James Ossuary James Ossuary The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription in the Hebrew alphabet meaning "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" is cut into one side of the box. The inscription is considered significant because, if genuine, it might provide archaeological evidence for Jesus of Nazareth. However, while the ossuary itself is accepted as authentic to the time period, the inscription itself could be a modern forgery. The existence of the ossuary was announced at an October 21, 2002 Washington press conference co-hosted by the Discovery
Moatfield Ossuary of analyzing the ossuary was to piece together who the Moatfield people were, what happened to them, and what can the archaeologists know about their way of life. This was done by analyzing the bones and bone fragments found in the ossuary. There were difficulties matching bones to one another due to the high amount of commingling of remains. Also, many bones in the body mature at different stages and therefore one individual may show maturation of some bones while still developing others. This made piecing together of entire individuals difficult and thus making inferences regarding health of individuals less