Have the Tombs of the Kings of Judah Been Found?: A ResponseIntroduction Talkback Add Your Comment
 After 24 years, we can now present a clear answer to a question raised in the pages of BAR. In the July/August 1987 issue, BAR editor Hershel Shanks considered two burial caves from the First Temple period, located on the property of the École Biblique et Archeologique Francaise in Jerusalem, and asked “Have the Tombs of the Kings of Judah Been Found?” In the following response, Fr. Riccardo Lufrani, professor of topography of Jerusalem and southern Levant at the École Biblique, endeavors to finally answer Shanks’s question.
Tombs of Judean KingsRiccardo's query concerns whether or not they were built for the last kings of Juda. His doubts are justified but I do not believe that they prove his case. Who was Uzza? Could this be a reference to Uzziah whose late palace was elsewhere? Too little is known to state clearly that no IA building were found. In this area and to the NW we have clear evidence of Egyptian occupation (including Egyptian statues). Our survey work has revealed bronze and Iron Age occupation. Time will tell! • • • • • • • Tombs Ecole BibliqueThanks to Prof. Riccardo Lufrani for this stimulating article. Nonetheless, based on our own indepth work in the region their is enough evidence (also from the tombs) that they were in use during the late Iron Age. The area N. of the Damascus Gate has several tomb complexes, some which contained still the pottery in situ. During our own survey work (both on the property of the Ecole) as well as elsewhere in the region, red burnushed ware, hole mouth jars and lmlk type pottery prove our case. • • • • • • • |
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