Monday, 15th May 2006
Prof. Mark Spigelman (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
THE JERUSALEM SHROUD: A SECOND TEMPLE BURIAL ANSWERS MODERN MEDICAL QUESTIONS
In the summer of 2000, a group of students on an archaeological tour of the Gehonim Valley in Jerusalem stumbled upon a burial tomb marked by a number of broken ossuaries. Although the grave had been visited by robbers, there was a single closed niche. On opening this grave a nondescript black mass of material was found plus some assorted bone fragments. The mass itself appeared to be made up of fabric and hair, and provided a unique and exciting possibility that it was a Second Temple burial shroud; it was subsequently dated to the 1st Century C.E.
A number of other notable observations were also seen at the site. Most importantly, this niche was sealed and the bones had not been gathered for secondary burial as was the custom. Why, in an obviously important and possibly highly religious family were the normal rituals and burial practices not carried out in one particular body - namely the one with the shroud? It is possible that there was civil unrest at the time and the family was unable to come back and perform the ritual; alternatively the family may have realised that the mode of death was such that re-opening posed a personal danger to them. We can do little about the first. However the second theory does open some possibilities using the technology of ancient DNA. Two diseases come to mind instantly: leprosy and tuberculosis. Both are likely to give deaths which may cause significant fear and suffering. This may have been enough to make the family to afraid to collect the bones and place them in an ossuary.
Leprosy ravaged The Middle East and Europe from biblical times until the late medieval period. One of the effects is that patients became isolated, cast out from society and often suffered from poor nutrition. This can lead to a weakening of the immune system, paving the way for opportunistic co-infection. In antiquity this was well documented in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Temple Scroll, where the section dealing with the laws of uncleanness and purity expressly state that those suffering from 'tsarat' must not enter the Temple City of Jerusalem or all the cities. (Yadin1983:294). The study of this body led to an extended study of other individuals with Hensens Disease in antiquity. Several other cases from Israeli excavations, where the use of microbiological techniques has led to significant information being made available to archaeologists, will also be discussed: a suspected rape murder of a woman by the Assyrians at Tel Rehov almost 3000 years ago; a rich burial from Tel Bet Shean from the Middle Bronze Age and a piece of calcified pleura from Kakur in the Negev.
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