Levi Rahmani

Levi Yizhaq Rahmani (Hebrew: לוי יצחק רחמני‎, d. 3 September 2013) was an Israeli archeologist and Chief Curator of Israel Antiquities Authority,^[1] and notable for his work on tombs, ossuaries and ossilegia (bone gatherings) in the Second Temple period. Ossuaries are generally catalogued as "Rahmani no. 9", etc., following the numbering in Rahmani's 1994 catalogue.^[2]

Rahmani's work includes explanations of why sometimes iron nails were found in some tombs - unrelated to Roman crucifixion nails,^[3] and the earlier dating of tombs.^[4]

Works

• L. Y. Rahmani, Ossuaries and Bone-Gathering in the Late Second Temple Period, Qad 1 1 (1978) 102-1 12, figs. (Hebrew)
• L. Y. Rahmani, Roman Tombs in Shmuel HaNavi Street, Jerusalem, IEJ 10(1960) 140-149
• L. Y. Rahmani, Jewish Tombs in the Romema .
• L. Y. Rahmani, The Decoration on Jewish Ossuaries as Representation of Jerusalem's Tombs (unpublished English abstract of doctoral dissertation in Hebrew, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1977)
• Papers on the archaeology of Jewish tombs during the Second Temple period, 1958, 1961, 1982a
• "Jason's Tomb," Israel Exploration Journal, 17 (1967).
• Levi Yitzaq Rahmani, A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries in the Collections of the State of Israel (Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority, 1994).^[5]

References

1. Funerary portraiture of Roman Palestine Ilona Skupinska-Løvset - 1983 "The material , with few exceptions, is hitherto unpublished, and I want here to express my thanks for being allowed to study and publish the objects, I want especially to thank Chief Curator L Y Rahmani of Israel Department of Antiquities
2. Craig A. Evans -Jesus and the ossuaries 2003 p69 "Greek examples from ossuaries include “Sarah, (daughter) of Simon of Ptolemais” (Rahmani 1994a, no. 99), “Mathia and Simon, brothers, sons of Ya'ir; masters of the tomb” (Rahmani 1994a, no. 560), “(Ossuary) of Simon, age 41” (Rahmani ...
3. http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2011/04/14/Simcha-Jacobovici-and-the-Nails-From-Caiaphas-Tomb.aspx#Article "Dr. Levi Rahmani (1994), an expert on Jewish ossuaries, has suggested two possible uses for nails that were found in tombs. The first use is for fixing the lid of an ossuary to the bone box. Rahmani cites one example where there were still traces of iron in the hole (1961: 102, no. 9). The second use is for “scratching the name of the deceased on an ossuary” (1961: 100)."
4. Philip J. King, American archaeology in the mideast: a history of the American ... 1983 "On the basis of architectural style scholars were inclined to date these tombs in the second century BC; today Avigad, Rahmani, and other Israeli scholars assign a date in the first century ad (before ad 70)."
5. ULI Holdings: קטלוג של גלוסקמאות יהודיות : קטלוג של גלוסקמאות יהודיות : מאוספי מדינת ישראל Main Author: רחמני, לוי יצחק. Rahmani, Levi Yizhaq. Format: Book. ISBN 965-406-016-7. Published .