Walters Art Gallery

Limestone ossuary from the Jerusalem area, dating to the first century A.D. During the Roman period, Jews first hurled their dead in wooden coffins and then re-interred the bones about a year later in stone boxes. Stylized carvings, incised designs and, occasionally, the name of the deceased decorated the ossuaries of the wealthy. Carved on the back of this ossuary is the name “Yehosef the son of Aglon.”