The Talpiot “Jesus” Tomb: What Might Have Been–The Bones

reprint of article by James Tabor

One of the most frequent queries I get about the Talpiot “Jesus” tomb, excavated in April 1980, is the question of what happened to the bones that were found in tomb–those in the ossuaries and those scattered about. I offered an overview of what we now know in a recent post, “The Easter 1980 Discovery of the Talpiot Jesus Tomb: What We Now Know.” If you missed that one you might want to review it as it contains some new disclosures that have recently come to light. On the bones I concluded:

Joe Zias, the anthropologist at the Rockefeller who routinely received bones from tomb excavations says that he does not remember receiving bones from this particular tomb but he observes that construction crews were uncovering many dozens of tombs in the 1980s and there was no reason for any particular set of bones to receive any special treatment. Since Zias was the main “bone man” or anthropologist there at the time, it would seem that his lab would have gotten the skeletal materials but there is no record that he ever examined them or prepared a report. That is unfortunate since even a cursory examination would have contributed immensely to our know of the family that was buried in this tomb.

Our best guess as to what subsequently happened to the bones is that they remained boxed up and unexamined in the storage areas of the Rockefeller until these and all other skeletal materials in various Israeli labs were turned over to the Orthodox religious authorities in 1994 when the Israeli government agreed to return such remains for reburial. The bones would have then been reburied in unmarked common graves by the Orthodox Jewish authorities.

Amos Kloner, in his 1996 publication of the tomb excavation estimates that there were at least 35 individuals buried in the Jesus tomb, however, he explains that this number is purely an estimate based on demographic data, not on any scientific examination of the skeletal remains in the tomb itself.[1] Unfortunately various critics of the Jesus tomb hypothesis have picked up on this number, scoffing at the idea that this tomb might have been related to Jesus with its 10 ossuaries, six of which are inscribed with names associated with him and his immediate family.

Recently I came across an BASOR article published by Joe Zias around the same time, in 1982, on the skeletal remains of another Jerusalem tomb.[2] Zias carefully lists the skeletal remains of the nine individuals found in this tomb, typing them to the extent possible as to age, sex, and any other remarkable features such as fractures, loss and condition of teeth, osteoarthritis, et al. One could only wish we had such data for the Talpiot “Jesus” tomb, namely, how many individuals were in each ossuary, their approximate ages and sex, and any other notable features obvious through anthropological examination.

Amos Kloner, “A Tomb with Inscribed Ossuaries in East Talpiot, Jerusalem,” ‘Atiquot 29 (1996): 15-22. Kloner bases his estimate on an average of 1.7 individuals per ossuary, plus another 18 outside. [↩]
Joe Zias, “A Rock-Cut Tomb in Jerusalem,” BASOR (1982) 245: 53-56. [↩]

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