Strata: Sharon Halts Controversial Cemetery Dig

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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intervened late this past fall to have an archaeological dig at a cemetery in Acco, just north of Tel Aviv, stopped because of apparent pressure from ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are convinced the cemetery contains Jewish remains. Archaeologists insist the site was a pagan cemetery and contains no Jewish remains.

A salvage dig of the cemetery by Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists had been underway for six months and caused ire within the ultra-Orthodox community because of the possibility that it may contain Jewish graves. According to Yotam Tepper, the director of the excavation, the graves, which date from the first to fourth century A.D., are not Jewish. Most appear to belong to Roman Legion soldiers, though Tepper believes the cemetery was also used by the local Roman community.

“There was a Roman colony in Acco, and there was a community here with soldiers, veterans, their wives and children,” Tepper explained. “This was not a cemetery just for soldiers, but for the Roman community here,” he said. “We are speaking of a Roman pagan cemetery; there have been no finds which would indicate this was a Jewish cemetery.”

Indeed, a day before the stop-work order came into effect, excavators found a section of marble inscribed in Latin that was apparently part of a tombstone. The inscription, Tepper said, is yet another indication that the cemetery was “undoubtedly not Jewish.”