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Ossuaries
The limestone James Ossuary from the 1st century
Human remains on the walls and ceiling of Skull Chapel, Poland
A chandelier made of bones in Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic
Ossuary at the Gallipoli battlefield; contains the remains of French soldiers
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting
place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is
scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal
remains are removed and placed in an ossuary ("os" is "bone" in Latin[1]). The greatly
reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of
many more people in a single tomb than in coffins.
Contents
 1Persian ossuaries
 2Jewish ossuaries
 3In Christianity
o 3.1Roman Catholic ossuaries
 3.1.1Largest ossuary
o 3.2Eastern Orthodox ossuaries
 4See also
 5References
Persian ossuaries[edit]
In Persia, the Zoroastrians used a deep well for this function from the earliest times (c.
3,000 years ago) and called it astudan (literally, "the place for the bones"). There are
many rituals and regulations in the Zoroastrian faith concerning the astudans.
Jewish ossuaries[edit]
During the Second Temple period, Jewish burial customs were varied, differing based
on class and belief. For the wealthy,[2] one option available included primary burials in
burial caves, followed by secondary burials in ossuaries. These bone boxes were
placed in smaller niches of the burial caves, on the benches used for the desiccation of
the corpse, or even on the floor.[3] These ossuaries are almost exclusively made of
limestone, roughly 40% of which are decorated with intricate geometrical patterns.
[4]
Many ossuaries, plain or decorated, feature inscriptions identifying the deceased.
These inscriptions are the chief scholarly source for identifying naming conventions in
this region during this period.[5][6]
Jewish ossuary inscription from Second Temple period

Among the best-known Jewish ossuaries of this period are: an ossuary inscribed 'Simon
the Temple builder' in the collection of the Israel Museum; one inscribed 'Yehohanan
ben Hagkol' that contained an iron nail in a heel bone suggesting crucifixion; another,
(owned by André Lemaire), inscribed 'James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus', the
authenticity of which has been debated by scholars; and ten ossuaries recovered from
the Talpiot Tomb in 1980, several of which are reported to have names recorded in
the New Testament.
Ossuaries from the Talpiot Tomb, displayed at the Israel Museum
Geographically, ossuaries are almost exclusively associated with tombs in and

around Jerusalem; however, caches of contemporaneous ossuaries have been
discovered in Jericho.
There is ongoing scholarly disagreement as to the function and origin of ossuary burial.
Some argue that this form of burial was born out of a theological shift in ideas about
purity. Specifically, in the Mishnah and Talmud, Jewish sages from the period are
depicted debating the methods and beliefs around ossuary burial. The perspectives
they espouse are connected to the Pharisaic tradition; as such, it is speculated that
ossuaries were developed by elite members of the Pharisaic religious school before
spreading to other sects.
Others argue that material conditions of the elite have more influence on ossuaries use
and form during this period. An increase in wealth among the urban elite in Jerusalem
and Jericho, coupled with a building boom that created a surplus of stone masons,
allowed for new kinds of burial to evolve. It has been observed that ossuaries follow
philosophically with Greco-Roman ideas of individuality in death and physically with
Hellenistic forms of chest burial; as such, ossuaries may be an elite imitation of imperial
burial modes that did not violate Jewish cultural norms. [7]
The custom of secondary burial in ossuaries, on a whole, did not persist among Jews
past the Second Temple period nor appear to exist widely among Jews outside the Land
of Israel. There are, of course, exceptions to every trend: after the destruction of the
Second Temple, poor imitations of ossuaries made of clay were created in Galilee;[8] the
last stone ossuaries are found in the Beth She'arim necropolis and date from the late
third century CE; and at least one ossuary dating from the Second Temple period has
been discovered in Alexandria.
In Christianity[edit]
Roman Catholic ossuaries[edit]
The ossuary of San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan.
Many examples of ossuaries are found within Europe, including the Santa Maria della
Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome, Italy; the Martyrs of Otranto in south Italy;
the Fontanelle cemetery and Purgatorio ad Arco in Naples, Italy; the San Bernardino
alle Ossa in Milan, Italy; the Brno Ossuary and the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech
Republic; the Czermna Skull Chapel in Poland; and the Capela dos Ossos ("Chapel of
Bones") in Évora, Portugal. The village of Wamba in the province of Valladolid, Spain,
has an impressive ossuary of over a thousand skulls inside the local church, dating from
between the 12th and 18th centuries. A more recent example is the Douaumont
ossuary in France, which contains the remains of more than 130,000 French and
German soldiers that fell at the Battle of Verdun during World War I. The Catacombs of
Paris represents another famous ossuary.
The catacombs beneath the Monastery of San Francisco in Lima, Peru, also contains

an ossuary.[9]
Largest ossuary[edit]

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Ossuary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The limestone James Ossuary from the 1st century

Human remains on the walls and ceiling of Skull Chapel, Poland

A chandelier made of bones in Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic

Ossuary at the Gallipoli battlefield; contains the remains of French soldiers

Jewish ossuary inscription from Second Temple period

Ossuaries from the Talpiot Tomb, displayed at the Israel Museum

Geographically, ossuaries are almost exclusively associated with tombs in and

The ossuary of San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan.

The catacombs beneath the Monastery of San Francisco in Lima, Peru, also contains

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