BYZANTINE-ERA GRAVES AT ASHKELON:

Grave discovery halts work on hospital's emergency center
By SAUL SINGER (Jerusalem Post)

Construction on a 200-bed underground emergency facility at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center, which began in March and was speeding ahead amid concerns over a resumption of violence from the Gaza Strip, has ground to a halt after the discovery of ancient graves at the building site.

The hospital is now negotiating with the Religious Services and Health ministries over how to proceed, Barzilai's deputy director, Emile Hay, told The Jerusalem Post.

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The graves date from the Byzantine era, according to Antiquities Authority spokesperson Yoli Shwartz.

"In light of past excavation around Barzilai and the general Ashkelon area, the graves are most likely either of Christian or pagan inhabitants," said Dr. Haim Goldfus, senior lecturer of archaeology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Ashkelon was the heart of Christian and pagan life in the Byzantine era, and it is unlikely that the graves are Jewish, he added.

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