Feb. 26, 2007 — - In late 1982 Tova Bracha’s family moved into a modest apartment in a cluster of cookie-cutter housing units in Talpiyot, a Jerusalem neighborhood. It’s a place better known for its body shops and illicit casinos than earth-shattering archaeological finds.

A few days later her children were playing in the construction debris downstairs, and rediscovered what James Cameron’s new documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Christ” says is the tomb of Jesus and his family.

The kids wiggled into the tomb and found burnt Torah scrolls and 10 small caskets bearing the 2000-year-old bones of an ancient Jewish family. Six of them had inscriptions bearing the names: Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Greek version of Mary Magdalene.

Tova Bracha immediately phoned the archaeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority. They sealed the tomb and studied the bones. For years it was just another of the many tombs of ancient middle class families that lived roughly in the time of Jesus.

Archaeologist: More Than 900 Tombs Like This One

Two years earlier Israeli archaeologist Professor Amos Kloner was the first to find the tomb. He found the tomb and the ossuaries — the urns or vaults used to hold the bones of the dead — interesting, but of no particular archaeological importance. He says there are more than 900 buried tombs just like the “Jesus” tomb within a two-mile radius of Talpiyot. Of them, 71 bear the name Jesus and two Jesus, son of Joseph. The tomb in Talpiyot is one of them. But the inscription, he says, was barely decipherable and therefore questionable.

Feb. 26, 2007 — - In late 1982 Tova Bracha’s family moved into a modest apartment in a cluster of cookie-cutter housing units in Talpiyot, a Jerusalem neighborhood. It’s a place better known for its body shops and illicit casinos than earth-shattering archaeological finds.

A few days later her children were playing in the construction debris downstairs, and rediscovered what James Cameron’s new documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Christ” says is the tomb of Jesus and his family.

The kids wiggled into the tomb and found burnt Torah scrolls and 10 small caskets bearing the 2000-year-old bones of an ancient Jewish family. Six of them had inscriptions bearing the names: Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Greek version of Mary Magdalene.

Tova Bracha immediately phoned the archaeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority. They sealed the tomb and studied the bones. For years it was just another of the many tombs of ancient middle class families that lived roughly in the time of Jesus.

Archaeologist: More Than 900 Tombs Like This One

Two years earlier Israeli archaeologist Professor Amos Kloner was the first to find the tomb. He found the tomb and the ossuaries — the urns or vaults used to hold the bones of the dead — interesting, but of no particular archaeological importance. He says there are more than 900 buried tombs just like the “Jesus” tomb within a two-mile radius of Talpiyot. Of them, 71 bear the name Jesus and two Jesus, son of Joseph. The tomb in Talpiyot is one of them. But the inscription, he says, was barely decipherable and therefore questionable. http://abcnews.go.com

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