All movable items convey tumah when they are as thick as a goad. R’ Tarfon said: ‘‘May I bury my children if this is not a mistaken ruling, which a listener heard and misunderstood. A farmer was once walking with his goad on his shoulder, when one end formed an ohel over a grave. [The Sages] declared him tamei because the uten-sils sheltered a corpse.’’ R’ Akiva said: ‘‘I will emend [the ruling] so that the words of the Sages remain valid. All movable objects convey tumah upon the person who carries them when they are as thick as a goad; upon themselves even if they are very thin; and upon an-other person or other utensils when they are a handbreadth wide.’’

How so? [If] a spindle was embedded in a wall and there is [a piece of corpse] half the size of an olive beneath it, and another piece half the size of an olive above it — even though they are not one above the other — [the spindle] is tamei. Thus, it spreads tumah onto itself no matter what size it is. [If] a person who sells [earthenware] pots was passing [by a grave] with a car-rying pole on his shoulder, one end of which forms a roof over a grave, the utensils on the other end [of the pole] remain tahor. [However,] if the carrying-pole is a handbreadth wide, [the utensils] become tamei. Mounds that are near either a town or a road are tamei, whether they are new or old. [However, concerning] the distant ones: Those that are new are tahor, whereas the old ones are tamei. What is meant by near? [Within] fifty cubits. And [what is considered] old? [Any that are] sixty years old, these are the words of R’ Meir. R’ Yehudah says, ‘‘near’’ means that no other is closer, and ‘‘old’’ means that no one remembers it.

Someone who finds a corpse lying in its usual manner for the first time may remove it along with its surrounding earth. Someone who finds two [corpses] may remove them along with their sur-rounding earth. Someone who finds three [corpses] that are between four and eight cubits apart has located a district of graves. [Once it has been determined to be a district of graves,] he must search an ad-ditional area of twenty cubits. [If] he finds [even] one [grave] within twenty cubits, he must search from it an additional twenty cubits, for there is basis for concern, for if he had found [only] this [grave] initially, he would [be required to] take it along with its surrounding earth.

The one who searches, searches a cubit square and [then] leaves a cubit until he reaches bedrock or virgin soil. The person who removes the earth from the place of tumah may eat his terumah. Someone who clears away a pile may not eat his terumah.