Tomb of Absalom

The Tomb of Absalom (), also called Absalom's Pillar, is an ancient monumental rock-cut tomb with a conical roof located in the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem, a few metres from the Tomb of Zechariah and the Tomb of Benei Hezir. Although traditionally ascribed to Absalom, the rebellious son of King David of Israel (), recent scholarship has dated it to the 1st century AD.

The tomb is not only a burial structure in its own right, with its upper part serving as a nefesh (funeral monument) for the tomb in its lower part, but it was probably also meant as a nefesh for the adjacent burial cave system known as the Cave or Tomb of Jehoshaphat, with which it forms one entity, built at the same time and following a single plan.

Description

Absalom's Pillar is approximately in height. The monument proper stands on a square base and consists of two distinct parts. The lower section is a monolith, hewn out of the rocky slope of the Mount of Olives, while the upper part, rising higher than the original bedrock, is built of neatly cut ashlars.

The lower half is thus a solid, almost perfectly cubical monolithic block, about square by high, surrounded on three sides by passageways which separate it from the vertically cut rock of the Mount of Olives. It is decorated from the outside on each side by pairs of Ionic half-columns, flanked in the corners by quarter-columns and pillars (a so-called distyle in antis arrangement). The four square facades are crowned by a Doric frieze of triglyphs and metopes and an Egyptian cornice.

thumb|Inside view of Absalom's Pillar, [[Photoshop-morphed from the following two early 20th-century photos.]]

The upper, ashlar-built part of the monument consists of three differently-shaped segments: a square base set on top of the Egyptian cornice of the lower part, followed by a round drum crowned by a rope-shaped decoration, which sustains a conical roof with concave sides (the easily recognisable "hat"), topped by a half-closed lotus flower. The upper part of the monument corresponds to the outline of a classical tholos and is not unlike contemporary Nabatean structures from Petra.

On the inside, the upper part of the monument is mostly hollow, with a small arched entrance on the south side set above the seam area (where the masonry part starts). Inside this entrance a short staircase leads down to a burial chamber carved out of the solid, lower section. The chamber is square, with arcosolium graves on two sides and a small burial niche. The tomb was found empty when first researched by archaeologists.

Italian architect and engineer, Ermete Pierotti (19th-century), rendered a description of the site in his seminal work, Jerusalem Explored.

Dating

An analysis of the architectural styles used indicates that the monument's construction and its first stage of use happened during the 1st century AD.

The irregular-shaped holes made into the monument are of later date, probably from the Byzantine period. Even the original entrance has been widened in such rather defacing manner. See also under "Byzantine inscriptions" below.

Traditional attribution

Absalom's shrine has traditionally been identified as the monument of Absalom, rebellious son of King David, based on a verse in the Book of Samuel:

A "monument of Absalom" did exist in the days of Josephus, and was referred to in his Antiquities. The 19th-century English translation by Havercamp states that the "monument of Absalom" stood at a distance of "two furlongs" from Jerusalem.

The attribution of this particular monument to Absalom was quite persistent, although the Book of Samuel reports that Absalom's body was covered over with stones in a pit in the Wood of Ephraim ().

For centuries, it was the custom among passersby—Jews, Christians and Muslims—to throw stones at the monument. Residents of Jerusalem would bring their unruly children to the site to teach them what became of a rebellious son. However, archaeologists have now dated the tomb to the 1st century AD.

Byzantine inscriptions

In 2003, a mid-4th-century inscription on one of the walls of the monument was discovered. It reads, "This is the tomb of Zachariah, the martyr, the holy priest, the father of John". This suggests that at the time, the monument was considered to be the burial place of the Temple priest Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, who lived 400 or so years earlier than the inscription date.

A second inscription of the same age discovered in 2003 says the monument is "the tomb of Simeon who was a very just man and a very devoted el(der) and (who was) waiting for the consolation of the people".

The two inscriptions, discovered and deciphered by Joe Zias and Émile Puech, support the concept known from Byzantine period sources such as Theodosius (c. 530) that a tradition existed at the time, wrongly identifying the 1st-century monument as the tomb of James, the brother of Jesus; Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist; and Simeon, the old priest from the Gospel of Luke. However, Napoleon never reached Jerusalem during his campaign in the Holy Land. Actually, the top of the monument is not at all broken, but is rather carved to resemble a lotus flower. Others explain the sense as meaning "Pharaoh's peak."

Gallery

File:David Roberts - Absalom's Pillar, Valley of Jehoshaphat - 1927.110 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|1839 image from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia

File:InsideAbsalom'sPillar.jpg|Original couple of pictures

File:Absalom's Tomb, Valley of Jehoshaphat, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem.jpg|Stereo card by T.W. Ingersoll

File:Absalom's Pillar - Pococke Richard - 1745.jpg|Image from 1745

</gallery>

References

External links

Virtual Tour of Jerusalem. Offers 360-degree view from front of Absalom's Pillar.