Editing Akeldama (section)

==The Akeldama tombs==
One of Jerusalem's main cemeteries during the [[Second Temple period]] is a burial complex carved into dense limestone bedrock of a steep slope descending into the meeting point of the Hinnom and Kidron Valleys, 90 meters east of the monastery wall.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baruch |first1=Yuval  |last2=Wiegmann |first2=Alexander  |date=2013 |title=New Discoveries Concerning Jewish Burial Caves from the Second Temple Period in Jerusalem |journal=Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=429–451 |doi=10.1628/219222713X13874428011246}}</ref> They were first systematically studied in 1901.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Macalister |first1=RA Stewart|date=1901 |title=The Rock-Cut Tombs in Wady er-Rababi, Jerusalem |journal=[[Palestine Exploration Quarterly]] |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=145–158 |doi=10.1179/peq.1901.33.2.145 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2217077}}</ref> In 1989 a construction project was halted when bulldozers revealed the presence of burial caves cut into the rocks; construction was halted, and the [[Israel Antiquities Authority]] allowed archaeologists to investigate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Avni |first1=Gideon |last2=Greenhut |first2= Zvi |date=1996  |title=The Akeldama tombs: three burial caves in the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem |url=http://www.centuryone.com/9789654060189.html |publisher=[[Israel Antiquities Authority]] |pages=129 |isbn=9789654060189}}</ref><ref>[http://www.antiquities.org.il/site_Item_eng.asp?id=168 Akeldama], Israel Antiquities Authority website, accessed 25 September 2018</ref>

The ''Tomb of the Shroud'' in Akeldama is "one of very few examples of a preserved shrouded human burial" dating to the first century, with the bone samples yielding evidence of the pathogens ''[[Mycobacterium tuberculosis]]'' and ''[[Mycobacterium leprae]]'', the latter being "the earliest case of leprosy with a confirmed date in which ''M. leprae'' DNA was detected".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Matheson |first1=Carney D.  |last2=Vernon |first2=Kim K.  |date=2009 |title=Molecular Exploration of the First-Century Tomb of the Shroud in Akeldama, Jerusalem |journal=[[PLoS One]] |volume=4 |issue=12 |pages=e8319 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0008319 |pmid=20016819 |pmc=2789407 |bibcode=2009PLoSO...4.8319M |doi-access=free }}</ref>