Apotter's field,paupers' grave orcommon grave is aplace for the burial ofunknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is ofBiblical origin, referring toAkeldama (meaningfield of blood inAramaic), stated to have been purchased afterJudas Iscariot's suicide by the chief priests ofJerusalem with thecoins that had been paid to Judas for his identification of Jesus.^[1] The priests are stated to have acquired it for the burial of strangers, criminals, and the poor, the coins paid to Judas being considered blood money. Prior to Akeldama's use as a burial ground, it had been a site where potters collected high-quality, deeply red clay for the production of ceramics, thus the name potters' field.^{[citation needed]}

The term "potter's field" comes fromMatthew 27:3–27:8 in theNew Testament of theBible, in which Jewish priests take30 pieces of silver returned by a remorsefulJudas:

Then Judas,who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, saying: "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood." But they said: "What is that to us? Look thou to it." And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and went and hanged himself with a halter. But the chief priests, having taken the pieces of silver, said: "It is not lawful to put them into thecorbona, because it is the price of blood." And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter's field, to be a burying place for strangers. For this the field was called Haceldama, that is, the field of blood, even to this day. —Douay–Rheims Bible

The site referred to in these verses is traditionally known asAkeldama, in thevalley of Hinnom, which was a source of potters' clay. After the clay was removed, such a site would be left unusable for agriculture, being full of trenches and holes, thus becoming a graveyard for those who could not be buried in an orthodox cemetery.^[2][3]

The author of Matthew was drawing on earlier Biblical references to potters' fields. The passage continues, with verses 9 and 10:

Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true: "They took the thirty silver coins, the amount the people of Israel had agreed to pay for him, and used the money to buy the potter's field, as the Lord had commanded me."

This is based on a quotation fromZechariah (Zechariah 11:12–13). However, Matthew attributes the quote to Jeremiah. The author of Matthew may have been mistaken. There are two other possible reasons for the reference. First, Jeremiah also speaks of buying a field, inJeremiah 32:6–15. That field is a symbol of hope, not despair as mentioned in Matthew, and the price is 17 pieces of silver. The author of Matthew could have combined the words of Zechariah and Jeremiah, while only citing the "major" prophet. Secondly, "Jeremiah" was sometimes used to refer to the Books of the Prophetsin toto^{[citation needed]} as "The Law" is sometimes used to refer to Moses' five books – Genesis through Deuteronomy, thePentateuch.

Craig Blomberg suggests that the use of the blood money to buy a burial ground for foreigners inMatthew 27:7 may hint at the idea that "Jesus' death makes salvation possible for all the peoples of the world, including theGentiles."^[4] Other scholars do not read the verse as referring to Gentiles, but rather to Jews who are not native to Jerusalem.^[5]

• Blue Plains, in theAnacostia area ofWashington, D.C., contains remains of executed international spies including Nazi spies fromOperation Pastorius.
• Eloise Cemetery inWestland, Michigan, was used by theEloise hospital complex; some 7,000 people were buried there between 1894 and 1948.^[6]
• Golden Gate Cemetery inSan Francisco, California, was used from 1870 to 1909, with some 29,000 burials in sections, one of which was a potter's field.^[7]
• Hart Island inthe Bronx isNew York City's current potter's field and one of the largest cemeteries in the United States with at least 800,000 burials.^[8]
• Holt Cemetery inNew Orleans contains the remains of known and unknown early jazz musicians, includingCharles "Buddy" Bolden. The battered remains ofRobert Charles, at the center of the 1900New Orleans race riot were briefly interred there, then dug up and incinerated.
• Hudson County Burial Grounds inSecaucus, New Jersey.
• Kings County Cemetery or Kings County Farm Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York City.^[9]
• Lincoln Park, onChicago's North Side, found its origin in the 1840s as Chicago City Cemetery. The southernmost portion of the cemetery, where one may now find a number of baseball fields (north of LaSalle Dr., west of North Avenue Beach), was the location of the City Cemetery potter's field from 1843 to 1871. More than 15,000 people, including 4,000 Confederate soldiers, were buried here on marshy land near the water's edge. The baseball fields have occupied these grounds since 1877.^[10]
• Madison Square Park,Washington Square Park andBryant Park in New York City originated as potter's fields.
• Music Hall inCincinnati, Ohio was built over a 19th-century potter's field.
• Potter's Field (Omaha) inOmaha, Nebraska
• Queen Lane Apartments. Work on the project was delayed by the discovery of a potter's field on an adjacent plot.
• Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground in Richmond, Virginia, came to be labeled as Potter's Field on maps in the 1870s. It was/is likely the largest burial ground for free people of color and the enslaved in the United States. The number of estimated interments made between 1816 and 1879 is upwards of 22,000.
• Strangers' Burying Ground,Toronto open from 1826 to 1855 with total 6,685 burials.
• Washington Park (Albany) was the site of the State Street Burying Grounds, a municipal cemetery which included a potter's field. Some maps identify the section as the "strangers" burial ground.
• Washington Square (Philadelphia)
• Puticuli, an ancient Roman mass grave for poor people and waste.^[11]
• TheGreen Bay, WI Potter's Field was neglected and forgotten until 2014, whenVFW Post 9677 launched a fundraising campaign, spruced up the area, and identified many of the 296 people buried there from 1853 to 1973. The City Public Works now maintains the property.
• Harris County Cemetery inHouston^[12]
• Harris County Eastgate Cemetery inunincorporated Harris County, near theCrosbycensus-designated place and with a Crosby mailing address.^[13]

• Boot Hill
• Mass grave
• Pauper's funeral

• New York City's Hart Island Potter's Field
• Haceldama – From the Catholic Encyclopedia
• NYC's Potter's field on Hart Island, by CBS Television