Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511170085
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HILARY APPELMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS MACCABIM, Israel
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A tractor leveling ground for a new highway broke open a 2,000-year-old burial cave believed used by the Maccabees, a tribe of Jewish warriors whose revolt is celebrated in the festival of Hanukkah.
Excited archaeologists showed off their dusty find Thursday - the first physical evidence of the Maccabees, known until now only from ancient Jewish writings.
``This is the first time that archaeologists have evidence that there really was this family,'' said site director Shimon Riklin, as workers in hard hats cleared away sand that has covered the cave for nearly two millennia.
The cave was discovered Monday by workers building a highway 19 miles northwest of Jerusalem. It includes an entrance courtyard and three small burial chambers built of chalk blocks, in which archaeologists found 24 stone boxes, or ossuaries, containing the bones of the dead.
The ossuaries are inscribed in Hebrew with Jewish names, Riklin said. The inscription on one is missing several letters, but is believed to read ``Hasmonean,'' another name for the clan.
``This is the first time the word Hasmonean has been found on archaeological evidence,'' Riklin said. Coins and oil lamps also were found in the cave, helping to establish its age.
Riklin said the cave may contain the remains of three generations of Hasmoneans, perhaps even its most famous members, Judah Maccabee and his brothers.
The Maccabees lived in what is now central Israel. In the second century B.C., they rebelled against Syria's King Antiochus IV, who had stripped the Temple in Jerusalem and persecuted the Jews. Led by Judah, they conquered Jerusalem and reconsecrated the Temple in 165 B.C., a feat celebrated by the Jewish Hanukkah festival, which begins Dec. 17 this year.
The successful rebellion, which led to the establishment of an autonomous Jewish state, assured the continued existence of Judaism and brought about a revival of Jewish political and religious life.
The Maccabean era ended in 37 B.C., when the tribe was defeated by the Romans. Their exploits are chronicled in the Talmud, a collection of Jewish legal commentary, and in accounts by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.
Riklin said the discovery of the burial cave also is significant because it pinpoints the location of the ancient city of Modi'im, where the Maccabean revolt broke out.
The find was initially kept secret so archaeologists could work without interference. The ossuaries were sent to a lab for examination, and bones found inside them were turned over to Israel's Burial Society, run by the ultra-Orthodox, for reburial.
But after the discovery was announced Thursday on Israeli radio stations, half a dozen ultra-Orthodox protesters came to the site and shouted ``You are stealing bones,'' at workers, who were guarded by police.
One man in the traditional black suit of the religious lay curled on the ground in front of the cave entrance, praying.
There have been frequent confrontations between archaeologists uncovering burial sites and ultra-Orthodox Jews, who believe it is forbidden to remove remains.
by CNB