A place where the bones of the dead are deposited; a charnel house.
a "bone box," a depository for the bones of the dead. According to Jewish burial practices in the land of Israel at the time of Jesus, the bones of the deceased were collected one year after an initial interment and reinterred in a small container usually carved from stone. Ossuaries were generally decorated with geometric or other designs, and often inscribed with the name(s) of the deceased. Sometimes the bones of several members of the same family were collected and placed in the same ossuary. The average size of these boxes was 50 cm. long, 30 cm. wide and 30 cm. high. About nine hundred ossuaries have been found in the vicinity of Jerusalem alone.
any place set aside for the bones of the dead
The elegant way to say "bone-pit" or "charnel house".
A depository for the bones of the dead (unlikely but theoretically possible in the contemporary Midwest; it was a common secondary burial customary among ancient Jews and others).
a place to hold the bones of the dead.
any receptacle for the burial of human bones
a burial box in which the bones of a dead person are placed for reburial in a location different from the original tomb after one year
a container for storing bones
a container or receptacle, such as an urn or a vault, for holding the bones of the dead
a container used to hold the bones of a dead person
a stone or earthenware box to contain the bones of a dead person after the flesh has dried away - ossuaries were in common use in Palestine at the time of Jesus
a stone box, urn, or other container in which the bones of the dead are stored
Depository for the bones of dead people.
(6) -- a building below ground level, usually an annex to a tomb, for the storage of human bones moved out of the tomb to make room for fresh interments (Warren, 145)