Cave of Nicanor

Cave of Nicanor

Tombs of Leon Pinsker and Menachem Ussishkin

Nicanor inscription

The Cave of Nicanor is an ancient burial cave located on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel.

Excavations in the cave discovered an ossuary referring to "Nicanor the door maker." The cave is located in the Botanical gardens on the grounds of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Outside the cave is a hewn rectangular courtyard.

This form of burial caves is typical of the Second Temple period. Four burial halls of burial, each with a number of niches. In the passages between the halls rock depressions indicate that the entrances were decorated with stone slabs, a phenomenon unique to this cave.

A fifth burial cave is not linked to the rest of the halls, opening to the right of the front yard, on the eastern side of the courtyard.

Byzantine pottery found at the bottom of the shafts in the yard and two crosses engraved on the wall of the main room, show that use of the cave continued until the Byzantine period.

The architectural plan of the cave, the artistic style, and finds within it, allow the cave to be dated to the middle of first century CE.

National Pantheon

In 1934, the remains of Leon Pinsker in Odessa were buried in the Nicanor cave at the initiative of Menachem Ussishkin, who envisaged a national pantheon cemetery on Mt. Scopus. However, the only other person buried there was Usshishkin himself, who died in 1941. A national leaders plot was established on Mount Herzl after the founding of the state in 1948, in part because Mount Scopus became an enclave in Jordanian occupied territory.

References

External links

• Nicanor sarcophagus in the British Museum