Workers remove a marble slab covering the original stone burial bed where Jesus Christ is said to have been laid to rest after being crucified. A layer of loose fill material is seen beneath. (Photo : Dusan Vranic/National Geographic)
A stone burial bed on which the body of Jesus Christ was laid after his death on the cross in 29-36 AD/CE has again seen the light of Jerusalem's day after close to 2,000 years.
The original surface of the burial bed inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem has been covered by marble cladding since 1555 AD. Described as a slab of limestone in the Bible, the burial bed was uncovered during restoration work at the church.
The ancient chamber that held Jesus' tomb is called the Holy Edicule. When the marble cover of the burial bed inside the Edicule was removed, experts were astonished by the large amount of fill material beneath the covering. A team of experts began renovating the church and the Holy Edicule last June.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, or the Church of the Resurrection, has long been considered by Christians as the place where Christ was buried before his ascension into heaven.
The church was built directly over the cave where Jesus was said to have been buried. Another wing is located over the site where Christ is said to have been crucified. The church was built by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine in 325 AD.
"It will be a long scientific analysis, but we will finally be able to see the original rock surface on which, according to tradition, the body of Christ was laid," said Fredrik Hiebert, archaeologist-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, and a researcher on the restoration project.
Christians believe Christ resurrected and ascended into heaven following his death. Women, among them Mary Magdalene (who is believed by some to be Christ's wife) came to anoint his body three days after the burial and reported that Jesus' remains had vanished.
The exposure of the burial bed will allow researchers to answer questions about the original form of the tomb, said Antonia Moropoulou, of the National Technical University of Athens, who is supervising the restoration.
"We are at the critical moment for rehabilitating the Edicule," said Moropoulou.
"The techniques we're using to document this unique monument will enable the world to study our findings as if they themselves were in the tomb of Christ."
During a conservation project to bolster the shrine surrounding the tomb, a team from the National Technical University of Athens in Greece realized they would need to access the substructure of the shrine to restore it
"The Greek conservation group are the first, as far as we know, to actually open this," said Hiebert. "It's pretty exceptional."
In 326, Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome sent his mother, Helena, to Jerusalem to locate Christ's burial place. Locals singled out one cave among that was said to hold the tomb of Christ.
Constantine built a shrine over the cave. The top of the cave was removed so pilgrims could look down and view the slab where Christ's' body was said to have rested. This shrine is now known as the Holy Edicule.
There still rages a historical debate if there ever was a real person named Jesus Christ. To some scholars, Christ was nothing more than a literary construct.
