A mosaic depicting Jesus Christ. Photo: Andreas Wahra via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Ahead of Easter, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has opened up a 54,000-square-foot warehouse dubbed the “Ali Baba cave,” filled with ancient artifacts that date back to the time of Jesus Christ.

Among the artifacts contained in the warehouse is a replica of a pierced heel bone from a victim of Roman crucifixion and an ancient burial box inscribed with Jesus’s Hebrew name, “Yeshua.”

Archaeologists stated that approximately 30 such burial boxes inscribed with that name have been discovered in Israel, clarifying that “Jesus was a common name in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago.”

The IAA has stated that direct archaeological proof of Jesus Christ has yet to be found, but that the artifacts contained in the large storeroom offer clues that help historians’ understand what was happening around the time he is said to have been present in the region.

Israeli scholar of Christianity Yisca Harani called the lack of physical proof of Jesus a “trivial mystery,” the Associated Press reported. Harani asked, “Why do we expect in antiquity that there would be some evidence of his existence?”