From 20 BC had led to the Hellenization of the entire region (Fine p.2). Ossuaries were an integral part of these burial practices, which involved burying the person twice. These ossuaries were generally made of the same materials and decorated according to certain patterns. The ossuary housed at the Kelsey Museum is indicative of the form that most of these artifacts took and the style in which they were fashioned.IntroductionIn 586 BCE, 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 Babylonia, destroying the kingdom as a political entity. About fifty years later, 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 exiled Jews returned to their ancestral homeland, although some chose not to, forming the beginnings of the Jewish diaspora. The Cyrus Declaration 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 uprising, but then resumed under Darius I. The temple was completed in 516 BCE, marking the start of the Second Temple period. In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire...... middle of paper ......written in Hebrew or Greek, since these were the main spoken languages ​​of the region, but were sometimes written in other languages ​​(Rahmani p.13). The reason seems to be that the deceased were Jews who, due to the diaspora, lived in other regions of the Middle East, but who wanted to be buried near Jerusalem because of its religious significance (Rahmani p.13). Once again, ossuaries from this period demonstrate the unique cultural fusion that was occurring at this 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, as well as internal changes in belief, manifested themselves in art, literature, and in the burial of the dead. During the short time they were popular, ossuaries provide an unprecedented window into these developments..