The Tomb of Christ

What can we know of the tomb, its original form and the date of the rock-cut chamber at the heart of the present Edicule, and of the successive structures which have enclosed the tomb? Using written documents, the visual materials available, and the evidence of the present 1809-10 structure and what it can tell us about its predecessors, this book attempts to answer these questions and to establish the authenticity of the rock itself.

The rock-cut tomb lies in a structure known as the Edicule, itself inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the heart of Jerusalem. For more than ten years, Martin Biddle worked on the archaeological investigation of the tomb, the first since 1849. Precise recording in three dimensions, using photogrammary linked to a detailed descriptive database, enabled the structure of the tomb to be revealed as never before. After a brief description of the archaeological investigation, the book examines the evidence of the changing nature of the Edicule through its visual representations, dating from the fifth century onwards - ivory carvings, models in diverse materials, pilgrim flasks of silver and glass, rings, mosaics, censers and manuscript drawings. Written, and sometimes conflicting, sources in the Gospels and elsewhere for the siting of the tomb are then discussed. The heart of the book reviews the history of the tomb over the centuries in the light of these new discoveries, from the original construction of the Edicule by Constantine up to modern times.

BIDDLE is Astor Senior Research Fellow in Medieval Archaeology, Hertford College, Oxford, and the Director and Secretary of Winchester Excavations, which he co-founded in 1962. He has written and edited a number of books, including, with Frank Barlow, Wincheste