Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27144409-20181230221048/@comment-24994749-20190116211515

Glitchee123z wrote: What’s a potter’s field?

TL.DR.: A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people. It's called that becase the land used by potters to extract clay is left unusable for agriculture and thus might be turned into a graveyard.

Longer Explanation:

''"Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning field of blood in Aramaic), stated to have been purchased, with the coins that had been paid to Judas Iscariot for his identification of Jesus, after Judas' suicide, by the high priests of Jerusalem. The priests are stated to have acquired it for the burial of strangers, criminals, and the poor, the coins paid to Judas being considered blood money. Prior to Akeldama's use as a burial ground, it had been a site where potters collected its high-quality, deeply red clay for the production of ceramics, thus the name potters' field.''

''(..) After the clay was removed, such a site would be left unusable for agriculture and thus might as well become a graveyard for those who could not be buried in an orthodox cemetery. This may be the origin of the name. A field where potters dug for clay would also be "conveniently already full of trenches and holes." ''