History of archaeological research im" The archaeological importance of the site was recognized in the 1880s by the
Survey of Western Palestine, which explored many tombs and catacombs but did no excavation. In 1936,
Alexander Zaïd, employed by the
JNF as a watchman, reported that he had found a breach in the wall of one of the caves which led into another cave decorated with inscriptions. In the 1930s and 1950s, the site was excavated by
Benjamin Mazar and
Nahman Avigad. Excavations resumed in 2014. Since 2014, the excavations at the site have been conducted by Adi Erlich, on behalf of the
University of Haifa's Institute of Archaeology, and are ongoing as of 2021. Erlich is focusing her excavation on the actual ancient town, which occupied the hilltop above the well-studied necropolis, and of which only a few buildings had been previously discovered. Others came from
Antioch (in Turkey),
Mesene (South Mesopotamia, today in Iraq), the
Phoenician coast (
Sidon,
Beirut,
Byblos, all in today's Lebanon), and even
Himyar (in Yemen), among other places. Aside from an extensive body of inscriptions in several languages, the walls and tombs have many images, engraved and carved in
relief, ranging from Jewish symbols and geometric decoration to animals and figures from Hellenistic myth and religion. Many of the
epigrams written on behalf of the deceased show a strong Hellenistic cultural influence, as many of them are taken directly from
Homer's poems. In one of the caves was discovered a marble slab measuring 21 × 24 × 2 cm. with the Greek inscription: Μημοριον Λέο νπου πατρος του ριββι παρηγοριου και Ιουλιανου παλατινουα ποχρυσοχων [Translation: "In memory of Leo, father of the comforting rabbi and Julian, the palatine goldsmiths"]. Access to many of the catacombs was obtained by passing through stone doors that once turned on their axis, and in some cases still do. In October 2009, two new caves were opened to the public whose burial vaults date to the first two centuries CE. Catacomb no. 20 and no. 14 are regularly open to the public, but most catacombs remain closed to the public, with a few being opened on weekends upon special request and prior appointment.
Cave of Yehuda HaNasi (Judah the Prince) The
Jerusalem Talmud and
Babylonian Talmud cite Beit She'arim as the burial place of Rabbi
Judah the Prince (Hebrew: Yehuda HaNasi). His funeral is described as follows: "Miracles were wrought on that day. It was evening and all the towns gathered to mourn him, and eighteen synagogues praised him and bore him to Bet Shearim, and the daylight remained until everyone reached his home (Ketubot 12, 35a)." The fact that Rabbi Judah was buried here is believed to be a major reason for the popularity of the necropolis in late antiquity. Catacomb no. 14 is likely to have belonged to the family of Rabbi Judah the Prince. Two tombs located next to each other within the catacomb are identified by bilingual Hebrew and Greek inscriptions as those of "R. Gamliel" and "R. Shimon", believed to refer to Judah's sons, the
nasi Gamaliel III and the
hakham Rabbi Shimon. Another inscription refers to the tomb of "Rabbi Anania", believed to be Judah's student Hanania bar Hama. According to the Talmud, Judah declared on his deathbed that "Simon [Shimon] my son shall be hakham [president of the Sanhedrin], Gamaliel my son patriarch, Hanania bar Hama shall preside over the great court".
Himyarite tombs In 1937, Benjamin Mazar revealed at Beit She'arim a system of tombs belonging to the Jews of
Himyar (now
Yemen) dating back to the 3rd century CE. The name of a woman written in Greek in its genitive form, Ενλογιαζ, is also engraved there, meaning either 'virtue', 'blessing', or 'gratis'; however, its precise transcription remains of scholarly dispute. The people of Himyar were buried in a single catacomb, in which 40 smaller rooms or
loculi branched-off from a main hall.
Abbasid period Glassmaking industry In 1956, a bulldozer working at the site unearthed an enormous rectangular slab, 11 × 6.5 × 1.5 feet, weighing 9 tons. Initially, it was paved over, but it was eventually studied and found to be a gigantic piece of glass. A
glassmaking furnace was located here in the 9th century during the
Abbasid period, which produced great batches of molten glass that were cooled and later broken into small pieces for crafting glass vessels.
Poem inside catacomb An
elegy written in
Arabic script typical of the 9–10th century and containing the date AH 287 or 289 (AD 900 or 902) was found in the
Magharat al-Jahannam ("Cave of Hell") catacomb during excavations conducted there in 1956. The sophisticated and beautifully worded elegy was composed by the previously unknown poet Umm al-Qasim, whose name is given in
acrostic in the poem, and it can be read in Moshe Sharon's book or
here on Wikipedia. Moshe Sharon speculates that this poem might be marking the beginning of the practice of treating this site as the sanctuary of Sheikh Abreik and suggests the site was used for burial at this time and possibly later as well. He further notes that the cave within which the inscription was found forms part of a vast area of ancient ruins which constituted a natural place for the emergence of a local shrine. Drawing on the work of Tawfiq Canaan, Sharon cites his observation that 32% of the sacred sites he visited in Palestine were located in the vicinity of ancient ruins. ==See also==