The Painted Tomb at Ḥanita

The painted tomb discovered near Kibbutz Ḥanita features a pictorial programme that reflects the funerary customs in the region and around the Mediterranean basin. It comprises common elements such as vine trellises populated by birds (doves, flightless birds and two peacocks) pecking at grapes, and wreaths. Its decoration also features several unique objects, rarely found in painted tombs, such as a rhyton or cornucopia, an isolated amphora and a chequered board. Three clay coffins were found in the kochim of the tomb. Stylistic considerations and the coffins suggest the tomb dates from the second half of the 3rd to the beginning of the 4th century CE. In view of the lack of any specific religious imagery and the particular historical circumstances of the time, it seems to have belonged to a pagan patron.