A HOLY LAND POTTERY OSSUARY

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

Details

A HOLY LAND POTTERY OSSUARY
LATE CHALCOLITHIC PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH MILLENNIUM B.C.
House-shaped, roughly rectangular in form with a rounded roof bisected by a raised ridge across its length, a square opening on one end, flanked by loops, perhaps once to attach a door, a flange above with a protruding nose, arms at the sides, a raised ridged band encircling above the opening, the exterior with painted triangles on the roof, horizontal bands on the sides, and crosshatching on the frontal flange
18¾ in. (47.6 cm.) high

Provenance

with Arieh Klein Ancient Art, Jerusalem, 1992.

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Lot Essay

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.

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