Ancient 'bone box' called oldest Christian artifact – Fox News

By Jennifer WelshPublished April 20, 2012LiveScience

Museum reproduction of the ossuary with the Jonah and the Fish image on the left front panel.

Close-up of the Jonah “stick figure” image in an original photo from the exploration (right), and with the engravings in question highlighted (left).

Long-unrecognized lettering confirms that first-century artifacts found within an ancient Jerusalem tomb are the earliest representations of Christianity ever found, researchers say.

Two Hebrew scholars who examined photographs showing the inside of the tomb agree that markings on an ossuary — a box made to hold human remains — are stylized letters that spell out the name of Jonah, the researchers said Thursday (April 19). Jonah was the Old Testament prophet whose story of being swallowed by a great fish was embraced by the early followers of Jesus.

The tomb, located 6.5 feet (2 meters) below an apartment building in the East Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, was discovered in 1981 but resealed after Orthodox Jewish groups opposed its excavation. Two decades later, the group got license to enter the tomb, which has been dated to before A.D. 70.

Researchers led by James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte did not enter the tomb themselves but instead used a remote camera to explore it. Their analysis of the images was reported Feb. 28 in the journal The Bible and Interpretation.

The Hebrew scholars’ translation of the stylized letters on the ossuary have yet to be published.

Troubled tomb

On one of the ossuaries was an inscription depicting “divine Jehovah,” and a second had a picture that appeared to be a fish with a stick figure in its mouth, said to represent Jonah. If they fully understand these drawings, the researchers said, then they have found the oldest Christian artifacts, the earliest Christian art and the first evidence of faith in Jesus’ resurrection. Similar depictions of Jonah were used by later Christian groups and became an important expression of the faith in later centuries.

‘The engraver has rather ingeniously combined the stick figure of Jonah with the Hebrew letters spelling out his name.’

– James Tabor, University of North Carolina

When the tomb and its contents were first disclosed, many biblical scholars offered alternate interpretations of the iconography and disputed the tomb’s connections to Christianity. They said the image is more likely a funerary monument and not a fish at all. [Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus]

Hebrew hint

After the initial announcement, the team continued to examine the images from their robot scout. Strange markings inside the fish head stood out to the researchers, and they called upon James Charlesworth, a Hebrew script scholar from the Princeton Theological Seminary.

The researchers said Charlesworth confirmed their interpretation of the marks: The lines that make up what they thought was a stick figure could also be viewed as four Hebrew letters. The script is similar to that from the Dead Sea Scrolls and seems to spell out “YONAH,” the Hebrew name of Jonah.

“This discovery by Professor Charlesworth is quite remarkable and had been overlooked in our initial analysis,” Tabor said in a statement. “The engraver has apparently rather ingeniously combined what we took to be the stick figure of Jonah with the four Hebrew letters spelling out his name.”

Tabor also asked other Hebrew researchers for their opinion on the interpretation. Robert Deutsch of Haifa University confirmed Charlesworth’s reading of YONAH, and Haggai Misgav of Hebrew University agreed there were definitely letters, but Misgav read them as “ZOLAH,” Tabor said.

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Ancient Ichthyosaur Mother Did Not Explode, Scientists Say

It is unlikely that the body of a mother ichthyosaur exploded, say researchers who offer another explanation for the scattered remains of embryos found around her in rock that was once deep underwater.

Rather, the scattering of the embryos was probably caused by minor sea currents after the expectant mother died and her body decayed some 182 million years ago, the researchers propose.

If this scenario sounds confusing, it is important to know that ichthyosaurs, extinct marine reptiles that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, did not lay eggs but rather carried their young in their bodies until they gave birth. Ichthyosaurs resembled fish but, unlike most fish, breathed air through lungs.

The nearly intact skeleton of the female ichthyosaur in question was found in Holzmaden, Germany. But the remains of most of the approximately 10 embryos were scattered far outside her body it. Other fossilized ichthyosaur remains have been found in similarly strange arrangements, with skeletons usually complete but jumbled to some degree.

A Swiss and German research team set out to examine the idea that after death, such large-lunged marine creatures floated on the surface, with putrefaction gases building up inside them, until the gases escaped, often by bursting. Such explosions would jumble the bones.

The researchers examined the decay and preservation of ichthyosaur skeletons and compared this information with that of modern animals, particularly marine mammals. To get an idea of the amount of pressure that builds up after death during different stages of bloating, they looked at measurements from the abdomens of 100 human corpses.

“Our data and a review of the literature demonstrate that carcasses sink and do not explode (and spread skeletal elements),” the researchers wrote online Feb. 1 in the journal Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments.

Generally, carcasses of ichthyosaurs would have sunk to the seafloor and broken down completely. Only under specific circumstances — including in warmer water less than 164 feet (50 meters) deep — would gas inside the body have brought the remains to the surface, said the researchers, led by Achim Reisdorf of the University of Basel in Switzerland. When this happened, the carcass would decompose slowly, scattering bones over a wide area. 

Ichthyosaurs’ remains stayed neatly in place only under specific conditions, according to the research team: The water pressure had to be great enough to prevent them from floating, scavengers did not pick them over, and strong currents did not disturb them.

The female ichthyosaur died in water about 492 feet (150 m) deep. Decomposition of the body released the embryo skeletons, and minor currents along the seafloor distributed them around her body, the researchers speculate.

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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