Ossuary

An ossuary is a chest, building, well or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains.

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In Persia the Zoroastrians used a deep well for this function from the earliest times (c. 3,000 years ago) and called it astudan (literally, "the place for the bones"). There are many rituals and regulations in the Zoroastrian faith concerning the astudans. The Iranian Aryans in the region of central-Asia called an ossuary tanbar and used them from very ancient times.

Persia: Persia can refer to:...

Zoroastrians: REDIRECT Zoroastrian...

Aryans: REDIRECT Aryan (disambiguation)...