Researchers announced that they are beginning excavations in a cave that was originally used as a burial site for a wealthy family in the Second Temple era but continued to be venerated for hundreds of years as the burial site of the midwife of Jesus. The Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday that they are currently excavating a 2000-year-old Second Temple-Period family burial cave discovered in the Lachish Forest in the Judean lowlands. The cave comprised several chambers with multiple rock-hewn kokhim (burial niches) and broken ossuaries (stone boxes), consistent with Jewish burial customs of that period. The cave is one of the most impressive of its type discovered in the Israel indicating that… (READ MORE)

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