As we all know 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 skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary. The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than if the original coffins were left as is.
While the material remains and their associated cultural artifacts of our friends, colleagues, peers, and mentors in our unique field who have passed on are interred according to their own traditions often all that is left at the tail end of their legacy is an obituary - often limited by the price per word - and a trail of publications and good stories lost to history. My goal is to create a place where those who knew someone well can contribute a lasting repository of information and stories about those who have passed. The ossuary will be a gathering place, if you will, where old friends can come to pay their respects and reminisce. The youth can begin to comprehend the scale of the future in the past that they see before them by understanding how broad the shoulders are of the giants that they stand on who cleared these transects of knowledge on the path for greater understanding.
What makes this ossuary unique is that it will not be just for the luminaries in the field. There are already epigraphic monuments to them and they will also be welcomed. But the ossuary will also be for the ShovelBums, those who chose a career path that never brought them the accolades of academia and those whose lives were cut short before they could fully realize their potential in these fields we study. Comments on or additions to peoples personal ossuary will be carefully moderated to prevent anything negative. Go to the bar if you have an axe to grind, this will not be the place for it. And always remember, eventually it will be your time here too.
