Abba Cave, Rock-cut sepulcher in Givat HaMivtar, Israel
Abba Cave is a rock-cut burial chamber in Givat HaMivtar with two rooms and stone boxes carved inside. These containers held bones in a secondary burial practice from the first century BCE.
Construction workers discovered the cave in 1970 while building a house and found an inscription identifying its owner as Abba, son of Eleazar. This discovery revealed key information about burial practices from that period.
The inscription on the cave wall shows that Abba returned from Babylonian exile to bury his family here in Jerusalem. The name and script reflect Jewish burial customs of that era.
The original stone boxes with inscriptions from the site are now on display at the Israel Museum for visitors to see. The actual burial cave remains on private property and is not open to the public.
Skeletal remains found here show marks of beheading and crucifixion, linking them to historical executions from that time. These bones provide rare physical evidence of violent deaths from this era.
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