Image Details

Six-petaled rosettes. For more than 700 years, from the first century B.C. to the sixth century, the six-petaled rosette was a frequently used Jewish decorative motif. Closely resembling the rosette on the lead weight, the two rosettes pictured here are from a first-century A.D. Jerusalem ossuary, or box used to hold the bones of the deceased in a secondary burial. The precision of the design suggests that it was drawn with a compass.