Ketef Hinnom (just south of St Andrew's church) -Jerusalem- Reproduced & printed by Survey of Palestine-south-east-sheet (cropped)

Ketef Hinnom ( he, כֵּתֵף הִינוֹם ', "Shoulder of

Hinnom The Valley of Hinnom ( he, , lit=Valley of the son of Hinnom, translit=Gēʾ ḇen-Hīnnōm) is a historic valley surrounding Ancient Jerusalem from the west and southwest. The valley is also known by the name Gehinnom ( ''Gēʾ-Hīnnōm'', ...

") is an archaeological site discovered in the 1970s southwest of the Old City of

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

. Archaeological excavations held in the site uncovered a series of

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

period Judahite burial chambers, dating to the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. It is famous for the Ketef Hinnom scrolls, which are the oldest surviving texts from the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' St. Andrew's Church, now on the grounds of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. It is located where the

Valley of Rephaim The Valley of Rephaim ( he, עמק רפאים, ''Emeq Rephaim'') (; , R.V.) or Valley of the Rephaim,Jerusalem Bible (1966) adds "the": 1 Chronicles 14:9 is a valley descending southwest from Jerusalem to Nahal Sorek below, it is an ancient route f ...

and the

Valley of Hinnom The Valley of Hinnom ( he, , lit=Valley of the son of Hinnom, translit=Gēʾ ḇen-Hīnnōm) is a historic valley surrounding Ancient Jerusalem from the west and southwest. The valley is also known by the name Gehinnom ( ''Gēʾ-Hīnnōm'', ...

meet, on the old road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. Burial_cave

History

The site consists of a series of rock-hewn burial chambers based on natural caverns. The discovery was first reported in 1975 by

Gabriel Barkay Gabriel Barkay (Hebrew: גבריאל ברקאי; sometimes transcribed from the Hebrew Gavriel Barkai) is an Israeli archaeologist. Early life and studies Born in 1944 in the Budapest Ghetto, Hungary, he immigrated to Israel in 1950. Barkay stud ...

St. Andrew's Church, Jerusalem: In August-September 1975 a salvage excavation was carried out on the hill near St. Andrew's Church in Jerusalem, between the road leading up to the church and the road descending to the Valley of Hinnom. This is an important strategic point on the ancient watershed road through the Judean hills, where two natural roads meet, one from the Valley of Hinnom in the west and one from the Valley of Rephaim in the east... A large block of stone 2.80 m. long, belonging to a threshold originally some 5 m. wide, was visible on the surface. Excavation revealed that the threshold stone is in situ, and that it is part of a monumental architectural complex.Perrot, J., Noy, T., Stern, E., Kochavi, M., Fritz, V., Kempinski, A., . . . Kloner, A. (1976). NOTES AND NEWS. Israel Exploration Journal,26(1), 47-58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27925552

Scrolls

In 1979, two tiny

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyrus ...

s, inscribed with portions of the well-known

Priestly Blessing The Priestly Blessing or priestly benediction, ( he, ברכת כהנים; translit. ''birkat kohanim''), also known in rabbinic literature as raising of the hands (Hebrew ''nesiat kapayim'') or rising to the platform (Hebrew ''aliyah ledukhan'') ...

from the

Book of Numbers The book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi''; he, בְּמִדְבַּר, ''Bəmīḏbar'', "In the desert f) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and ...

and apparently once used as

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protect ...

s, were found in one of the burial chambers. The delicate process of unrolling the scrolls while developing a method that would prevent them from disintegrating took three years. They contain what may be the oldest surviving texts from the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' First Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by th ...

period around the late 7th to early 6th century BCE prior to the

Babylonian Exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat ...

, and are now preserved at the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

References

External links

"The Riches of Ketef Hinnom"
– Biblical Archaeology Review online article.
The Ketef Hinnom tombs
– photos provided by Holy Land Photos.

– photos and details of KH's location relative to the church. {{coord, 31, 46, 7.86, N, 35, 13, 31.27, E, display=title Archaeological sites in Jerusalem Ancient sites in Jerusalem Establishments in the Kingdom of Judah Gehenna Iron Age sites in Israel