Loculi and Ossuaries: The Family and the Individual in Judean Burial Caves

This chapter draws attention from the cave as a unified social unit to a micro-analysis of the burial within the cave: Who is buried with whom in the same loculus or ossuary, and why? It analyzes the skeletal remains found inside the loculi and ossuaries of a sample of 25 caves, in an attempt to reconstruct the social relationships between those buried in each cave. The chapter discusses the loculi burial caves that emerged in the late Hasmonean period, in which the bones were collected into different loculi, and reconstructs the way in which the bones were placed. It discusses the stone ossuaries used for the collection of bones in the caves since the late Herodian period. Loculi caves with secondary burials emerged in Judea in the Hasmonean period. Loculi caves first appear in Judea in the late Hasmonean period, in the first half of the first century bce, especially in Jerusalem and its environs.