The Crucifixion Bone

There is an oddity regarding crucifixion.It is well documented, and the Romans executed thousands of people this way. Yet, no physical evidence of a crucifixion ever came to light. Not a cross, nor any skeleton bearing the gruesome scars of being nailed to wood.

At the Israel Museum, archaeologists had another look at a stone coffin, or ossuary, containing a man’s bones. Inside, they found the only physical evidence of crucifixion, and it painted a different picture of the event than what artists had depicted over the centuries. The victim was a young Jew in his twenties, named Yehohanan. What his transgression was will never be known, but 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, he died on a cross.

Forced deeply into the heel bone was an iron nail. This revealed an unknown crucifixion technique. Most Christian iconography places Jesus with his feet staked to the front of the cross. Yehohanan’s feet had been nailed to the sides of the vertical beam. His hands were also undamaged, hinting that his arms were held in place against the horizontal bar with ropes instead of nails through the wrists.