In the fall of 2002 the public was made aware of an ossuary (bone box) with an Aramaic inscription dating to the first-century A.D. This inscription gives the name of the person whose remains once were placed in the box. The inscription reads “James the son of Joseph, the brother of James.”

A secondary burial in a small box was a common practice during the first century in the Jerusalem area. Ossuary were usually made limestone and were commonly about 18 inches to 24 inches long. It was the practice to bury an individual in a stone cut tomb and then to move the bones of the individual after about a year into a “bone box” or ossuary. Sometimes the name of the deceased was inscribed on the outside of the box.

The paleography (shape and style of the letters) of this inscription is consistent with other inscriptions of the mid first-century. Tests have shown that the limestone used to make the box comes from the Jerusalem area. In addition a thin layer (patina) of weathered limestone covers the box. Examination of this patina has shown that it is consistent with the type of weathering that would occur in an underground environment such as a cave or tomb.

The names James, Joseph and Jesus were fairly common names in Palestine in the first-century, however the combination of the three names and interrelationship of the names narrows the chances of a random occurance. It was common to mention the father of the deceased in these ossury inscriptions (X son of Y) but the mention of a brother is quite rare but when it does happen it indicates that the brother must have been someone who was well-known.

The November/December 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review has a major article about the inscription.