The Cave of Nicanor (; ) is an ancient burial cave located on

Mount Scopus Mount Scopus ( he, הַר הַצּוֹפִים ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ar, جبل المشارف ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or ) is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Je ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Among the

ossuaries An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...

discovered in the cave is one with an

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

referring to "Nicanor the door maker".Clermont-Ganneau, "Archeological and epigraphic notes on Palestine," Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, 1903, pp.125-131; Gladys Dikson, "The tomb of Nicanor of Alexandria," Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, 1903, pp.326-332. The cave is located in the

National Botanic Garden of Israel National Botanic Garden of Israel (officially Montague Lamport Botanical Garden for the Native Plants of Israel) Hebrew: הגן הבוטני לצמחי ארץ ישראל ע"ש מונטג'יו למפורט), is a botanical garden located on the ...

on the grounds of the Mount Scopus campus of the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...

. Nicanor belonged to a wealthy Alexandrian Jewish family. He is mentioned in the works of the Roman Jewish historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

and the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the center ...

as the donor of the bronze doors of the Court of the Women in the

Second Temple The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inheri ...

in Jerusalem. This fact is also inscribed in Greek on his ossuary, which is a rare case of archaeology supporting facts stated by written sources.

Discovery

In October 1902, the groundskeeper of John Gray Hill's estate on Mount Scopus discovered a burial cave complex in a field just north of his winter home. As Gray Hill was abroad at the time, the groundskeeper reported the discovery to the British Consul, John Dickson, whose daughter Gladys Dickson, an amateur archaeologist, inspected the cave and its contents. They found seven ossuaries– six ordinary ones and one with a bilingual

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

inscription. The ossuaries were removed from the cave by the groundskeeper, and Dickson was unable to ascertain their original position within. Three days later, R. A. Stewart Macalister, excavating at Tel Gezer at thetime, was forced back to Jerusalem by a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting a ...

outbreak and was able to inspect and authenticate the newly discovered cave and inscription, a photograph of which was presented to

Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (19 February 1846 – 15 February 1923) was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist. Biography Clermont-Ganneau was born in Paris, the son of Simon Ganneau, a sculptor and mystic who died in 1851 when Clerm ...

. The following year saw two articles published in the ''

Palestine Exploration Quarterly The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, and is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the stud ...

''– Clermont-Ganneau's article on this and other inscriptions, and Gladys Dickson's detailed report on the tomb complex illustrated with plans by Macalister. Gray Hill gave the ossuary to the Palestine Exploration Fund, which transferred it to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docu ...

, where it is still to be found.

Site description

There are two burial caves that can be accessed from a hewn rectangular courtyard. The architectural plan of the cave, the artistic style, and finds within it, allow the cave to be dated to the middle of the first century CE.

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

pottery found at the bottom of the shafts in the yard and two crosses engraved on the wall of the main room, show that use of the cave continued until the Byzantine period. The burial cave containing Nicanor's ossuary is typical of the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted approximately 600 years (516 BCE - 70 CE), during which the Second Temple existed. It started with the return to Zion and the construction of the Second Temple, while it ended with the First Jewis ...

. It contains four burial halls, each with a number of burial niches. In the passages between the halls, rock depressions indicate that the entrances were decorated with stone slabs, a phenomenon unique to this cave. The second cave, consisting of a single burial hall opens to the right, on the eastern side of the courtyard.

The Nicanor ossuary

The British Museum website describes the ossuary as bearing two inscriptions, one in Greek ("Bones of the family of Nicanor the Alexandrian who made the gates"), and one in Hebrew ("Nicanor Alexa"). Nicanor's

ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...

is engraved with geometric patterns, with rough red-painted decoration on the lid. The inscriptions appear at one end.

Later use

In 1934, the remains of

Leon Pinsker yi, לעאָן פינסקער , birth_date = , birth_place = Tomaszów Lubelski, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = Odessa, Russian Empire , known_for = Zionism , occupation = Physician, political activis ...

from

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

were reburied in the Nicanor cave at the initiative of Menachem Ussishkin, who envisaged a national pantheon on Mt. Scopus. However, the only other person buried there was Ussishkin himself, who died in 1941. A national leaders plot was established on

Mount Herzl Mount Herzl ( he, הַר הֶרְצְל ''Har Hertsl''), also ''Har ha-Zikaron'' ( lit. "Mount of Remembrance"), is the site of Israel's national cemetery and other memorial and educational facilities, found on the west side of Jerusalem beside ...

after the founding of the state in 1948, in part because Mount Scopus became an enclave in Jordanian-ruled territory.

References

External links