(RoyalPatriot.com )- Last month, Israeli archeologists announced a “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery of a burial cave dating back to the time of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II which they said, “looks like an Indiana Jones film set.”
The cave, filled with dozens of pottery pieces and bronze artifacts, was uncovered on a popular beach in central Israel when a mechanical digger working at the Palmahim national park hit the roof. Archeologists then used ladders to enter the man-made cave for the first time in over three thousand years.
A video released by the Israel Antiquities Authority shows the archeologists shining flashlights on dozens of pottery vessels dating back to Rameses II, who died in 1213 BC.
The archeologists said the “astonishing place” looked “frozen in time.”
In the cave, they found bowls painted red and containing bones, chalices, cooking pots, lamps, and storage jars, as well as bronze arrowheads and spearheads, all untouched since being placed there over 3,000 years ago.
All of the objects were burial offerings placed in the grave to accompany the dead on their final journey to the afterlife.
Archeologists found at least one relatively intact skeleton contained in two rectangular plots in the corner of the cave.
According to Eli Yannai, a Bronze age expert from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, the cave appears to provide a “complete picture of the Late Bronze Age funerary customs.” Yannai said such finds are “extremely rare,” describing it as a “once-in-a-lifetime discovery” as the cave had remained sealed until it was uncovered.
Rameses II controlled Canaan, a territory that included modern-day Israel and the Palestinian territories.
According to Yannai, the fact that the pottery found in the cave originated from Cyprus, Lebanon, northern Syria, Gaza, and Jaffa, is a testimony of the “lively trading activity that took place along the coast” of the Mediterranean.
