Akeldama (Hastings' Dictionary)

The popular name of 'the field of blood,' bought with the money paid to and returned by the traitor, Mt 27'"'°. The language of Ac 1'* seems also to imply that it was so named as the scene of his suicide. It is not impossible that a spot so defiled would be eagerly sold and bought in the circumstances described.

Such a place must have always been needed (Jer 26^), and at the time this ' field ' was purchased, owing to the multitude of ' strangers ' dwelling in and visiting Jerusalem, there may have been urgent need for a larger place of bunal, and a difficulty of procuring land for such a purpose.

The place had been previously kno>vn as ' the potter's held,' and seems to be identified with ' the potter's house ' of Jer 18' 19', which was in the valley of the son of Hinnom, the scene in earlier times of Molech- worship, and subsequently deliled as a place of burial (Jer T'""", 2 K 23'"). The traditional site is still kno^vn as Hakk-ed-Dumm (in the 12th cent, called Chaudemar, a manifest corruption of the original).

It is situated half-way up the hill, to the south of the Pool of Siloara, on a level spot. ' It is now a partly ruined building, "S ft. long outside and 57 ft. wide, erected over rock- cut caves and a deep trench.' Originally there had been tombs cut in a natural cave, which forms the inner or southern part ; and though these have been broken up to enlarge tue space, six ' loculi ' remain on the western .«ide and two on the eastern.

A deep trench has been cut in front of the original rooK-tombs, 30 ft. deep, 21 ft. wide, and 63 ft. long. The wall buUt on the outer edge of the trench is about 30 ft. high. A stone roof thrown over the trench joins the hill face {PEFSt, 1892, p. 283 ff.) Apparently there was a clili' here with a natural cave in the face of 0. This may have been used, as caves frequently are, as a potter's workshop.

But the name of the gate, ' Ilarsith,' Jer 19' ' the gate of jiotsherds,' would rather indicate that the site of the potter's workshop was close by the gate, and not across a valley from it ; his work would also require a supply of water to bo at hand ; nor can the Valley of Hinnom be said to be conclusively identified. According to Eu.sebius, Akeldama was on the north of the city ; .Jerome (by a slip or of design) places it on the south.

From the seventh century (Arculph) it has been pointed out on the presently accepted site. Krafft {Top. Jer. p. 193) says he saw clay dug at Hakk-ed-Dumm ; but Schick denies that jiotter's clay is found there, and says that only a kind of chalk used to mix witli clay is got higher up the hill ; but even if it were, clay is not used where it is found, but where facilities for its use are greatest.

The ownership of the spot has been more valued in later times than when purchased by the chief priests. In the 12th cent, the Latins got it from the Syrians, in the 16th cent, it was in the possession of the Anneniiins, in the 17th cent, of the Greeks, and it passed again to the Armenians, who at the close of that century paid a rent for it to the Turks.

More strange is the virtue attached to its soil of quickly consuming dead bodies, because of which, notwithstanding its history, 270 shiploads are said to have been taken to form the Campo Santo at Rome, and seven shiploads to Pisa for a like purpose. Schick cal- culates the accumulation in it of bones and small stones at 10 to 15 ft. deep. A. Henderson. AKKOS {'AKKiis, A ; "AicjSuls, B ; AV Accoz), 1 Es 5's=Hakkoz (wh. see).