Burinl was the universal mode of disposing of the dead at all periods of Jewisli history [see BfRIAI,]. Bnrninri, which was the Babylonian and Roman usage, was among the Jews a death punislinii-nt intlicted for aggravated transgressions rathi-r than a mode of disposing of the dead (Gn 38«, Lv 20" 21", Jos 7", I K 13-, 2 K 23-""). Even when criminals had sutlered the last penalty of the law by stoning or burning, or where, as in the ca.se oi Saul and his sons, slain in b.attle, necessity required that tlieir bodies should be burned (1 S 31"- '•'), their remains or aslies were provided with a resting-place in the bosom of the earth.** There was great variety in the choice of a burying-iilace among the Jews, at least in the earliest times. Abraham buried Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah (Gn 23"'); Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, was buried under an oak (Gn 35") ; Jacob buried Rachel (.see, above, p. 193*) by the wayside (On 35"); they buried Joshua 'in tlie liorifer of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, wliich is in Mt. Ephrnim ' (Jos 24*') ; and the men of Jabesh- gilead Imried the bones of Saul and his sons under a terebinth (1 Ch 10'-). Burial in the open street or at cross ro.ids was expressly forbi<hlen by the enactments of later times. ThiTO does not ai)pear to be evidence in the Scripture his-
• Hamburger, RE, vol. i. VH. t Studia liibKca, i. 212 fl. I Levy, ' Phonizische Studlen,' p. 2. J Tristram. Kmtem Cuttoim in Bible Land*, p. 100 H Hamburger, t.c. ji. 476.
^ Oraet!:, History oftht Jewt, vol. 11. 648 (American edition). •• Cf. Hamburger, ' Feuerbestattung der Toten,' Supplement. Band. Abt. ii. 40. ^'^
tory to warr.ant the statement that the family grave was originally in the house.* This belongs, so far as it aiipears to have been the case, to a later time, and is represented as an exceptional honour reserved for Icings, prophets, and other outstanding personages (1 S 25', 1 K 2*', 2 K 21'8, 2 Ch 33-"). In B.abylonia and Assyria, at all events, 'only members of the royal family were permitted to be buried within the precincts of the town. Their bodies miglit be burned and entombed in one of the many palaces of the country. We are told of one king, for instance, that he was burned or buried in tlie palace of Sargou ; of another, tliat he was burned in his own palace. The practice throws light on what we read in tlie Books of Kings ; there, too, we are told tliat Maiiasseli " was buried in the garden of hisown house" (2 K 21"), and Anion in the "garden of Uzza" (2 K 21-"). Private burial in the palaces they had inliabited when alive was a privilege reserved for the kings alone. 't The seiiulclaes set ajiart for the kings of .ludah (D'r^^rr nnap) are specially mentioned (2 Ch 21-° 24^ 28'-"). Not all the kings were privileged to re- ceive interment in the royal mausoleum. Neither Joash nor Jehoram was buried in the sepulchres of the kings (2 Ch 21"» 24«), wliilst Jehoiada was accorded the honour 'because he had done good in Israel and towards God and his house' (2 Cli 24"). The remains of Uzziah were not admitted to the sepulchres of the kings, but were interred in ' the field of burial which belonged to tlie kings, be- cause they wiid he was a lei)er' (2 Ch 20^). It is not possible to locate ' the sepulchres of the kings ' in Jerusalem. It seems to be implied in a state- ment of the prophet Ezekiel (43'"") that certain kings of Judah were buried close to the tenii)le, if not actually within its precincts; and though there is no record of such a thing in the historical books, the statement is jusfilied by the fact that the royal palaces, within which some of tliem were interred, and the first temple, stood virtually within the same enclosure. There were also common burying- places called 'the gr.aves of the children of the people ' (2 K "23^ Jer 2U'-''), into which the dead were sometimes cast in dishonour and contempt.
To prep.are for himself a tomb in his lifetime has been the custom of every right-thinking Jew from early times down to the present day. Slu^bna, whose Jewish origin, however, is doubtful ( ls'i'2""-), Asa (2 Ch 16'*), Joseph of Arimatliica (Mt 27™), are instances in point. The cu.stom was not con- lined to the Jews, for we find it followed by the Pharaohs, who built pyramids to receive their remains, by Eshmunazar, ly the Caliphs, and others.
Of the sepulchres and sepulchral monuments of the ancient Hebrews and tlie later Jews it is pos- sible now to give an adequate description and a fairly complete history. \\ e owe this to the labours — often skilled labours — of residents and travellers in Palestine, and especially to the orpinizod and persevering eil'orts of the Palestine Exidoration r'und and the kindred German Palas/iyia- Vcrcin. The sepulchral remains of Western Palestine, in particular, have been in many ca.ses carefully examined and measured and described, with plans and sketches, in the Reports and Memoirs of these societies. Wo can now classify the sepulchral remains according to tho type which they repre- sent, and even, with some measure of certainty, a-ssign them to the period to which thoy belong, — to the Phmnician or Hebrew, Jewish, Herodian, Roman, Byzantine, Saracenic, or Crusading periods. There are three principal types of ancient tombs