Stone Ossuary of "Simon, builder of the Temple"
Soft limestone
Israel Antiquities Authority
IAA:
1968-441
Archaeology/Hellenistic, Roman & Byzantine Periods
Herod employed ten thousand workers, among them a thousand priests, in the construction of the Temple. Simon was one of them. His ossuary (burial chest) is simple and unadorned, but its Aramaic inscriptions were carefully written in a legible hand, once on the long side and once on the short side. It can be assumed that Simon was a skilled craftsman whose contribution to the construction of the Temple earned him the title - at least in the eyes of his family - “builder of the Temple.”
From the Israel Museum publications:
Pearlman, Moshe, The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Shrine of the Book, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1988, English / Hebrew
Exhibitions:
Envisioning the Temple: Scrolls, Stones, and Symbols, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 30/05/2003 - 12/04/2004
