Jewish Ossuaries: Reburial and Rebirth: Secondary Burials in their Ancient Near Eastern Setting

The question of the meaning and origin of Jewish ossuaries has long held the attention of the scholarly world. Since the vast majority of Jewish ossuaries come from the latter part of the Second Temple period they constitute one of the most important bodies of evidence for the recovery of the Judaism of that period. This study makes the methodological assumption that the study of Jewish ossuaries is not necessarily to be confined to the Hellenistic-Roman period, but can include the First Temple period. Secondly, this study shows that burial customs provide extremely fertile ground for understanding conceptions of afterlife. It is now possible to provide the conceptual matrix for Jewish ossuaries which in our view conforms to both Palestinian burials.