bet ʾ avotam) in an effort to maintain contact with the place (e.g., Judg. For a long period of time, from the Patriarchs until the establishment of the monarchy, it was customary to bury the dead in a family plot (Heb. This identification of the patriarchal tomb with the Promised Land may be discerned in Nehemiah's remark to the Persian king from whom he requested permission to go to Palestine to rebuild its ruins: "… the place of my father's sepulchers lies waste…" (Neh. 24:32) must be seen as part of the process of Exodus from Egypt and the conquest and settlement of Palestine. Joseph's burial in Shechem in the land of his ancestors (Josh. Jacob's request that he be buried at this place rather than in Egypt may be understood against this background (Gen. Herein lies the importance of Abraham's purchase of a family tomb (Gen. A permanent grave site was purchased in the vicinity of the settlement which was a significant indication of permanent settlement. These wandering tribes did, however, continue the practice of burying various offerings together with their dead, as was customary from the Early Canaanite period on.ĭuring the time of the Patriarchs, when there was a change from tribal wanderings to permanent settlement, a new element was added to the burial customs. Such practices were employed in the great, powerful, and stable kingdoms and in Mesopotamia, though they were not found among the tribes who arrived in Palestine with the wave of ethnic wanderings, during the patriarchal period of the second millennium B.C.E. The monumental architecture of the Egyptian burial cities, the mummification of the kings, and the embalming of sacred animals, all developed around the Egyptian burial cult (Dawson, in bibl.). These customs accompanied the death of the king-gods, nobles, and upper classes. Burial customs were the most important aspect of the early Egyptian cultic practices. In a number of graves at Beth-Eglaim (Tell-ʿAjūl) horses are buried with their riders (Petrie, in bibl.). It was therefore customary to bury a nobleman's weapons and horse with him. During the Late Canaanite period, a man's war horse and chariot were symbolic of his noble status. Thus, during the Middle Canaanite period it was customary to "kill" the sword of the deceased after its owner's death by bending it and making it useless. Gifts given to the dead, either for their use or to propitiate them, were the items most highly prized by the person during his lifetime. For example, a platter with a lamb's head upon it has been found in a tomb at Afulah. It was thus customary to place offerings of food and drink in special vessels, which were then buried in the tomb together with the corpse. The dead and their departed spirits were thought of as powerful, incomprehensible forces threatening the living with a limitless capacity for harm or for good. Death was viewed as a transition to a different world, where life was continued. *Cemeteries of ossuaries were found mainly on the coastal strip of Ereẓ Israel. Sometimes human features were engraved on the front of the ossuary. In the Chalcolithic period it was customary to bury the bones in dry ossuaries after the flesh had disintegrated. In the Neolithic period, deceased tribal heads were regarded as family or tribal totems as attested by clay skulls, with human features, found at Jericho (Kenyon, in bibl.). Regular burial of the dead in tombs was customary even in prehistoric times as a manifestation of the beginnings of religious ritual, both among nomads and among settled peoples.
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