JERUSALEM – A number of suspects were apprehended in the early hours on this past Friday (Mar. 28) in a joint operation by inspectors of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery and police detectives and patrolmen. They were caught while in possession of eleven decorated stone ossuaries – ancient coffins – that the Jewish population used for burial during the Second Temple period, two thousand years ago. Some of the ossuaries still contained the skeletal remains of the deceased.

The suspects, residents of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Arab village of Abadiyah in the vicinity of Bethlehem, were caught red-handed as they were closing a deal to sell the ossuaries to Jewish merchants, near the Hizma checkpoint north of Jerusalem. It is suspected the ossuaries were recently looted from an ancient burial cave in the region of Jerusalem. The suspects were arrested on the spot and taken in for questioning. Their remand was extended Friday morning by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. Antiquities robbery is a serious offense in Israel and is punishable by up to five years imprisonment, and the unlicensed trafficking in antiquities is a criminal offense punishable by a three year prison sentence.

During the Second Temple era the Jewish population used stone ossuaries for secondary burial, and they were very common from the second century BCE until the first century CE. The ossuaries are decorated with typical Jewish symbols, among them the lily flower, the six-petal rosette and other symbols. The decorations adorning the ossuaries were a major element of the Jewish art of the period.

Shallow engravings, etched using a sharp stylus, were found on the sides of two of the seized ossuaries. They cite the names of the deceased whose bones were collected in the coffins. One of the engraved ossuaries that were found bore the name “Ralfin”, written in squared Hebrew script characteristic of the Second Temple period. This name is apparently a Hebraized form of an unusual Roman name. Dr. Eitan Klein, Deputy Director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery, who examined the ossuaries, said: “This is the first time this name appears on an ossuary from the Land of Israel”. The other ossuary is inscribed in Greek; the wording could not be deciphered. Bellow the inscription is the name “Yo‘azar”, in squared Hebrew script. The name Yo‘azar is a common Jewish name in the Second Temple period, and is found in contemporarily written sources, such as Josephus’ history, and on numerous Jewish ossuaries from this period.

Dr. Eitan Klein continued to state that “these are singular finds. The inscriptions on the ossuaries provide us with additional characters and names from among the Jewish population in the Second Temple period, and the motifs adorning the ossuaries will supplement our knowledge with new information about the world of Jewish art in this period,” Dr. Klein said, “There is no doubt that the ossuaries were recently looted from a magnificent burial cave in Jerusalem. Remnants of paint remained on top of the ossuaries and the containers themselves belong to the group of “magnificent Jerusalem” ossuaries that were manufactured in the city in antiquity”.

The Israel Antiquities Authority reports that the bones found inside the ossuaries will be turned over to the Ministry of Religious Affairs for burial.

By Aryeh Savir

Tazpit News Agency