The tomb of King Herod, who ruled around the time of the birth of Christ, might have been found by a team of Israeli archaeologists in a hillside in the Judean desert.

“It is something very special,” the head of the Hebrew University archaeological team, who announced the discovery yesterday, Ehud Netzer, said.

Mr. Netzer, whose 35-year hunt for the tomb began in 1972, is convinced that he has found it at last. But his team found no trace of human remains or of the golden crown, scepter, and jewels that Roman historians describe Herod being interred with 2,000 years ago.

Instead, they found stone shards from what they believe was his sarcophagus, each decorated with the royal rosette emblem.

Herod’s tomb had become a mystery because while he was known to have been buried at Herodium, a man-made hill crowned by a palace, the exact location of the burial site was lost. Archaeologists had spent years scouring Herodium, near the West Bank town of Hebron, using clues left by Roman historians. But they focused their search on the extensive royal buildings at the foot of the hill.