An ossuary is a box in which remains are placed. In some cremation methods, not all of the bones were reduced to ashes. In those cases, the ashes and remaining bone fragments would be collected and placed either in an urn or in an ossuary.
In some inhumation burials, the bones left after the body had decomposed were collected and placed in an ossuary. The use of ossuaries instead of sarcophagi for inhumation burials saved a great deal of space.
Inhumation burials can either use a sarcophagus or an ossuary. A sarcophagus is a container in which the body of the deceased is placed intact.
Ossuaries were often simple boxes, although more ornate variations, some in the shape of houses or temples, are also known.
An ossuary could include the inscription, but often the ossuary would be placed in a niche and the epitaph would be placed on the wall beneath the niche was was the case with cinerary urns.
