Jehohanan (Yehohanan) was a man put to death by

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...

in the 1st century CE, whose

ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the ...

was found in 1968 when building contractors working in

Giv'at ha-Mivtar Givat HaMivtar () is an Israeli settlement and a neighborhood in East Jerusalem established in 1970 between Ramat Eshkol and French Hill. It is located on a hill where an important battle took place in the Six Day War. Archaeological excavations ...

, a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...

in northern

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the sector of Jerusalem that was held by Jordan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to the western sector of the city, West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Jerusalem was envisaged as a separ ...

, accidentally uncovered a Jewish tomb. Tzaferis, V. 1970 Jewish Tombs at and near Giv'at ha-Mivtar. Israel Exploration Journal Vol.20 pp. 18-32. The

stone

had the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

inscription "Jehohanan the son of Hagkol" (hence, sometimes, Johanan ben Ha-galgula). In his initial anthropological observations in 1970 at

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public university, public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein ...

, Nicu Haas concluded Jehohanan was crucified with his arms stretched out with his forearms nailed, supporting

on a two-beamed Christian cross. However, a 1985 reappraisal discovered multiple errors in Haas's observations."Crucifixion – The Archaeological Evidence," ''Biblical Archaeology Review'', Vol. 11 (1985), pp. 44-53Fitzmyer, Yadin, "Epigraphy and Crucifixion," Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 23(1973), pp. 494-498. Zias and Sekeles later proposed that permanent vertical stakes were used, to which were affixed a horizontal beam, with the executed's arms tied and that death occurred from asphyxiation.

Anthropological observations

Initial observations, Haas, 1970

In his article "Anthropological Observations on the Skeletal Remains from Giv'at ha-Mivtar" published in the ''

Israel Exploration Journal The ''Israel Exploration Journal'' is a biannual academic journal which has been published by the Israel Exploration Society since 1950. It primarily covers research in archaeology, but also history and geography relating to Israel and the surrou ...

'' in 1970, Nicu Haas of the Department of Anatomy at

, wrote of the remains of a man crucified: Haas was unable to examine the remains any further because of serious health problems, and while his conclusions became widely accepted by the general public, several errors in his observations were later identified by Joseph Zias and Dr. Eliezer Sekeles at the Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical School in their 1985 reappraisal.

Reappraisal, Zias & Sekeles, 1985

In 1985, Joe Zias, curator of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, and Dr. Eliezer Sekeles, from the

Hadassah Medical Center Hadassah Medical Center ( he, הָמֶרְכָּז הָרְפוּאִי הֲדַסָּה) is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem – one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus –, ...

, reexamined the crucifixion remains. They alleged that Haas' analysis was fraught with errors: Zias and Sekeles also stated the presence of the scratch in one of the forearms "was not convincing" evidence of a nail wound: In conclusion, the findings of Zias and Sekeles do not indicate whether in this case a horizontal patibulum cross-beam was attached to the upright stake to which the victim's heel was nailed. The evidence was so ambiguous concerning the arms that Zias and Sekeles had to rely on the data provided by contemporary writings to support their reconstruction of the position of the arms as attached to a crossbar: Their reconstruction includes a crossbar which condemned man could carry to the place of execution and which could be used repeatedly for attachment to the upright stake permanently fixed in the ground:

References

Sources

* {{cite journal, last1=Zias, last2=Sekeles, title=The Crucified Man from Giv'at ha-Mitvar: A Reappraisal, journal=Israel Exploration Journal, volume=35, year=1985 1st-century deaths 1st-century people People executed by crucifixion Year of birth unknown 1968 archaeological discoveries 1968 in Israel People from Jerusalem Archaeological discoveries in Israel Archaeological discoveries in the West Bank category:1st-century artifacts 1st-century Jews