approximately to 70 A.D. .^[1] Typical of the area, a tomb of this type would be assumed to have belonged to a wealthy Jewish family.^[1] About 900 similar tombs have been unearthed in the same area.^[1]

Discovery and excavation

The tomb was discovered in 1980 by construction workers laying the foundations for an apartment complex,^[2] the Talpiot Apartments. Dynamite blasting and bulldozing had accidentally revealed the entranceway to the antechamber of the tomb.

In 1980, the IAA initiated the excavation of the site led by Gath. The archaeologists were given three days to excavate and document the tomb.^[3]

Inside the tomb were found ten ossuaries containing bones, with six of those bearing epigraphs.^[1] The archaeological team determined the ossuaries to be of little note. The ossuaries were put into storage at the Rockefeller Museum.

Three skulls were discovered in the tomb.^[3] The tomb had been previously disturbed, as some bones were scattered.^[2]

Construction of the apartments was completed in 1982. The children of a resident of the apartments, Tova Bracha, got into the tomb and played inside. Bracha notified the authorities, who then resealed the entrance for safety reasons.^[4] The children had found a number of discarded Jewish holy texts that had recently been placed inside the tomb for disposal by ceremonial burial.

Jacobovici and his film crew opened the tomb again in 2005. Their footage was incorporated into the 2007 documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus.

Jacobovici and his crew had neglected to obtain permission from the Israeli Antiques Authority to enter the site. An official ordered that the tomb be resealed.

Location

The tomb is located in a courtyard on 273 Dov Gruner Street, reached from a flight of stairs opposite the corner of Olei HaGardom and Avshalom Haviv Streets.^[6] After a documentary movie was filmed there, the site was resealed and is not open to the public.

Layout

The tomb is carved from the solid limestone bedrock.^[7] The tomb's antechamber leads to six other smaller rooms called locules.^[8]

Artifacts

The Talpiot Tomb has yielded several artifacts, including ossuaries and human remains.

Ossuaries

The ossuaries are made out of limestone.^[7] According to Jacobovici, Cameron, and religious studies professor James Tabor, one of the unmarked ossuaries later disappeared when it was stored in a courtyard outside the museum. This claim has been criticized by both Joe Zias, former curator of the museum, and Kloner.

Six of the ten ossuaries have epigraphs carved into them. Various interpretations of these epigraphs are currently being debated by scholars.

Human remains

The tomb may have been multigenerational, with several generations of bones stored in each ossuary, but no record was kept of how many skeletons were in the ossuaries.^[2] Following the discovery of the tomb, the bones contained in the ossuaries were buried in unmarked graves in accordance with Orthodox Jewish beliefs.^{[citation needed]}

Symbols

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On the ossuary inscribed "Yeshua bar Yehosef" (Jesus son of Joseph), the inscription is directly preceded by a large ancient Judaic-early Christian symbol, which has substantial significance to understanding the magnitude of this find, as explained in detail in a 2006 novel titled "The Bone Box,” applying a 1978 study of the genesis of Christian symbolism by Jack Finegan

Some of the walls have carvings on them, including several chevron symbols. A "chevron and circle" pattern is visible above the entrance of the tomb. It is also clearly visible as a depiction of the facade of the Nicanor gate of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, as is visible on era coinage.^[9] The Nicanor gate marked the end of a pilgrimage. The last fifteen steps are still marked by the "Psalms of Ascent," or better, "the Psalms of the ascending ones." The entrance to the tomb also marked the end of a pilgrimage. Some people have thought of the Symbols to be the "Paleo-Hebrew door eye", which is the Paleo-Hebrew symbols for a door and a eye {Circle for a eye and triangle for the door}. The symbol over the entrance is thought to be a "Purity eye" or "Ascension eye". Alot of paintings of humans in Israel before the AD time era used triangles with a dot inside to represent the eye. There is some people who believe that the "Paleo-Hebrew door eye" to be placed around the dead of people who lived doing pure deeds to represent their spirit crossing over into the heavenly world. According to Paleo-Hebrew symbols a circle or dot inside a triangle would symbolize a eye peering thru a door. According to egyptian symbols the chevron or triangle symbolize purity or ascension.

In addition, the London Sunday Times article discussing the Talpiot find mentions a pottery shard featuring a fish drawing encircling the name "Yeshua."

Media coverage

The BBC first aired a documentary on the Talpiot Tomb in 1996 as part of its Heart of the Matter news magazine.^[3] At that time, Amos Kloner said the claims of a connection to Jesus did not hold up archaeologically, adding "They just want to get money for it." Others were similarly skeptical, though another of the archaeologists who discovered the tomb admitted "I'm willing to accept the possibility."^[10]

The tomb was featured on the Today Show on February 26, 2007 where it was mentioned that the ossuaries were sent to New York.^{[citation needed]}

The Lost Tomb of Jesus and The Jesus Family Tomb

The Lost Tomb of Jesus premiered on The Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007, timed to coordinate with publication of Jacobovici's book The Jesus Family Tomb.

With the help of statisticians, archaeologists, historians, DNA experts, robot-camera technicians, epigraphers and a forensic expert, Jacobovici argued that the bones of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene, along with some of their relatives, were once entombed in this cave. This claim is disputed.^[11]

References

External links

• Official Site for the Lost Tomb of Jesus
• The Lost Tomb of Jesus book
• James Tabor's replies to all common criticisms and alleged errors
• {http://rss.mac.com/itamarbernstein/iWeb/Site/The%20Bone%20Box%20Blog%20/rss.xml]
• Discovery channel news story
• Jesus Family Tomb Believed Found
• MSNBC Newsweek story
• Family Tomb of Jesus story (Theopedia.com - conservative Christian viewpoint with MP3 resources)