Archaeological findings on the life of Mary of Nazareth

For centuries, the memory of Mother of Jesus was passed down solely through the Gospels and the earliest Christian pilgrims. Today, excavations in Nazareth, Jerusalem, and sites in Galilee allow these written testimonies to be crossed with concrete historical data from the soil: behind the written sources lies a precise historical context. This article explores the main archaeological findings that shed light on Mary’s life, from the place of her birth to the family and religious environment in which she grew up.The question of Mary’s place of birth is inseparable from the critique of sources: the texts point to Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem as distinct possibilities. Bethlehem is a doctrinal assumption that made the Virgin a member of the House of David, without direct stratigraphic support. The tradition of Jerusalem, supported by the Protoevangelium of James (2nd century) and the monumental memory of the earliest pilgrims at the Door of Judgment, proves to be the most consistent. It is in Jerusalem that the oldest topographical memory of the birth of the Mother of God has been preserved.The Jerusalem tradition: the Door of Judgment, the Pool of Bethesda, and Mary’s birth in JerusalemNear the Door of Judgment, in the Valley of Hinnom, during the time of the Macabees, a twin trapezoidal pool was constructed, with an eastern establishment called Bezeta. Access to it was through a channel that emptied into a natural cave. To the northeast was a central cistern surrounded by baths, painted rooms, and, apparently, a dwelling with caves, now under the absides of the Crusader church of Saint Anne. This environment was frequented by the sick (John 5:3) and by superstitious women seeking fertility. Solomon was invoked as the great healer in all Palestinian thermal sources. White magic was practiced with the King’s ring, his medals representing the triad of health, i.e., the holy knight who pierces Lilith and the Archangel Rafael who protects him, and his seal. Despite the rabbinic controversy against this cult, Essenes and therapists practiced it. The ritual later converged in the “Testament of Solomon” of the 3rd century, published by Jewish-Christians, who made it their own.In the Protoevangelium of James, Chapter VI, we read that Anne was healed of infertility, merited by some hidden sin, upon visiting the Pool and gave birth to Mary. This one lived in her little room, transformed into a domus ecclesia, still located in the Grotto beneath the choir of the Crusader church, dating back to the 1st century. The “Infancy Gospel” of Pseudo-Matthew in the 4th-5th centuries supposes that Anne had a house in the mentioned area. The Copper Roll of Qumran attests that near the Pool there were some hiding places for Essene treasures, with a statement that is symbolic for some and real for others, and a residential structure, likely connected to the neighborhood where the Virgin’s family lived.With the destruction of Jerusalem in 70, the establishment was destroyed, but the cult continued to be practiced. The name of the Pool changed to Bet Hesdatain, popularly known as Bet Hesda, the House of Mercy, and the cult became syncretistic from 135, with pagan constructions erected by Hadrian (117-138) precisely to erase the Jewish-Christian memory. The Solomonic cult was inherited by the Virgin’s Relatives, who Christianized it, replacing the Jewish Messiah with Solomon and the Angel, to whom He is superior (Mt 12:42b, Jn 5:1-9): on medals, her bust appeared alongside the knight with a crossed lance or in Christian attitudes. Mary, no longer the object of miracles, was associated with the curative Son. Lilith was replaced by various little demons. The Angel of God was accompanied by several other health angels. The ceremonies were celebrated in the visible constructions to the east after excavations near the North Pool: cisterns, a wide room with floral cross mosaics, symbolic flowers and fruits, the base of a probable altar, and built-in cabinets on the wall, as well as a grotto carved in the rock, 10 meters long and 2.50 meters wide.Regarding the pagan Hadrianic cult, it centered on the Serapeum built on the site, following the model of many similar structures scattered throughout the Empire. It was a square complex, later dismantled by the Byzantines, east of the transverse porch and the large southern tank. Within it were adapted cisterns, carved galleries in the rock, a large building yet to be fully excavated, and a fane with remains of sacrifices. This complex housed a Serapis, now in fragments, revered in the naos of the establishment, that is, the original natural grotto. A woman undressing and another lying on a couch, leaning under a blessing hand. Two cargo ships harmonizing with the cult of Isis. Two votive feet. The site was dedicated to the pagan triad of health, consisting of Serapis/Asclepius, Isis/Hygiea, Harpoکرates/Telesphor, intended to supplant the Jewish and Judeo-Christian triads. In honor of this, black magic, astrology, lunar calendars, and hydromancy were practiced.Constantine (306-337) proscribed pagan black magic in 319, but tolerated white magic among Judeo-Christians. The Great Church, however, polemicized against both pagan and Judeo-Christian cults, ordering first the dismantling of the Hadrianic building and then the Judeo-Christian building in the first quarter of the 5th century. They were replaced by the great Basilica of the Paralytic, recently rediscovered, and by that of Saint Mary, whose lateral naves exceeded the limits of the fifth porch of the Pool, supported on columns sinking into the tanks, clearly identifying with the buildings and grottos discovered under the crypt of the Crusader church. The hydrias and the Solomon’s ring were transported and venerated in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.John Damascene was the first to clearly speak, in the 7th century, of the House where Mary was born, near the Pool of Bethesda. But already in 530, Theodosius had made reference to a church dedicated to the Virgin at that site. During the Crusades, the two tanks of the Pool were filled and the Church of Saint Mary was transformed into a monastery, while a little further east, the Church of the Holy Cross of Sant’Ana was built, which, as mentioned, preserves under it the House of the Virgin.Connected to this memory is also the tradition of the education of the Virgin in the Temple. The Protoevangelium of James, as we have seen, attests to the consecration of Mary as a child and her life in the sacred place in the College of the Weaving Virgins. The veracity of what is extracted from ancient accounts has been confirmed by D. Flusser and S. Safrai. Justinian, at the site believed to be where the Virgin was educated, built the Basilica called Néa, later destroyed by the Persians in 614. Excavations have allowed us to pinpoint that the building, measuring eighty-two by sixty-five meters, with an inn added and other dependencies, was one of the most important of the Byzantine era in Palestine.Excavations in Nazareth: Bellarmino Bagatti, the House of the Annunciation, and Jewish-Galilean RemainsMoving on to the accounts in the Gospels, we now turn to Nazareth. The very city is an archaeological discovery, as its existence was long questioned. In the time of Jesus, Nazareth was a very small village, with a maximum population of one hundred and fifty people, at the foot of the hills in Lower Galilee. It had never been mentioned in the Bible before. The inhabitants were all descendants of David (1000-961 BCE) and called themselves Nazarenes (Ναζωραίοι, ןידצןנ), fulfilling Isaiah 1:1, which states that a shoot (nezer רצנ) will spring from the stem of Jesse. Davidic descendants returned to Palestine in waves starting from 520 BCE with Zerubbabel, followed by Ezra in 457 BCE and continuing until the 2nd century BCE. It was precisely at the end of this period that Nazareth was repopulated, and its original name is unknown, as it had been abandoned in 733 BCE during the Assyrian invasion. The immigrants came from Babylon. They took advantage of the Hasmonean conquest of Galilee to make a mass exodus. Actual excavations show a continuity of settlement from that time. Davidic clans who arrived from Babylon during the Hasmonean independence settled first in Batanea (or Bashan) before moving to Nazareth. Julius Africanus (c. 220 CE), from Emmaus, informs us that Davidic descendants lived in villages with messianic names, such as Nazareth (“village of the shoot”) and Kochaba (“village of the star”). Two villages, one north of Nazareth and one in Bashan, bore the latter name. The same author tells us that the Davidic clans preserved their genealogies. They eagerly awaited the coming of the Messiah from their ranks. Joseph, from Bethlehem and still living there (as demonstrated by his journey to be enrolled in that city and not in Nazareth), and Mary were therefore Nazarenes. The Davidic clans had a strong sense of their own royalty, though decadent: proof of this is that the constructions in Nazareth had a relatively close necropolis, in violation of traditional purity rules, as the Talmud attests, as they could be disregarded for royal tombs. These tombs, in some cases, were of refined Roman craftsmanship.In Nazareth, the tradition of the House of Mary, where the Annunciation took place, attested by the Gospel of Luke (1:26-38) and preserved by the “Relatives of the Virgin,” was confirmed by excavations conducted between 1950 and 1960. The cult began with a domus ecclesia, which included the remains of a house, i.e., caves, silos, tanks, original staircases, all embellished in the first two centuries with paintings, graffiti, and mosaics. In the 2nd century, everything became a baptismal environment. A fragment of a Targum of Isaiah 55:1-3, paleographically dated to this period, attests to the cult of the “well of Mary,” from which flowed the salutary stream of the Word Incarnate. In the 3rd century, the Nazarenes built a Jewish-Christian synagogue over the domus ecclesia, of which the southern wall and the beginning of the eastern wall, oriented towards the north to encompass the carved rock of the traditional cave, remain. In the fill, several architectural elements were preserved, such as brackets, cornices, arches, capitals, bases with grooves for transepts, bases of altar columns, Marian symbols, and graffiti, among which stand out the inscriptions “XĒ MAPIA” and of a pilgrim who claims to have written her name under the “holy place of M” and to have venerated her image.Around 430, the Byzantines arrived in Nazareth and, probably with the support of the Emperor, seized the synagogue of the Jewish-Christians, demolished it, and replaced it with their Basilica. The old construction elements served as the foundation for this new structure. The sacred caves were preserved. The southern wall was used as a stylobate after being cut off. The apse was placed to the east, and two naves were built, incorporating the traditional cave into the northern nave. This Basilica was visited by pilgrims as the House of Mary transformed into a church, from the Anonymous of Piacenza to Arculf and Bede the Venerable, among others. A significant fact is that the foundations of this House of Mary, where the Annunciation is presumed to have taken place, correspond perfectly to the walls preserved at the Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto. In Nazareth, Epiphanius of Salamis tells us about the House of Joseph, the place where Jesus was raised. The tradition was passed down by the “Relatives of Joseph,” who vigorously defended their right of ownership over the site, preventing for centuries access by Christian converts from other origins. Only in 670 did Arculf manage to visit it and describe it as a partially built structure on arches, with a well and a “very bright” cave in the crypt, as an Anonymous quoted by Peter the Deacon put it, and an entire baptismal environment according to the Jewish-Christian ritual. Excavations in 1970, directed by Bellarmino Bagatti, confirmed the traditional news and dated the environment to the 1st century. This is the residence where Jesus spent his hidden life with Mary and Joseph.

Ain Karem and Zaccharias’ House: The 1973 Excavations and the Jewish-Christian Memory of Elizabeth and John the Baptist

Following the narrative thread of the Gospel events, we consider ‘Ain Karem, the site of John the Baptist’s birth, visited by Mary, as attested by Luke (1:39-56). The facts recounted in the Gospel and the Protoevangelium of James are set in the Judean region known as Orini, a mountainous triangle between Jerusalem and the wadi of es-Sarar and es-Sikka, with ‘Ain Karem at its center. It was a virgin and hospitable region, where Elizabeth had a retreat house halfway up the slope, where she hid for five months to thank God for freeing her from infertility (Lk 1:25). She also had a grotto, which in the Protoevangelium (22:3) miraculously opened to shelter Elizabeth and John, pursued by Herod’s soldiers (37-4 BC) during the Massacre of the Innocents. At the foot of the mountain stood Zacharias’ house, where Mary arrived to visit her cousin. These sites have been archeologically identified.In 1973, Father Bagatti, under the crypt of the modern Church of the Visitation, discovered a Roman house, with a press, a well carved into the rock, Hellenistic tombs, various Roman coins from the times of Nero to Constantine, and much Roman pottery. The well is located in the grotto that would have illuminated itself to provide refuge for the fugitives. Occasional excavations in 1885 and then systematic ones from 1941-1942, directed by S. Saller in the traditional House of Zacharias, revealed a domus ecclesia, located in a grotto, the traditional site of John the Baptist’s birth, and several accessories of a Roman house, under the current porch, such as a press, cisterns, and Roman tombs, including a double one.These places were sacralized by the Jewish-Christian commemoration of Elizabeth, John, and Mary, united in a true cultic triad. Further proof is given by the usual Adrianian profanation, which replaced the three Christian figures with other pagan figures linked by equally strong ties, namely Smyrna, Adonis, and Venus Pudica. Smyrna, conceiving irregularly a son, seeks refuge in Venus’s garden, remaining for five months behind a myrrh tree that sheds bitter tears. Protected by Venus Genitrix, she gives birth to Adonis, whom Proserpina seeks to kill using a boar. Between Venus and Proserpina, however, a compromise is reached: Adonis will spend the winter in the underworld and the rest of the year with the Goddess of Love, who laments his absence. During these laments, for three days, the Adonisias are celebrated: on the first day, the garden in Adonis’s house blooms and is then thrown into a cistern with pieces of the god’s statue. On the second day, the members torn from the god and his decapitated head are expected in Adonis’s grotto, while the Maenads, near the simulacrum of Venus Pudica, perform their laments. On the third day, everyone goes to the apotheosis courtyard and celebrates the resurrection of the god of vegetation.In light of this cult, in which the New Testament narrative is consciously and evidently transfigured and contaminated in a polemical sense, Hadrian planted a sacred grove in Orini, built the Adonis House, dug the double grotto, and erected the apotheosis courtyard on the ancient walls of the accessories of Zacharias’s house. Indeed, Father Saller found there numerous Roman elements, dated from the 3rd and 4th centuries, adapted remains from Hadrian’s work.Constantine destroyed the pagan buildings, and thus the cultic motifs of the Jewish-Christians came to the forefront once more: on Mount Orini, the forests of Venus and Proserpina were eradicated, and Elizabeth’s country house was restored. The grotto was covered with stones, painted, and filled with graffiti. The well was regularized with masonry and connected to a cistern outside the crypt by a channel. In front of the grotto, to preserve the Roman house, a small church was built to venerate the stone called the Hiding Place, which reminded of the Rock of Refuge, from which praises and earth for blessings were obtained.In the place where stood the house of Zacharias, the house of Adonis and his grove, all was completely destroyed. In its place grew the Garden of John, which “grows everywhere he baptizes,” as the happy phrase of Enon of Scitopolis in the citation of Etrianus attests. In the funeral chamber of Adonis, in his grotto and in the courtyard of his apotheosis, two chapels were built, one dedicated to the Martyrs, with a magnificent mosaic honoring the Head of the Baptist, and another to the south, enriched with mosaics depicting glorification symbols. There, three Masses were celebrated in honor of John and Mary, the fertility bringer of crops, seeds, and vines. Thus, a definitive reversal took place: Smyrna was supplanted by Elizabeth, Adonis by John, and Venus by Mary. This occurred in the very place where Mary visited her cousin and stayed with her until her delivery.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.To delve deeper into the historical and theological reflection on Mary of Nazareth, refer to the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.