1,700 years later: The exciting discovery under the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

For more than 1,700 years, millions of Christians around the world have believed that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem is the site where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. Now, with the completion of a comprehensive excavation project under the church floor, archaeologists are revealing fascinating findings that digitally and archaeologically reconstruct the ancient landscape of the site - and present an amazing match to the descriptions appearing in the Gospels.

The excavations, which began in March 2022 during restoration work on the church floor and were completed at the end of 2025, were summarized in a 98-page preliminary report published in the archaeological journal Liber Annuus of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem.

Archaeologist and head of the excavation team, Prof. Francesca Romana Stasolla, explained in an interview: "We have uncovered evidence of an ancient burial landscape, alongside small agricultural plots where vines and olive trees were grown, as well as a rural landscape with occasional human activity."

A garden, a quarry, and rock-cut tombs

According to the findings, the site where the church stands today began its journey as a huge stone quarry that operated outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem. After stone mining ceased, the deep areas of the quarry were covered with soil and divided by low stone fences into small agricultural plots. Archaeobotanical tests and pollen remains found at the site confirm that the area was used for agricultural cultivation and grazing.

"The botanical findings and pollen remains we uncovered allowed us to reconstruct a landscape suitable for grazing and small-scale agriculture, with natural vegetation used for foraging and grazing," explained Prof. Romana Stasolla. "This style of Mediterranean landscape was very common throughout the region, and it existed alongside the abandoned quarry area and the rock-cut burial caves."

At the same time, the exposed cliff face of the quarry served as a site for hewing family burial caves. The researchers found several rock-cut tombs that were built at different heights around the quarry and were connected by narrow paths that passed between the cultivation plots.

This picture matches almost one-to-one what is described in the Gospel of John (19:41): "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid." Furthermore, the geographical location outside the city walls but in close proximity to them also connects well to the Epistle to the Hebrews (13:12), which notes that Jesus suffered outside the city gate.

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From Emperor Hadrian to Constantine

The archaeological dating attributes the period of agricultural cultivation and burial to the time between the abandonment of the quarry and the rebuilding of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the second century AD - a time window that includes the days of Jesus. In the second century, Hadrian erected a Roman structure on the site that blocked access to the tomb and connected to the rock of Golgotha (Skull Hill, the traditional site of the crucifixion).

In 335 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine - who converted to Christianity - destroyed the Roman structures and exposed the rock-cut tomb. His workers hewed around the specific tomb preserved in tradition, isolated it from the other tombs in the area, and erected the structure of the first Church of the Holy Sepulchre around it. The believers' affinity for the exact location was so strong that the church architects deviated from the structural symmetry lines so as not to move the tomb from its place.

Not yet absolute proof

Despite the impressive physical and geographical match, the researchers clarify that the findings do not constitute absolute laboratory proof that the tomb belongs to Jesus or Joseph of Arimathea. No inscriptions bearing the name of Jesus were found at the site, and the plant remains have not yet undergone absolute carbon dating in a laboratory.

However, the findings indicate that the early Christian tradition preserved an extraordinary geographical accuracy of the area's landscape. "Archaeology testifies without a doubt to the durability over time of this tradition of memory," concludes Prof. Romana Stasolla. "The findings allow us to understand the physical context in which the Christian memory took shape and became established for generations."