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False Door

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False Door
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Photo Comments

View of the west wall of the interior of the Tomb of Annas, the High Priest (AD 5–16).

In the lower portion of the image are three openings that lead into long chambers into which bodies of the deceased were placed (loculi; singular loculus).  Above the central one please notice the carvings in the rock representing doorposts, a lintel, a gabled (triangular shaped) roof.

At the very top of the image note the finely carved rosette pattern!!  There are 32 petals in this magnificently carved rosette.  This rosette is unique except for a smaller one in the back room of the so-called Tomb of Absalom AND a very large one in the Double Gate that leads into the Temple Mount Complex!!

The Ritmeyers believe that the actual Tomb of Annas may have been in the central loculus (Hebrew: kokh)!

Sorry about the lounge chair, the garbage, and the corrugated sheet in the image (the locals have their own priorities!).

For a complete discussion of this tomb plus a possible reconstruction see Ritmeyer, Leen and Kathleen Ritmeyer. “Akeldama: Potter's Field or High Priest's Tomb?" Biblical Archaeology Review 20 (1994): 23-35, 76, 78.