Reconstructed Tomb

This photograph is of a reconstruction of one of the Ketef Hinnom Tombs that were/are located on the slope of the Valley of Hinnom below Saint Andrew's Scots Presbyterian Church in Jerusalem.

The tombs date to the late 7th–6th centuries BCE.  The bodies were laid to rest on one of the three burial benches.  After the flesh had decomposed, the bones and funerary gifts were removed and placed in a repository pit dug into the rock below the left-hand burial bench.

These tombs contained the largest collection of small finds ever discovered together in Jerusalem.  Note all of the pottery and iron and alabaster objects!

In one of the tombs, two small rolled-up silver amulets were discovered—the oldest portions of the Hebrew Bible ever to be found.

Please note, the skeleton is not real.  Jewish law/tradition does not allow such a display of the bones of a deceased person.