This Team of Archaeologists Opened the Tomb of Jesus For the First Time in Centuries

This team of archaeologists opened the tomb of Jesus for the first time in centuries. Although the exact burial site of Jesus has not been proven in the archaeological sense, historians do believe that the tomb of Jesus is in the edicule inside the present-day church of the Holy Sepulchre. The first church on the site was built by Constantine the Great in 326 CE. It was meant to house the Roman Emperor's own burial site, but given the historical relevance of the area, Constantine sent his mother Helena to look for the exact location of Jesus' tomb. Jesus supposedly died three centuries before so it was hard to determine where the tomb was. However, Helena had the help of Eusebius, a bishop in the area, who led her to a Roman temple. Excavations were made to the Roman temple and they found that a tomb formed from a limestone cave lay beneath the temple. The top of the cave had been sheared off so that the interior of the tomb could be seen. Then, Constantine constructed the edicule around it. The church went through numerous changes and reconstructions thanks to the Crusaders and other wars that took place in Jerusalem. In 1545, the church's bell tower collapsed. The Franciscan friars seriously started to work on their own renovation and one of the clean-ups in their agenda was the shrine that housed the tomb of Jesus. Differences aside, the priests and monks finally decided that it was time for another clean-up. In 2016, a project to preserve the traditional site of Jesus' tomb started. The team was composed of scientists from the National Technical University of Athens. The restoration project included an archaeological excavation of the tomb of Jesus, something that archaeologists from all over the world have been waiting for. Everyone was eager for the revelation of what was really inside Jesus' tomb. By this time, the field of biblical archaeology has been growing. This side of archaeology aims to reveal or disprove any historical truth about the places and events that were discussed in the Bible. Various expeditions have been made under biblical archaeology such as King Herod's Palace, Noah's Ark, and many more. With the help of modern technology, the 2016 excavation team aims to prove or disprove if the edicule in the Any discovery made in this excavation will surely be making a huge impact on what we know of Christianity. Because the Church of Holy Sepulchre has gone through centuries of natural disasters and wars, a lot of scientists and historians were suspicious that the edicule was Jesus' tomb. It could be recalled that just a few decades after the death of Jesus, Jerusalem has been razed to the ground in 70 CE during the First Jewish-Roman War. Also, it has been pointed out that there were only two crucifixions that the Romans had carried out during the time of Jesus if you rely on physical evidence. Some historians believed that the edicule has long been destroyed given the number of times the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been attacked and damaged. It would have been impossible for the edicule to be spared from these events. Additional excavations had taken place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that revealed there were several rock tombs in it. An ancient limestone quarry was also found, which was believed to be from Constantine's church. And the findings supported the description of Jesus' tomb in the Bible. However, there was something inconsistent between what is said in the Bible and the current location of the edicule. In the Bible, it is stated that Jesus was buried outside of the city walls. The thing is, the current church and tomb sit inside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem. This encouraged more doubters about the location of the edicule. The restoration plan, when the monks of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre made the decision to allow the team from Athens to restore the church, they had a few conditions. The most important of which is that the existing structure should not be altered. The 2016 excavation team planned to deal with the Then, they would reinforce the exterior of the edicule so that it will not crumble. And lastly, they will excavate Jesus' tomb. The team worked for 60 hours straight on the slab, making sure not to damage any part of the burial chamber as they try to remove it. When the team removed the slab of marble for the first time in hundreds of centuries, were not prepared for what they saw. An unrecorded second slab of marble. There was another slab of marble beneath the one that the Franciscan monks had placed in 1555. There was no record of another layer of marble, so the team had no idea that it existed. The first layer of marble was milky white, and this second marble was grey. Further analysis had to be made to figure out the true date of the second marble. A lengthy scientific analysis had to take place. So the excavation and restoration team gathered as many samples as they could from the burial chamber. The samples were sent to a lab to be dated. Results are in. According to the results, the second marble slab was last exposed to light during the fourth century. This was about the same time when the first church of the Holy Sepulchre was built by Constantine. Analysis of the mortar sample from the wall of the tomb also was the same as the marble slab. A significant finding, but since the results took almost a year, by the time they were out, the restoration in the church was already complete and the burial chamber has been sealed. It is highly unlikely that the marble slabs in the aedicule will be opened again any time soon. However, dating the second marble slab was a big enough development that forever changed the way scholars, historians, scientists, and archaeologists would look at the church of the Holy Sepulchre as Christianity's holiest site. Even some of the biggest critics of the authenticity of the site of Jesus' tomb have converted after the 2016 expedition's discoveries. There may be no hard evidence yet to prove that Jesus' body had been buried in the aedicule. There is no reason to reject the authenticity of the site after the recent discoveries. Although the Protestants and some archaeologists believe that the site of Jesus' tomb is at a place called the Garden Tomb, outside of the Old City of Jerusalem, it could be noted that no other sites can lay a heavy claim on Jesus' tomb as this one.