Jehohanan (Hebrew: יהוחנן, romanized: Yəhōḥānān) was a Judean man sentenced to death by crucifixion sometime in the 1st century CE. His ossuary was found in 1968 when building contractors working in Giv'at ha-Mivtar accidentally uncovered a Jewish tomb.[1] The stone ossuary had the Hebrew inscription of "Jehohanan the son of Hagkol" (Hebrew: יהוחנן בן הגקול, romanized: Yehoḥanan ben Hagqol; the meaning of hgqwl is uncertain,[2] hence his name sometimes being given as Johanan ben Ha-galgula).
In his initial anthropological observations in 1970 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Nicu Haas concluded that Jehohanan was crucified with his arms stretched out and his forearms nailed, possibly on a two-beamed cross.[3] However, a 1985 reappraisal by Joseph Zias and Eliezer Sekeles of the Hebrew University found multiple errors in these observations.[4][5] Zias and Sekeles proposed that a horizontal beam was affixed to vertical stakes, with Jehohanan's arms tied and death occurring from asphyxiation.[6]