Do you know what an ossuary is? What it was used for….and when? Well, let’s learn!
An ossuary was usually a smallish chest or box used to hold the bones or cremains of the dead. As far back as 40 B.C. ossuaries were popular among the Jewish population. Historically they have been used in areas where burial space was scarce or in situations were large numbers of people died in a short time such as a plague or battle. Also, over time, they were used when the bones were exhumed from a grave to make space for a new burial. (Very common in Europe even today. You have your cemetery space or plot for x-number of years and then the plot is reused.)
Are ossuaries used today? Certainly yes. How many have their deceased loved ones still with them sitting on the mantel?? There are funeral urns even for our beloved pets!
My vision of an ossuary is not a little box with a single body of bones in it, but rather a large room associated with a the church and monks, who would dry the boy, salvage the bones and then arrange the bones in a pattern on the walls and ceiling of (usually) and underground crypt. I took by daughter and husband to one and they of course didn’t know what an ossuary was and I didn’t tell them until we walked in–and then I didn’t need to. just google images and ossuary to see what I mean—the one we visited even had a monk hung and drying out