From approximately 20 BC to 70 AD, Jews in and around Jerusalem practiced a unique set of burial customs, which blended ancient Jewish customs with the traditions of neighboring cultures and the Greeks , whose previous conquest had led to the Hellenization of the entire region (End p.2). The ossuaries were an integral part of these burial practices, which involved the burial of the person at two separate times. These ossuaries were usually made of the same materials and decorated according to certain motifs. The ossuary preserved in the Kelsey Museum is indicative of the form taken by most of these artefacts and the style in which they were fashioned. Introduction In 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon's Temple, bringing the First Temple Period to an end. Most of the ruling class of the Kingdom of Judah was sent into exile in Babylon, destroying the kingdom as a political entity. About fifty years later, the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and took control of Israel/Palestine. He divided the region into several administrative regions, known as pahvot, and appointed local officials to govern them. Many of the exiled Jews returned to their ancestral homeland, although some chose not to, resulting in the beginnings of the Jewish diaspora. The Declaration of Cyrus granted returning deportees permission and funding to rebuild a temple on the site of the previous one. Construction was temporarily halted after rumors began that the temple would lead to a nationalist revolt, but was later resumed under Darius I. The temple was completed in 516 BC, marking the beginning of the Second Temple period. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire... half of the paper... written in Hebrew or Greek, as those were the main languages ​​spoken in the region, but they were sometimes written in other languages ​​(Rahmani p.13) . The reason for this appears to be that the deceased were Jews who, following the diaspora, lived in other areas of the Near East, but who wished to be buried near Jerusalem due to its religious significance (Rahmani p.13). Once again, the ossuaries from this period demonstrate the unique cultural fusion that was occurring during that time. The Kelsey Ossuary and its counterparts demonstrate that the Second Temple Period was a time of significant cultural change in the Jewish community. External influences, along with internal changes in beliefs, manifested themselves in art, literature, and the burial of the dead. For the brief period in which they were popular, ossuaries offer an unprecedented window into these developments.