Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine

Ossuary has low feet and cornice with fluted frieze under rim on all sides. Its size is remarkable but not unique; probably Phasael's body was placed in this receptable and the remains of his wife and son added later. Dimensions in parentheses include cornice; height describes that of chest plus that of gabed lid with deep wedge on length of apex. Ornamentation is elaborate. On the chest's front side, it consists of a zigzag frame on left, right, and bottom, with sides of the frame continued onto feet, and a central row and seven horizontal, somewhat irregularly spaced rosettes of 15, 16 or 17 petals. The back side is similar, but without the frame. Left and right sides have the frame, containing one grooved ring carved in high relief, encircling an eight-petalled rosette with petals shaped as inward-pointing ivy leaves. Ornamentation on the lid's front and back sides consists of a zigzag frame with an ashlar patterned frieze at the base and a central row of five horizontal rosettes, each row flanked by rings and rosettes like those of the chest's left and right sides. These rings on the lid seem to derive from representations of knocker or handle rings lacking indications of attachments. On either of the lid's gables sits a large eight-petalled rosette within a zigzag circle, above a large fingergrip. The first word is deeply carved on the lid, under the row of rosettes; the next name appears finely incised to the right of it, mostly in doubled lines; and the last finely incised to its left, partially in doubled lines. The name Φασάηλος is well known from Herod's family, but not elsewhere attested locally on a Jewish inscription. The name is found in many Palmyrene, Safaitic, and especially Nabataean inscriptions from the first and second centuries CE in both male (as here) and female forms. Perhaps the deceased was a Palmyrene or Nabataean who married into a Jewish family. The father and son of this ossuary bear the same name; this is attested elsewhere in the area. The woman's name, meaning "strong born, mighty," is a variant of Ἰφιγένεια, which does not occur in early epigraphy (save for a possible reading in a second century CE inscription at Ephesus), and which has strong pagan connotations, perhaps unknown to the deceased or not considered; in Greek mythology Agamemnon's daughter of that name was identified with goddesses Artemis and Hecate, and a cult image of Artemis-Iphigenia still stood in Syria in the mid-second century CE. The names of the wife and son seem to have been incised by the same hand; perhaps they died at the same time.