LATE CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH MILLENNIUM B.C.

For related examples see nos. 18-20 in Howard, ed., Treasures of the Holy Land, Ancient Art from the Israel Museum. According to the authors, pp. 67-68, secondary burial, as evinced by ossuaries such as this example, was a "complex procedure. The body was interred until the flesh decomposed; then the bones were collected, deposited in ossuaries, and placed in burial caves...The custom of secondary burial in ossuraries was short-lived in the Chalcolithic period and was practiced again by Jews only during the Herodian period." Most of the ossuaries from the late Chalcolithic period are terracotta and roughly of this shape, with an opening on one short side and an anthropomorphic flange above, centered by a nose.