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.

On 9 October 1970, while a garden was being renovated in Givat HaMivtar, workers uncovered the cave. A 65 by 85 cm painted inscription in ancient Hebrew names its owner as Abba, son of Eleazar the priest, who says he bought the cave by deed and buried Mattathias son of Judah there. The identity of the buried is debated; some link the bones to Mattathias Antigonus II, executed by the Romans in 37 BCE.

The 65 by 85 cm inscription, painted on the rock in ancient Hebrew script, records Abba's words: he was born in Jerusalem, exiled to Babylonia, and buried Mattathias son of Judah in the cave he bought by deed. The text names Abba as a priest, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the High Priest.

The cave sits in the garden of a private house in Givat HaMivtar, between Sheshet HaYamim and Midbar Sinai streets, and is not open to the public. The decorated ossuary and the 65 by 85 cm inscription were sawn out and are shown in a permanent exhibition at the Israel Museum. The second ossuary found in 1982 was left in place.

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.