When CSI Meets History

CSI Lab – Crime Scene Investigation Helps Solve 2,000-Year-Old Murder Case (Click to Tweet)
This is a story that will grip you, fascinate you, and awake your sense of curiosity. Here’s why:

• It weaves together thousands of years and skips entire historical periods
• It clarifies the Hebrew nation’s deep connection with the city of Jerusalem
• It shows you how to find truth in unexpected places (Click to Tweet)

The facts:

The Givat Hamivtar neighborhood in Jerusalem was built after the Six Day War, on the other side of the old borderline. The Dellarosa family was one of the first to settle there. An Unexpected Discovery… While they were digging the foundation of their house on Sinai Desert Street, they happened upon an ancient burial cave. Researchers who were summoned to the site discovered two burial chambers. In one of them was an ossuary – a decorated stone burial space containing the bones of two men from about two thousand years ago, one about 60 years old, and the other a tall young man of just 25 years. All this was reported by Nico Haas, the anthropologist who examined the bones.

The complex CSI investigation… Fascinated by the case, Nico Haas added found that a large incision could be seen in the younger man’s skull, beginning from a vertebra in the neck and reaching the jaw, caused by a sharp object. Three iron nails found in the broken bones of his arm and heel proved That apparently, this man was crucified and tortured before he was killed (Click to tweet).
The angle of the blow to his head also shows that his head was limp at the time it was struck. But who murdered the man? Why was he murdered? What was his role? The bones date back to the first century BCE, meaning, to the Hasmonean period. Here, we leave the CSI investigators and revert to the history department. The adjacent inner chamber was empty. A unique inscription in Aramaic, ancient Hebrew script, was written on the wall:

The story of a life, yet still mysterious. As opposed to all other inscriptions from the same period, it is not about the deceased, but rather the person who buried him. Here, we find ourselves asking several questions…

• Who is Abah? Why was he tortured and persecuted and why was he exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon?
• Who is Mattathias, son of Judah and why was it so important to Abah to bring his bones to Jerusalem?
• If the bones in the ossuary of the man who was murdered, are Mattathias’s bones, where are the bones of Abah himself?

Since the discovery of the cave, several scholars have contemplated these questions, Offering possible solutions to the puzzle. One is found in the writings of Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian from the second Temple period: He describes the history of the Hasmonean dynasty’s reign, a dynasty responsible for the height of Jewish independence during the Second Temple period. The Hebrew nation has been celebrating that momentous period for two thousand years, With a holiday known as Hanukkah – the Festival of Lights. In 63 BCE, the Romans conquered the land and stationed their representatives throughout the country. The descendants of the Hasmonean dynasty continued to struggle to lead the nation. Antigonus II Mattathias son of Aristobulus II Judah succeeded in driving the Romans out of Jerusalem in 40 BCE. Power was returned to the Hasmonean dynasty, but only for a short time. Three years later, Herod attacked Jerusalem, took control of the city after a brutal battle, and returned it to Roman hands. This is when the Hebrew nation’s second exile began (Click to tweet), and the nation was scattered all over the world for two thousand years, until the recent return to their homeland. The fate of Antigonus Mattathias is told by Strabo, a Greek historian from that period (quoted by Josephus Flavius): “Antonius [the Roman ruler] executed Antigonus the Jew with a hatchet, having been brought [while on his way to captivity] to Antiochia. It seems that he was the first of the Romans to execute a king by hatchet, because he believed that it was impossible to change the opinions of the Jews in any other way, to accept Herod, who became king instead of him.” (History of the Jews [Edition A Shalit], 15:8-9). If so, it seems that King Herod, who was loyal to the Romans, was the one who cruelly killed the last Hasmonean king! It is possible that the split skull of the last Hasmonean king was the one brought for burial from Babylon to Jerusalem? Abah the Kohen was persecuted and exiled to Babylon, perhaps because of his loyalty to the Hasmoneans. It seems that death did not bring an end to his personal commitment to the king, and he was unable to bear the disgrace to the murdered king on foreign soil. In a secret mission, he smuggled the king’s bones to Jerusalem for burial and buried them in the beautiful ossuary in a hidden cave. We may assume that he knew what his fate would be, should he be captured by Herod. The ossuary and inscription were studied in the 1970s and moved to be displayed at the Israel Museum. The bones were sent for scientific testing and returned in 2001. The homeowner, Raphael Dellarosa, made sure to bury them in the same place that they had been found. Today, it is possible for visitors to come and see the archaeological findings, and even to walk in the very burial cave where they were found and feel the atmosphere. Not to mention the beautiful views that can be seen from that revived area of the city. The Jewish nation has returned to its beloved homeland after two thousand years of exile.

All this mystery just a flight away from your reach! So, where did Abah disappear? This, the archaeologists could not answer. Dellarosa himself examined the cave again about 10 years after it had been studied, and to his astonishment, he discovered a hidden opening under the site of the inscription. The opening had been concealed by dust, and underneath it was an additional ossuary.

Thus, it seems that the mystery of Abah the Kohen’s burial site was also solved. It is amazing to discover that burial, of all things, is what recreates the living connection Between the descendants of those buried and the land where their ancestors eternally rest!

Is this the tomb of Mattathias son of Judah, the last Hasmonean king? (Click to tweet) Join us on an exciting adventure to Jerusalem, where you get to see these age-old wonders up close and uncover fascinating mysteries of your own.