Finds beneath Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre reveal burial ground and garden
Italian-led archaeologists restoring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City have found an abandoned quarry, a garden and rock-cut tombs under the floor. The finds match New Testament descriptions but do not conclusively prove where Jesus was buried.
Archaeologists working in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City, have found an abandoned stone quarry, agricultural plots, a garden and rock-cut tombs beneath the church floor. Christian tradition holds the church stands on the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The discoveries fit descriptions in the Bible, but they do not scientifically prove where Jesus was buried.
From restoration to excavation
The church, known to Orthodox Christians as the Church of the Resurrection, was commissioned by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great in the fourth century, and the first church was consecrated in 335 AD. The building was destroyed and rebuilt several times. It suffered especially heavy damage in 1009 under the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim, and it was extensively altered after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099.
For a long time, structural work and excavations were barely permitted, since several Christian denominations share the church and each feared that changes could weaken its rights and influence. The parties have now reached agreement, and restoration has been under way since 2016, the first in more than 200 years. In 2022 a comprehensive restoration of the floor was planned, but it grew into an extensive excavation project.
What the archaeologists conclude
Lead archaeologist Francesca Romana Stasolla of Rome's La Sapienza university reads the finds as evidence of a burial landscape. She says the excavations suggest cultivated land once lay between Golgotha and the tomb. Traces of olive trees and vines were also found, dated to around 33 AD, the period in which Jesus's death is usually placed. The rock-cut tombs, she says, point to an earlier burial site.
The Gospel of John mentions a garden at the place of the crucifixion, and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke describe Jesus's tomb as a chamber hewn from rock. The Letter to the Hebrews says Jesus suffered outside the city gate.
Limits of the evidence
No inscription confirms a burial, and it cannot be shown that the tomb chamber was unused or belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, in whose new rock-cut tomb the Gospels say Jesus was laid. The plant remains cannot yet be dated precisely to the time of the crucifixion. The excavations therefore leave the question of the actual burial place open, but show that the site venerated for centuries has features corresponding to the New Testament descriptions.
