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JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—The Guardian reports that Israel Antiquities Authority researchers working at a burial cave in south-central Israel's Tel Lachish national park have found fifth-century inscriptions in Greek and Syriac dedicating the site to Salome, a woman who assisted at the birth of Jesus according to the traditions of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Outside the cave, archaeologists uncovered a colonnaded forecourt covering about 3,750 square feet, and evidence of shops that sold clay lamps to pilgrims into the ninth century, some 200 years after the Muslim conquest of the region. To read about a mosque and other Islamic-style buildings unearthed in Israel's Negev Desert, go to "Side by Side."
