Ossuary Belonging to a Daughter of the Caiaphas Family of High Priests Discovered

[Adsos Letter]

Source: ArtDaily

JERUSALEM.- Three years ago the Israel Antiquities Authority Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery acquired a decorated ossuary bearing an engraved inscription. The ossuary was discovered by antiquities robbers who plundered an ancient Jewish tomb of the Second Temple period. During the course of the investigation it was determined that the ossuary came from a burial cave in the area of the Valley of ’Elah, in the Judean Shephelah.

To check the authenticity of the artifact and the significance of the engraved inscription, the Israel Antiquities Authority turned to Dr. Boaz Zissu of the Department of the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology of Bar Ilan University and Professor Yuval Goren of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations of the Tel Aviv University.

Israel from the late first century BCE until the beginning of the second century CE. The front of the ossuary that was found is decorated with a stylized floral motif above which is a long Aramaic inscription engraved in Jewish script:

‘Miriam Daughter of Yeshua Son of Caiaphas, Priests Ma'aziah from Beth ’Imri’
(or, an alternative reading:
‘Miriam Daughter of Yeshua Son of Caiaphas, Priest of Ma'aziah from Beth ’Imri’)

LINK: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=48679
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Israeli scholars have weighed in on the authenticity of this find; it will be interesting to see if it holds up under further scrutiny. The authenticity of the "Caiaphas Ossuary" discovered in 1990 has since been challenged by some scholars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caiaphas_ossuary#Authenticity