OSSUARIES

Rectangular containers of limestone, baked clay, or wood, used to store the bones of bodies deposited in the loculi of tombs or caves, to make room there for new burials. Several hundred ossuaries, some plain, many decorated on one side with matching rosettes in a paneled framework, have been found near Jerusalem, Nablus, and other places in Palestine. Their size (20-to-32 by 12-to-20 by 10-to-16 inches) was dictated by the measurements of skull and femur bone. The lids, often fitted in grooves, were flat, rounded, or gabled. The chief interest of these caskets lies in the graffiti found on many of them; written, probably by the one who transferred the bones, in Aramaic, Greek, or both, they give, usually, only the name of the person whose bones the box contained. Many of the names are known from the Bible, Josephus, or the Murabba’ āt finds; some are new. The Aramaic inscription yhwš’ br ywsp (Jesus son of Joseph) on a 1st-century ossuary has no bearing on the Resurrection; both names were very common among Jews of the period. Cross marks, not certainly of Christian origin, on the lids or sides of ossuaries, may have been inspired by Ez 9.4–6 or placed there to ward off demonic influence.

Bibliography: n. avigad, "A Depository of Inscribed Ossuaries in the Kidron Valley," Israel Exploration Journal 12 (1962) 1–12. d. fishwick, "The Talpioth Ossuaries Again," New Testament Studies 10 (1963–64) 49–61. b. bagatti and j. milik, Gli Scavi del "Dominus Flevit," v.1 (Jerusalem 1958). c. h. kraeling, "Christian Burial Urns?" The Biblical Archeologist 9 (1946) 16–20. e. m. meyers, Jewish Ossuaries: Reburial and Rebirth (Rome 1971). r. h. smith, "Cross Marks on Jewish Ossuaries," Palestine Exploration Quarterly 106 (1974) 53–66. j. p. kane, "Ossuary Inscriptions of Jerusalem," Journal of Semitic Studies 23 (1978) 268–282. p. figueras, Decorated Jewish Ossuaries (Leiden 1983). p. figueras, "Jewish Ossuaries and Secondary Burial: Their Significance for Early Christianity," Immanuel 19 (1984–85) 41–57. b. r. mccane, "Bones of Contention: Ossuaries and Reliquaries in Early Judaism and Christianity," Second Century 8 (1991) 235–246.

[m. a. hofer/eds.]