Friday, October 28, 2016

Ancient burial caves discovered in Jerusalem

ARCHAEOLOGY: Burial caves discovered on road to Shimon Hatzadik's tomb. During maintenance work on road to Shimon Hatzadik's tomb, ancient burial caves were discovered, rendering the road inaccessible to kohanim (Yoel Domb, Arutz Sheva).
..During the course of maintenance and upgrading work on the road leading up to Shimon Hatzadik's tomb, more ancient burial caves were discovered.

The work, which is being performed by the Moriah company for the Jerusalem Municipality, is taking place on Derekh Shekhem near the Pierre Van Passan traffic circle in the Wadi Joz neighborhood adjacent to Shimon Hatzadik's grave, in order to ease traffic on the main road leading up to Sheikh Jarrah.

During the course of the work, a number of ancient burial graves were discovered on the site of the road, including a burial cave with crypts, which testify to it being a Jewish burial site.

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As noted in the sub-headline, this is causing some halakhic difficulties. The article does not give any more specific information about the date of the burials.