Archaeologists Have Found a Burial Cave That Is Packed With Unbroken Pottery That Dates Back To Ramses II, Around the Time of the Exodus From Egypt
A 3,300-year-old complete burial cave from the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II, who is supposed to be the pharaoh from the biblical account of the Exodus from Egypt, has been found, according to Israeli researchers. This is a very unusual find.
Eli Yannai, a specialist in the Bronze Age at the Israel Antiquities Authority, called it a “discovery of a lifetime.”
Yannai was reported by Haaretz as stating, “It’s like a scene from ‘Indiana Jones’—a cave with vessels on the floor that haven’t been touched in 3,300 years.”
It dates from “exactly the period of the infamous pharaoh, Ramesses II,” which is the Late Bronze Age.
During his reign from about 1279 to 1213 B.C., Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, grew ancient Egypt’s power to include Syria in the northeast and Sudan in the south.
According to Yannai, the old cave offers a “complete picture” of that time period’s burial customs.
The cave’s roof was accidently revealed when a tractor lifted a boulder at the Palmahim Beach National Park construction site in southern Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post. An inspector from the Nature and Parks Authority, Dror Czitron, was then sent to the scene.
According to a statement by the IAA, a group of archaeologists entered the dim cave that “looked to have frozen in time” and uncovered many objects inside.
They said that several objects, including amphorae and bowls of different shapes and sizes, cooking pots, and oil lamps, seemed to be designed to help the departed in the hereafter.
The remaining objects comprised miniature containers filled with traces of priceless materials that may have been imported from Tyre, Sidon, and other ports in Lebanon.
Bronze spearheads and arrowheads were also found in the cave.
Yannai was cited as stating, “In the cave, mostly dozens of ceramic pots of all sizes and forms were left.”
Yannai said that the things were shallow bowls, some of which were painted red, cooking pots, jugs, and oil-filled clay candles.
According to Live Science, the IAA statement did not specify if the crew discovered any human bones, inscriptions, or items that would have been used to identify the person or persons in the cave.
In a statement, Eli Eskosido, the director-general of the IAA, and Raya Shurky, the director of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, were quoted in a statement as saying, “The news of the discovery of the cave has spread like wildfire in the academic world, and we have already received requests from many scholars to take part in the planned archaeological excavation.”
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