The Jesus Dynasty / James Tabor

The late Yosef Gath, the archaeologist assigned to excavate the Talpiot tomb in March, 1980, never was able to publish a full excavation report. That was done by the area supervisor at that time, Amos Kloner, in 1996 in response to the BBC publicity on the tomb. However, Gath did publish a very sparse preliminary report in Hadashot Arkheologiyot 76 (1981), pp. 24-26. A rough translation by Shimon Gibson reads as follows:

“During work on the preparation of ground for building
in East Talpioth an opening of a tomb was found. Solel
Boneh workers K Mandil and the engineer A. Shochat
reported on this at the end of March 1980. Excavations
at the site were directed by Y.Gath for the Israel
Department of Antiquities for two weeks in March-April
1980. It appeared that the blocking stone for the
entrance had been removed and part of the porch and
vestibule had been destroyed. The cave was full of
soil to a height of one metre. The cave was well hewn
and one could see chisel marks of the hewers on the
walls. The cave included a porch (2X2.5 m), a central
room (3X3 m) and six kokhim (1.8 M deep and half a
metre wide). Arcoslia were installed in the east and
north walls. The height of the central chamber is 2 m.
In the kokhim were ten ossuaries. The facade of the
entrance was decorated with a relief, apparently an
attempt to show a gable above a rosette. Two ossuary
lids, found on the floor of the central room, under
the fill of soil, indicate an ancient disturbance. The
finds, including a few fragments of pottery, indicates
that the time of the cave is the Second Temple period.
20 metres north of this cave was a destroyed cave.
Closeby there were two cisterns, probably Byzantine.”

There are some other related materials that I will post later on this Blog and include in the paper I am preparing on the Talpiot excavation.