[Avodah] Pinui kevarim

[Shoshana L. Boublil]

> Not that I think this is the issue here, as we have an existing, built
> hospital, but there are even more gradations than you are suggesting.
> In any form of public road planning and building there is the stage of
> proposal of the location (the first stage).  Once that is determined,
> then there is the stage of acquiring and building (a second stage), and
> then there is the stage of already built (the third stage).  A halacha
> that allowed  Mefanin et hakever l'aasot derech larabim would clearly
> permit even the first stage.

I don't know how roads were made in Chazal's day, but this division into
stages seems artificial.  In fact I think the usual way roads came about
in those days was not through planning at all, but by public usage.
People simply started going a particular way, over hefker land or over
private land whose owner failed to protest and thus forfeited his rights,
and thus it could easily happen that nobody realised there was a grave
nearby until after the road was long-established and it was too late to
move it.  
================================

The matter of roads in the time of Chazal is far more complex.  There were
two types of roads: the 1st type are planned roads, national/international
roads build by various kings for the purpose of moving troops during
conquest (which happened a  lot at the time).

The 2nd type is indeed roads built by people's feet - or as brought in the
midrash IIRC about a child who talks to an adult about a road - and the
child notes that many "thieves" such as you have "built" this road... Of
course, not every such road took over private land.

BTW, I found an interesting reference to the fact that the Assyrians (Ashur)
used to pile bodies next to public roads as a warning/testament to their
prowess.

So, to summarize, there are many different means by which a kever can be
discovered by a road, pre-building, during building or after building the
road.

Shoshana L. Boublil