Could it still be there?
Another reason they doubt the authenticity of the Edicule is that, given how the church had been destroyed and altered several times, it was highly unlikely that the burial site had remained in the same location.
Given the number of times the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been attacked and damaged, some historians believe the Edicule has long been destroyed. These events would have been impossible to avoid for the Edicule.
An earlier discovery
There had been several archaeological attempts at the church prior to the 2016 excavation team. The first was led by Virgilio Canio Corbo, a Franciscan priest and archaeologist, in the 1970s.
The researchers were able to deduce from their excavation that the church’s structure was built to conceal the ruling religion prior to Christianity. The burial site discovered by Helena and Eusebius was converted into a temple for the Roman god Jupiter or the goddess Venus.
The site is Constantine’s church
Emperor Hadrian built the temple centuries before. Corbo believes that the church’s enclosure should be located in the same location as the temple’s enclosure. If this is true, the Edicule has not been altered or transferred since 2 CE.
Additional excavations in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the twentieth century revealed the presence of several rock tombs. An ancient limestone quarry, thought to be from Constantine’s church, was also discovered. And the discovery backed up the Bible’s description of Jesus’ tomb.
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