as gray hill was abroad at the time, the groundskeeper reported the discovery to the british consul, john dickson, whose daughter gladys dickson, an amateur archaeologist, inspected the cave and its contents. they found seven ossuaries– six ordinary ones and one with a bilingual hebrew/greek inscription. the ossuaries were removed from the cave by the groundskeeper, and dickson was unable to ascertain their original position within. three days later, r. a. stewart macalister, excavating at tel gezer at the time, was forced back to jerusalem by a cholera outbreak and was able to inspect and authenticate the newly discovered cave and inscription, a photograph of which was presented to charles simon clermont-ganneau.