- Measurements and Technique: 58 x 28 x 37.5 + 12 cm. Chip carved.
- Provenance: er-Ram.
- Description: Inner ledge on four sides. Low feet.
- Ornamentation:
Front: Two metopes in fluted frieze. 'Triglyph' of palm trunk. Two sixpetalled rosettes encircled by zigzag band.
Back: Two metopes in zigzag frames and fluted frieze (unfinished). 'Triglyph' of palm trunk. In the lower part of the metopes, two semicircles of zigzag lines. Unfinished circles in centre cut by 'triglyph' (cf. Jacoby, card 36A).
Left: Wreath made of dots and carved chips encircling inscription.
Right: Double lines dividing the site into four panels, diagonallines in form of lattice.
- Lid: Vaulted. Cutting marks inside.
- Inscription: ... 'Shim'on, son of Zecharia'.
- Bibliography: Dalman, 1914, pp. 135-136, Pl. XL ; Klein, p. 57, No. 168; CIJ II, p. 232, No. 1194; Figueras, p. 66, n. 111, Pl. 16:346.[1]

Comments: Inventory No. VI:4b. One of a group of three ossuaries (Inventory Nos.
VI:4a-4c, found together with nine pieces of pottery, now lost) from the same tomb.
For No. VI:4a in the Inventory, see below, Ossuary No. 2. The ossuary designated
Inventory No. VI:4c was obviously plain, so it could still be in the collection, but is
no longer identifiable. A lid is reported as belonging to it.
For the unresolved question of incomplete ornamentations, appearing mostly
on one of the small sides or on the lid, see Rahmani, pp. 8-9. For further examples of wreaths, see Figueras, p. 51 and PI. 16:85, 279, 46, 77, 83, 125, 67, 599 (= Rahmani, No. 282); PI. 17:616 (= Rahmani, No. 206); Jacoby, card 31B; Rahmani, Nos. 14, 60, 308 and 893.
The name Shim'on, written here with a final mem in a medial position (for
further examples, see Rahmani, Nos. 41 and 501), is the most common Jewish name
in the Second Temple and Mishnaic periods (Hachlili, 1984, p. 189; Han, 1987b, pp.
238-239), as weIl as being the most common on ossuaries (Rahmani, p. 14).
The name Zecharia is also very common, see Ilan, 1987b, p. 238; she mentions 22
known individuals from the Second Temple and Mishnaic periods bearing this
name (cf. also Hachlili, 1984, p. 189). Nevertheless, the name is not very common
on ossuaries: it is absent from Rahmani's list of names. Known examples for the
Hebrew version of the name appear in Bagatti and Milik, p. 97, No. 36, and PI.
34:104; for the Greek version (two examples), op. cit., p. 95, No. 30, and PIs. 22:55, 36:115; p. 97, and Fig. 23:6, PIs. 20:46, 34:105.

Zitat aus: Fritz/Deines, Catalogue of the Jewish Ossuaries in the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology, IEJ 49, 1999, 222-241.

[1] Figueras's source for the very rough drawing of the inscription was E.L. Sukenik's unpublished collection of photographs of Jewish ossuaries, Jerusalem.

Ossuary No. 1 inscription on left sideOssuary No.1 drawing of inscription

Ossuary No. 1 back

Ossuary No. 1 front