JEWISH NECROPOLIS
On Cano y Cueto street, the area outside the walls of the medieval city, stood the Jewish necropolis which covered a large zone. This can be surmised from the findings of tombs during different excavations carried out to construct the car park on Cano y Cueto street and the Diputation building. Proof has also been found as far as Marqués de Estella street in the San Bernardo district, around 500 metres from the wall. The size of the necropolis illustrates the importance of the Jewish community in Seville.
The archaeological information has characterised a necropolis defined in two major stages, an initial one comprising family tombs in small concentrations under brick vaults and another stage, subsequent to the slaughter of 1391, of which there is little, much poorer evidence in simple graves.
When the Carne gate was fortified in 1843, manytombs were found there when excavating the moat which defended the fort, some of them still containing human bones
This evidence from the last two decades is not the only manifestation of the Jewish necropolis which did not occupy a uniform area, but rather comprised parcels surrounded by inhabited sites which until the 17th century had not begun to be urbanised.
In 1580 owing to the famine brought about by a major drought, some unfortunate and destitute people profaned some of the tombs on the outskirts of theCarne Gate. They destroyed and opened an indefinite number of them, finding bodies dressed in rich garments, jewels, gold and silver objects and a certain number of Jewish books, some of which ended up in the hands of Benito Arias Montano, saved in this way from the destruction and barbarity.
A deathinscription was also discovered, engraved on a piece of Roman column. This epitaph - which, after traipsing around Seville, ended up at the Archaeological Museum – belonged to a brilliant Sevillian of the 14th century called RabbiSalomón who was a doctor, astronomer and exegete of great worth who died in Seville in 1345.
The archaeological remains have been removed, except for a tomb conserved in the underground car park.
The archaeological information has characterised a necropolis defined in two major stages, an initial one comprising family tombs in small concentrations under brick vaults and another stage, subsequent to the slaughter of 1391, of which there is little, much poorer evidence in simple graves.
When the Carne gate was fortified in 1843, manytombs were found there when excavating the moat which defended the fort, some of them still containing human bones
This evidence from the last two decades is not the only manifestation of the Jewish necropolis which did not occupy a uniform area, but rather comprised parcels surrounded by inhabited sites which until the 17th century had not begun to be urbanised.
In 1580 owing to the famine brought about by a major drought, some unfortunate and destitute people profaned some of the tombs on the outskirts of theCarne Gate. They destroyed and opened an indefinite number of them, finding bodies dressed in rich garments, jewels, gold and silver objects and a certain number of Jewish books, some of which ended up in the hands of Benito Arias Montano, saved in this way from the destruction and barbarity.
A deathinscription was also discovered, engraved on a piece of Roman column. This epitaph - which, after traipsing around Seville, ended up at the Archaeological Museum – belonged to a brilliant Sevillian of the 14th century called RabbiSalomón who was a doctor, astronomer and exegete of great worth who died in Seville in 1345.
The archaeological remains have been removed, except for a tomb conserved in the underground car park.
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