Biblical past unearthed in Holy Land construction

JERUSALEM, Nov 30 (Reuters) Building a housing complex or a road in the Holy Land can often have grave implications.

Ancient cemeteries, burial caves from biblical times and centuries-old artefacts have been unearthed during construction work in Israel over the years, forcing contractors by law to call in archaeologists and sometimes halt building projects.

In Holyland Park, a complex of apartments being built on a hill in Jerusalem, archaeologists will soon finish removing bones and other remnants from a field of 40 tombs estimated to be 3,700 years old.

Ianir Milevski, one of the leaders of the excavation, said the graves likely contained the bodies of dozens of Canaanites who lived in a nearby village during the Bronze age.

Across the road and on top of where their homes once stood, one of Israel's largest shopping malls does a brisk business.

''That was their village, and this is their graveyard,'' Milevski said. When the shopping mall was built ''we were able to learn how the Canaanites lived. Now, we can potentially learn how they died.'' Workers constructing the Holyland apartments were lucky -- Milevski spotted markings on the ground that led to the discovery of the graves before major foundations were laid.

Israeli law dictates such finds be preserved and Jewish remains salvaged for proper burial.

The solution was to build around the excavation, giving Milevski, colleague Zvi Greenhut and their team time to extract the remnants, which included human bones, skeletons of animals likely used as ''offerings'', beads, weapons and work tools.

Now that the graves have been extracted, more apartment buildings are set to be built over the site, which is pitted Swiss-cheese like with gaping holes.

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