Roman-era pine coffin excavated on the Incense Road

FUNERARY ARCHAEOLOGY: First Aleppo-pine coffin found on the Nabataean Incense Road near Avedat. Discovery of a uniquely preserved Roman-period burial, just meters from Israel’s Route 40, adds a rare wooden coffin to the Negev corpus and sits opposite a later Byzantine Christian cemetery (Jerusalem Post Staff).

The underlying article is published in the current ("Archaeology of Death") volume of the open-access journal 'Atiqot:

Sapir, Tal and Erickson-Gini, Tali (2025) "A Wooden Coffin from the Incense Road and Other Wooden Coffins from Southern Israel," 'Atiqot: Vol. 117, Article 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70967/2948-040X.2256
Available at: https://publications.iaa.org.il/atiqot/vol117/iss1/8

Abstract:

In 2022, a hewn tomb was discovered along the course of the Nabataean Incense Road, c. 2 km northwest of the ancient site of ‘Avedat (Oboda) in the Negev Highlands of southern Israel. The excavation of the grave revealed the remains of a wooden coffin from the Roman period, in the second or third centuries CE. Although wooden coffins have been uncovered elsewhere in the region, this coffin is the first of its kind to be discovered along the Incense Road. This article presents the coffin and discusses its historical and archaeological context, as well as the distribution of wooden coffins in southern Israel, their origin and use.

For PaleoJudaica posts involving the Nabatean (Nabataean) site of Avdat (‘Avedat, Ovdat, Uvdat), start here and follow the links. Cross-file under Nabatean Watch (?).

Other articles in this volume of 'Atiqot are noted here and links.

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