Tomb said to be Herod’s wife’s

An Israeli archaeologist said this week that he had unearthed what he believed were the 2,000-year-old remains of two tombs that had held a wife and daughter-in-law of the biblical King Herod.

Findings by Ehud Netzer of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, announced Wednesday, also provided new evidence of the lavish lifestyle of the Roman-anointed monarch known as the King of the Jews.

Herod, who ruled Judea from 37 BC until his death in 4 BC, rebuilt the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

Netzer showed reporters portions of two limestone sarcophagi he said had contained remains of one of Herod’s wives, Malthace, and a daughter-in-law.

He said the findings supported his claims that a sarcophagus he found at the site in 2007 had been Herod’s tomb. Some experts said then that the evidence seemed inconclusive.

Based on the additional sarcophagi he has found, and despite the absence of any inscriptions or documentation by the ancient Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, Netzer said: “I would eat my hat if it were someone else’s tomb.”

At the dig site in Herodium, outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, Netzer showed reporters evidence of what he said was a mausoleum where the remains of the sarcophagi had been found.

Netzer said the remains of the monarch and his relatives probably disappeared when their tombs were smashed, possibly by Jews rebelling against the Romans from AD 66 to 72.