sentences:  It was not until Alexander Zaïd in 1936 discovered a "new" catacomb among the known burial caves in the hill directly below "Sheikh Abreiḳ" and brought it to the attention of British Mandate archaeologist Benjamin Mazar and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi that priority was given to the site, which discovery prompted seven seasons of systematic excavations at "Sheikh Abreiḳ" and its necropolis between the years 1936–1940, and 1956, under the direction of Prof. Benjamin Mazar on behalf of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, and again in the years 1953–1958 under Nahman Avigad.Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, looking at the evidence presented to him by Mazar, reached the conclusion that this was no ordinary find, but that it most certainly was the burial grounds of the Jewish Patriarchal family of the 2nd-century CE.Although historical geographer Samuel Klein had argued as early as 1913 that Beth-Shearim and Besara were to be recognised as one and the same place, an opinion followed by C.R.