This site is best viewed with 800X600 resolution with Internet Explorer
|
|
|
Discovering ancient Byzantine Christian Graves under the Military Base in Beit Sahour
By the weekend, the soldiers in the military base "Shidma" near Beit Sahour, were surprised to uncover a Byzantine Christian grave yard. While the were digging more trenches for their tanks they found many rectangular graves carved in the rocks. In one of them a human skeleton and three bots with Greek writings were found. The cave carved in the rocks was accidentally uncovered while a soldier was digging a trench for one of the tanks. He was surprised to find a square opening and when he looked inside he encountered a staircase leading into a 2 meters high cave. According to Archeologist Shahar Bass, this discovery is very significant. As the cave have been closed and sealed for more than 1500 years inside time stopped and scientists have a good chance to uncover much of the burial traditions, which existed during the Byzantine period. This military base is located east of the Shepherds' Field. According to Christian believes, it is the place where the angels declared the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. This site is holy for Christians. Starting the fourth century, many churches and monasteries where built at the site. According to Bass, this graveyard is strongly related to the Shepherds' field. It gets more significance in being close to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. The soldiers are smiling in mentioning that without the Intifada this cave would have been hidden for years to come. Cement blocks where placed on top of the cave to protect it. While archeologists are eager to do more digging at the site, the exchange of fire between the military camp and the town of Beit Sahour make this task impossible to achieve. From: Ba-Mahaneh news paper 23/11/2000 | |||||||||||||||||
|
Send mail to [email protected] with
questions or comments about this web site or any of the activities mentioned and
we will be glad to write you back.
|
