Most BAR readers know what ossuaries are because they have been featured so much in recent years, ever since the ossuary inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” burst forth in the magazine’s pages.b The bones of the deceased were placed in limestone boxes, or ossuaries, about a year after death, when the flesh had fallen away. These ossuaries have been found mainly in the Jerusalem area and date from about 20 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.
In only one other time period were ossuaries widely used: the Chalcolithic period. Predating the Jerusalem 013ossuaries by about 4,000 years, these other ossuaries have absolutely no connection—other than basic function—with the ones we are accustomed to seeing in these pages.
Makes you wonder whether a common impulse led these two peoples living 4,000 years apart to perform secondary burials in ossuaries.
Actually, the Chalcolithic ossuaries are quite different from the limestone boxes found around Jerusalem at the turn of the era. Chalcolithic ossuaries are made of pottery, not stone. And they are not just boxes; some are shaped like houses or jars, and, most perplexingly, they are sometimes decorated as faces or bodies.
Several years ago, many different kinds of Chalcolithic ossuaries were found in a cave near Israel’s border with Lebanon, not far from the Israeli Druze village of Peqi’in, by excavators Zvi Gal, Dina Shalem and Howard Smithline of the Israel Antiquities Authority. One of the most interesting of these ossuaries has a prominent nose and eyes sculpted on the front, not uncommon in the ossuaries of this period. Others bear sculpted or painted nostrils, ears, mouths, teeth or beards. Another common feature was women’s breasts. Who was the being that was depicted on these burial containers? Was it the deceased? A god? An angelic protector? Something to scare away evil spirits? No one really knows.
Most BAR readers know what ossuaries are because they have been featured so much in recent years, ever since the ossuary inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus” burst forth in the magazine’s pages.b The bones of the deceased were placed in limestone boxes, or ossuaries, about a year after death, when the flesh had fallen away. These ossuaries have been found mainly in the Jerusalem area and date from about 20 B.C.E. to 70 C.E. In only one other time period were ossuaries widely used: the Chalcolithic period. Predating the Jerusalem 013ossuaries by about 4,000 years, these […]
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