Cave may yield clues to John the Baptist

''John the Baptist, who was just a figure from the Gospels, now comes to life," British archeologist Shimon Gibson said during an exclusive tour of the cave given to The Associated Press.

But some scholars said Gibson's finds aren't enough to support his theory, and one colleague said that short of an inscription with John's name in the cave, there could never be conclusive proof of his presence there.

John, a distant relative of Jesus -- their mothers were kin, according to the Bible -- was a fiery preacher with a message of repentance and a considerable following.

Tradition says he was born in the village of Ein Kerem, which today is part of modern Jerusalem.

Just 2 miles away, on the land of Kibbutz Tzuba, a communal farm, the cave lies hidden in a limestone hill -- 24 yards long, 4 yards deep, and 4 yards wide.

It was carved by the Israelites in the Iron Age, sometime between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C, the scientists said. It apparently was used from the start as a ritual immersion pool, preceding the Jewish tradition of the ritual bath.

Over the centuries, the cave filled with mud and sediment, leaving a tiny opening that was hidden by trees and bushes.

Yet in recent years, it had occasional visitors -- Reuven Kalifon, an immigrant from Cleveland who teaches Hebrew at the kibbutz, took his students spelunking.

They would crawl through the narrow slit at the mouth of the cave, all the way to the back wall, although they saw nothing but dirt and walls.

In December 1999, Kalifon asked Gibson, a friend, to take a closer look. Gibson, who has excavated in the Holy Land for more than 30 years, moved a few boulders near the walls and laid bare a crude carving of a head. Excited, he organized a full-fledged excavation.

Over the next five years, Gibson and his team, including volunteers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, cleared out layers of soil, picking up about 250,000 shards from small jugs apparently used in purification rituals.