Two unique, 1,700-year-old Roman-era tombs with intricate, unique wall paintings, discovered decades ago in the coastal city of Ashkelon, have been restored and will be soon open for viewing by the general public for the first time, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.
The large vaulted tombs, dating from the 2nd to 4th centuries CE, were used by generations of wealthy families and contain rare depictions of “Greek mythological characters, people, plants and animals,” the IAA said in a statement.
“There aren’t a lot of Roman graves like this” in Israel built for the “aristocratic population… Both graves are family graves, and were in use for a long time, over hundreds of years,” said Dr. Elena Kogan-Zehavi, an IAA senior archaeologist, speaking to The Times of Israel by phone.
“Ashkelon at the time was a full Roman city, very advanced. What is special about these [finds] is the art. There is a lot of personal imagination from the artists. Each artist worked differently and therefore, each tomb is totally different from the other,” she said.
The tombs, to be opened around the upcoming Jewish holidays in October, are part of a new “inviting public garden,” located near the Ashkelon marina in a “previously neglected area” between two residential buildings, the IAA statement said.
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One tomb was discovered, filled with sand, in the 1930s by a British expedition during the British Mandate period and dated to the 4th century CE. The structure contains a hall or passageway with “four adjacent burial troughs… decorated by a range of paintings, impressive in quality and skill,” the IAA said.
A worker touches up an ancient wall drawing of Greek goddess Demeter at an archaeological tomb site in Ashkelon, Israel, on Tuesday August 27, 2024. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
These images include a depiction of the Greek earth goddess Demeter, a wide range of nature images including birds, deer, vines and plants, along with “nymphs – mythological figures related to nature; their heads adorned with lotus plant wreaths, and holding pitchers from which water pours out,” the statement said.
The tomb also includes an illustration of Medusa, the terrible female creature with snakes for hair whose gaze turned people to stone. In Greek mythology, Medusa was a fearsome foe slain by the hero Perseus, who used her head as a weapon before giving it to the war goddess Athena, who affixed it to her shield.
The Romans likely had a different take on Medusa, Kogan-Zehavi explained, as Roman adaptation of Greek mythology led to subtle differences and changes. “For the Greeks Medusa was a monster, but the Romans showed her as a young girl, still a dangerous creature but less fearsome. For this grave, the Medusa was protecting the family; this was the Roman style.”
Dr. Elena Kogan-Zehavi of the IAA standing in the Roman tombs in Ashkelon, after their preservation, in an image released on August 27, 2023. (Emil Aladjem, IAA)
The images depicted in the tomb were deeply symbolic and showed what the Romans imagined the afterlife to be like, she said. “The artists wanted to show that the family wasn’t dead but was living in heaven, they wanted to show the next world… we see this in other places in the Roman worlds, but not in Israel,” Kogan-Zehavi said.
The other tomb was originally excavated by Kogan-Zehavi in the 1990s, at the beginning of her career, after a road had already been built over it in eastern Ashkelon. “The tomb was found, but it was too late to change the road, so the IAA decided to move the grave,” she said.
This second tomb was built out of Roman concrete, essentially one large structure, instead of being constructed by separate stones, so “the IAA dug around it, raised it on a crane and put it in the same place” near the seaside tomb discovered in the 1930s, she said.
“The idea was in the future to do an archaeological park, for these graves which were decorated so wonderfully. This plan was from the 90s, and came to fruition in 2024,” Kogan-Zehavi said.
This second tomb is older, dating from the 2nd century CE. “In the building’s center is a hall whose walls are decorated with colorful paintings of human figures, birds and other images from the animal and plant worlds. Around the hall are vaulted loculi, in which lead coffins were discovered decorated with human, animals and vegetative images,” the IAA said.
Restoration work on the Roman tombs in Ashkelon, in an image released on August 27, 2023. (Emil Aladjem, IAA)
The human figures in the tomb are depicted nude, grasping various items that symbolize ideas of “cycles, continued life and life beyond death,” she said. The tomb also has a series of niches that at one time likely contained “naked statues of gods or emperors, [depicted] in heaven,” she added.
“This was one of the first digs I did. I was newly married with no kids, and now my son is finishing his studies to become a doctor. Since then, I have done a lot of digs, but a tomb like this is once in a lifetime,” she said.
The restoration work on the tombs was carried out by a IAA team of conservation experts in a “complex process,” the IAA noted.
“Ancient wall paintings are usually not preserved in Israel’s humid climate. As the paintings were in a relatively closed structure it protected them, to some extent, for decades. We had to conduct a long and sensitive process to stop and repair the ravages of time and weathering,” said Mark Abrahami, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s art conservation branch.
“Some paintings had to be removed from the walls for thorough treatment in the Israel Antiquities Authority’s conservation laboratories until they were returned to the site. The other walls of the structure were cleaned, the pigments in the colors of the paintings were accentuated, and the entire building was strengthened and stabilized to preserve it for future generations,” he said.
A view of the entrance of the Roman tomb site in Ashkelon, Israel, on August 27, 2024. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Ashkelon, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the Gaza Strip, has a rich history of archaeology. In addition to the Romans, the city was also home to Philistines during the early Iron Age, around 3,000 years ago. Ancient cemeteries uncovered in Ashkelon have provided important DNA clues that showed Philistines may have migrated to the region from Europe more than 4,000 years ago, a historical conundrum that has vexed archaeologists for decades.
Putting the tombs on display is part of a multi-year effort by the Ashkelon Municipality and the IAA to develop the ancient city’s many archaeological sites into tourist, educational and cultural attractions.
“It’s wonderful that the tombs will be on display,” Kogan-Zehavi said, noting that many archaeological digs are “academic projects” where “a lot of the work disappears from the public eye.”
“I am very happy that something I had a hand in discovering is now open for the general public. It’s beautiful. In Ashkelon, they should feel pride that they live in an ancient city with so much history,” she said.
AP contributed to this report.
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