Israelis set out to map vast, politically sensitive Mount of Olives necropolis

Washington Post ^ | 11-17-11

[SJackson]

JERUSALEM — A Jewish group in Jerusalem is using 21st-century technology to map every tombstone in the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives, a sprawling, politically sensitive necropolis of 150,000 graves stretching back three millennia.

The goal is to photograph every grave, map it digitally, record every name, and make the information available online. That is supposed to allow visitors to find their way in the cemetery, long a bewildering jumble of crumbling gravestones and rubble surrounded by Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. Beset for many years by neglect, it is among the oldest cemeteries in continuous use in the world.

Around 40,000 graves have been mapped so far by the team, which began work in 2008. They expect to finish recording all of the intact gravestones — an estimated 100,000 in total — by the end of next year. The rest are either so old they are unrecognizable or lie underneath later layers of burial.

Mappers look at aerial photographs, consult handwritten burial records dating back to the mid-1800s, walk along the rows of graves and dig through piles of dislocated tombstones, noting names and dates.

[musicman]

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[goldstategop]

The Mount Of Olives cemetery is the oldest Jewish resting place in the world. It goes back millenia. A tradition has it when the Messiah arrives, the first resurrection of the dead will happen from there.

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

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..................

Politically sensitive to the Washington Post because Jews are buried there for three millenia, Christians for two, and a certain religion of peace would deny those facts. Why that's politically sensitive is beyond me. I know who flew planes into the Trade Center and the Pentagon. Acnowledging that fact isn't politically sensitive, why is the fact of who is buried on the Mount of Olives a political issue.

[Repeal The 17th]

[wizr]

Thank you for this post.

[BusterBear]

“Why is the fact of who is buried on the Mount of Olives a political issue?”

Because if Jews are discovered to be buried there, that will undermine the Palestinian position that Jews were never in Israel, and the Palestinian leadership and their foreign supporters won’t like that.

[Verginius Rufus]

When they get back to 3000-year-old graves, it may be hard to tell which ones are Jebusites and which ones are Israelites. The blind and the lame, those will be Jebusite.

[RedMDer]

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Freepers! Where is the GREEN! Come on! Day 48 of the Freepathon and only 44 days until the start of the next. What will you do and where will you post if it goes? Click here or mail checks to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

[SunkenCiv]

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[bert]

“yes, well I don’t think it ever occurred to me. You know growing up, in school, paling around. It just didn’t seem clear at the time that I would grow up to be a grave mapper.”