Archaeological excavations, conducted by the department of antiquities of the Sapienza University of Rome, since mid-May, within the Holy Sepulcher allow today to better know the plans of the early Christian building built in the fourth century to the presumed location of Christ’s burial place.
Carried out under the direction of Francesca Romana Stasolla, this work has in fact made it possible to map the oldest liturgical enclosure known on site, but also to exhume unpublished movable elements.
The team where Professors Giorgia Maria Annoscia and Massimiliano David also work has not yet published a scientific article on this work. But a press release, issued on July 7 by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which administers part of the site, details some of the discoveries made on site. It is indicated there that these excavations follow a series of explorations undertaken from May 2022 in the north wing of the religious building, in the sector known as the Ark of the Virgin Mary.
It was a “very interesting” stratigraphic sequence identified by Father Virginio Corbo in the 1960s that prompted these excavations. Taking advantage of the paving renovation work, a dozen archaeologists dug the area under the supervision of Beatrice Brancazi and Stefano De Togni. The works concerned, for this new phase, the north-western part of the rotunda of Anastasius which surrounds the Holy Sepulcher itself.
“On this occasion, the early Christian plan of the aedicule, which was originally accessed by two white marble steps, was clarified,” says Francesca Romana Stasolla. The differences in geological levels have been mapped, testifying to continuous development work on this perimeter for nearly 1,600 years. The existence of an underground gallery has been confirmed, descending nearly 2.8 m vertically from the building before continuing horizontally to the north.
Continued over more than six meters in length towards the east, the excavations have identified large blocks of white stone, perfectly smooth and arranged in a north-south direction, which allow us to get an idea of the way in which this structure is presented then. The set would have been completed in the second part of the 4th century. A precise dating allowed thanks to the presence on site of a monetary hoard whose most recent coins were minted during the reign of Emperor Valens (364-378).
Inside the sepulchre, a survey has identified an ancient marble floor from the Middle Ages and cuts in the rock that could result from the layout of the premises to accommodate the faithful in the early days of Christianity. The bottom part of the burial chamber would thus have been filled in and fitted out to allow early Christian pilgrims to visit it.
There are very few remains of the original marble slab under the base of the current aedicule due to the many architectural interventions carried out since the Middle Ages. Archaeologists will now compare the elements found in situ with those, in particular, mentioned in the Peregrinatio Aetheriae a manuscript attributed to a woman, Egeria, who would have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem around 380 AD.
The remains of a balustrade closing the liturgical enclosure in the 16th century have also been found. These pieces of furniture were probably dismantled during the renovations of the place at the beginning of the 19th century. Archaeologists have also found, in the Chapel of the Angel, a floor of gray marble slabs placed directly on the rock face of what is considered, in Catholic tradition, as Golgotha where Christ was crucified. Between this chapel and the tomb, the working of the rock and the very rare remains of marble wall coverings make it possible to reconstruct the configuration of the buildings following an apse plan. But their dating deserves to be refined.