Iron Age Silwan Tomb

View of one of the fifty First Temple Tombs studied by David Ussishkin and Gabriel Barkay.

The upper part of the enlarged entrance (the lower portion is buried) is visible to the left of the beginning of the staircase. Note the smooth face of the tomb above the top of the door.

This tomb seems to have been a free standing monolith and a few traces of a three line Hebrew inscription have been found on its surface. The first line begins "burial of Z . . ." and the second "the one who op[ens . . .]." See Ussishkin’s article for details.

Today the tomb serves as a cistern to the house built over it.

This tomb is described in David Ussishkin "A Recently Discovered Monolithic Tomb in Siloam." Pp. 63–65 in Jerusalem Revealed: Archaeology in the Holy City 1968–1974, ed. by Y. Yadin. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1975.

For some brief comments on the neighborhood of Silwan Click Here.