Jason's Tomb
About
A courtyard tomb cut into Jerusalem limestone during the reign of the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus carried a pyramid-shaped roof over its porch, a form borrowed from Hellenistic funerary architecture. Charcoal graffiti on its walls included a drawing of a warship and an Aramaic lament for the buried Jason, giving the tomb its modern name. Burial there had ended by the early first century CE, but the carved facade and courtyard still stood when Trajan died in 117 CE.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
In ancient writing
- Anonymous graffiti, Charcoal inscriptions inside Jason's Tomb Aramaic lament and ship drawing, porch wall
Mourning graffiti naming Jason gave the tomb its modern identification.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →