After the destruction of the first temple at the beginning of the 6th century BC, the Edomites settled in Maresha as they did throughout the south of Judah. Because of this, the whole area was called “Idumea”. Maresha was the central city that ruled the western part of Idumea, at the same time as Adoraim ruled the east part. After Alexander the Great concord the land of Israel in 332 BC, Sidonians who accepted the Greek culture arrived here. A Greek community developed in the city, consisting of citizens and retired military personnel, and the city was given the status of a Polis.
What is the meaning of Polis? – it is a community related to a geographical location that is political and autonomous. The Polis was a kind of a “city-state” that provided the communal needs of its inhabitants – and this included, among others: defense, judgment, legislation, culture and religious worship, and in some cases also welfare and education services, although these services were rare in the ancient world as a service provided by the community or the government.
During the Hellenistic period the city consisted of two main parts: the high mound and the lower city which surrounds the high mound over an area of 320 dunams. In the lower city, residences from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC were found. It used to be a large city surrounding a fortified hill. Maresha was one of the largest cities in the Land of Israel in the early Hellenistic period.
The burial caves were located outside the city. Here, each person was buried inside a coffin, a common type was a sarcophagus, (in Greek: meat eater). Each sarcophagus was placed in an independent niche – the whole family were buried over time side by side.
We are at the entrance to the Sidonian burial caves – the most important and largest tomb system in the region. These caves are two of many caves carved by Phoenicians who settled in Maresha. In the caves, large niches were carved to place the dead. The walls in the caves were decorated with many paintings and inscriptions. One cave is called the “Cave of Apollophanes”, because an inscription was discovered in the cave commemorating Apollophanes son of Sesmaeus, the head of the Sidonians in Maresha. The ancient paintings in this cave are restorations based on copies made by the archaeologists who discovered the place in 1902. In the 2nd nearby cave, musicians’ paintings were restored, hence its named the musicians’ cave.
This cave includes an entrance hall with an altar. The entrance hall was connected to three long halls, each having many niches. At the end of the central hall there is a specially decorated burial chamber where Apollophanes was buried. The entire cave was decorated with dozens of magnificent wall paintings of realistic and mythological animals. In addition, several inscriptions in Greek were discovered, one of which reveals a love story that could become a good script for a modern telenovela.
In the middle hall there are 7 cells, seven on each side. Two tall black urns were drawn. The urns are similar to the urns in which the Greeks used to bury the remains of their dead. In this tomb there are thirty inscriptions, all in Greek.
Here Apollophanes son of Sesmaeus who lived for 74 years and for 33 years was buried here. He was the head of the Sidonians in Maresha. Many of his family members were also buried in the tomb. Usually, the names of the fathers are mainly Sidonians, and the names of the sons are Greek, which indicates the Greekness of the Sidonians. For example, names such as Apollophanes son of Sesmaeus or Demetrius son of Marbaal, meaning that the father has a Sidonian name while the son has a Greek name. Even among the Edomites we see an Edomite name in the first generation and a Greek name in the second generation.
Maresha tombs are similar to Phoenician tombs from the Hellenistic period. The color paintings use a mixture of religious elements such as the Syrian eagle with Greek elements related to burial.
We completed our visit to the Sidonial burial caves, and as usual I have a question for you. In the 9th century BC, an alliance was made between the Kingdom of Israel and Sidon. How was this alliance expressed? The answer will appear at the end of the video.
