A stone slab decorated with a sword marks one of the thousands of Crusader-era burials recently discovered at the Athlit cemetery
The Athlit Cemetery, the largest known Crusader resting place in the Middle East, lies outside the 13th-century Knights Templar's Athlit Castle. Potsherds and coin finds date the numerous graves to the short period between 1218 and 1291. The deceased were almost certainly Europeans. They were primarily buried in shrouds and lowered into pits that then were covered with a lid anchored with stones, the common method in France in that period. Some may have been pilgrims who chose to be buried at Athlit, perhaps due to the proximity to relics in the castle’s chapel, as might be the case of a man in his 50s found with his arms folded over his chest and his hands in what may have been an attitude of prayer. Metal pieces found next to his skeleton likely were part of a staff, a common accessory for pilgrims and the first example found in the region.