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Anossuary 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" inLatin[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 singletomb than possible incoffins. The practice is sometimes known asgrave recycling.
InPersia, theZoroastrians used a deep well for this function from the earliest times (c. 3,000 years ago) and called itastudan (literally, "the place for the bones"). There are many rituals and regulations in the Zoroastrian faith concerning theastudans.
During theSecond Temple period, Jewish burial customs were varied, differing based on class and belief. For the wealthy,[3] one option available included primary burials in burial caves, followed bysecondary burials in ossuaries. These bone boxes were placed in smaller niches of the burial caves, on the benches used for thedesiccation of the corpse, or even on the floor.[4] These ossuaries are almost exclusively made oflimestone, roughly 40% of which are decorated with intricate geometrical patterns.[5] 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.[6][7]
Among the best-known Jewish ossuaries of this period are: an ossuary inscribed 'Simon theTemple builder' in the collection of theIsrael Museum; one inscribed 'Yehohanan ben Hagkol' that contained an iron nail in a heel bone suggestingcrucifixion; another, (owned byAndré Lemaire), inscribed 'James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus', the authenticity of which has been debated by scholars[who?]; and ten ossuaries recovered from theTalpiot Tomb in 1980, several of which are reported to have names recorded in theNew Testament.
Geographically, ossuaries are almost exclusively associated with tombs in and aroundJerusalem; however, caches of contemporaneous ossuaries have been discovered inJericho.
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 theMishnah andTalmud, Jewish sages from the period are depicted debating the methods and beliefs around ossuary burial. The perspectives they espouse are connected to thePharisaic 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 stonemasons, 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.[8]
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 theLand of Israel. There are, of course, exceptions to every trend: after thedestruction of the Second Temple, poor imitations of ossuaries made of clay were created inGalilee;[9] the last stone ossuaries are found in theBeth 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 inAlexandria.
Many examples of ossuaries are found within Europe, including theSanta Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini inRome, Italy; theMartyrs of Otranto in south Italy; theFontanelle cemetery andPurgatorio ad Arco inNaples, Italy; theSan Bernardino alle Ossa inMilan, Italy; theBrno Ossuary and theSedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic; theCzermna Skull Chapel in Poland; and theCapela dos Ossos ("Chapel of Bones") inÉvora, Portugal. The village ofWamba in the province ofValladolid, 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 theDouaumont ossuary inFrance, which contains the remains of more than 130,000 French and German soldiers that fell at theBattle of Verdun duringWorld War I. TheCatacombs of Paris represents another famous ossuary.
Thecatacombs beneath theMonastery of San Francisco inLima, Peru also contain an ossuary.[10]
The skeletal remains of six million people lie, neatly arranged, in catacombs (also known as ossuaries or charnel houses) beneath the streets ofParis, France. The city has an estimated 300 kilometres (190 mi) of tunnels and pathways, of which 11,000 square metres (2.7 acres) are packed tightly with the bones of those re-interred from the city's overflowing cemeteries in the late 1700s.[12]
The use of ossuaries is a longstanding tradition in theEastern Orthodox Church. The remains of an Orthodox Christian are treated with special reverence, in conformity with the biblical teaching that the body of a believer is a "temple of the Holy Spirit",[13] having beensanctified andtransfigured byBaptism,Holy Communion and the participation in themystical life of the Church.[14] In Orthodoxmonasteries, when one of the brethren dies, his remains are buried (for details, seeChristian burial) for one to three years, and then disinterred, cleaned and gathered into the monastery'scharnel house. If there is reason to believe that the departed is asaint, the remains may be placed in areliquary; otherwise the bones are usually mingled together (skulls together in one place,long bones in another, etc.). The remains of anabbot may be placed in a separate ossuary made out of wood or metal.
The use of ossuaries is also found among thelaity in theGreek Orthodox Church. The departed will be buried for one to three years and then, often on the anniversary of death, the family will gather with theparish priest and celebrate aparastas (memorial service), after which the remains are disinterred, washed with wine, perfumed, and placed in a small ossuary of wood or metal, inscribed with the name of the departed, and placed in a room, often in or near the church, which is dedicated to this purpose.
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