Adapted from Jerusalem Perspective

“Shalom,” short for “Shlomzion” and transformed into Salome in Greek, appears on the ossuary found in niche IV next to the elaborate “Joseph, son of Caiaphas” ossuary. A study of Second Temple-period Jewish names reveals that a quarter of the women mentioned in literary sources or on inscriptions had the name Shlomzion or its variants; another quarter were named Miriam, the other feminine name found in the burial chamber. The men’s names recovered here were also representative of their time; Joseph and Simon were the two most popular male names during the Second Temple period.