For the source text click/tap here: Bava Batra 101
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During the time of the Mishna, common burial practice was for families to arrange for burial caves. Every family would purchase a rocky area that they would dig out, creating an entrance area surrounded by a series of caves, one for each household in the family. In each cave, burial niches – called kukhin – were chiseled out of the rock.
Each of the kukhin would open into the cave, and the dead body would be placed in it after which the kukh would be sealed with rocks, plaster, etc.
The Mishna on our daf discusses the sale of an ordinary burial cave, which is meant to serve as a family burial plot or catacomb. The Tanna Kamma of the Mishna teaches that an ordinary cave must offer enough room to build a chamber of four amot wide by six amot long, with room for eight kukhin, three on either side and two opposite the entrance. Each of these kukhin must be four amot long, six tefaḥim wide and seven tefaḥim high.
We explore the world of catacombs in antiquity especially those under Herod’s Temple.