AKELDAMA (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Aceldama).The name of the potters field (Act_1:19), purchased for the burial of strangers with the blood-money returned by Judas (Mat_27:3). The traditional site is at the E. side of the Wady er-Rababi (the so-called Valley of Hinnom) on the S. side of the valley. It is still known as Hakk ed-Dumm (field of blood). which represents the old name in sound and meaning. The identification has not been traced earlier than the Crusaders, who erected here a charnel-house, the ruins of which still remaina vault about 70 feet long and 20 feet wide (internal dimensions) erected over and covering the entrance to some of the ancient rock-cut tombs which abound in the valley. The skulls and bones which once thickly strewed the floor of this charnel-house have all been removed to a modern Greek monastery adjacent. There is no evidence recoverable connecting this site with the work of potters.
R. A. S. Macalister.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Akel'dama. Revised Version of Act_1:19 for Aceldama.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
a-kel?da-ma (Ἀκελδαμά, Akeldamá, or, in many manuscripts, Ἀκελδαμάχ, Akeldamách; the King James Version, Aceldama): A field said in Act_1:19 to have been bought by Judas with the ?thirty pieces of silver.? In Mat_27:6, Mat_27:7 it is narrated that the priests took the silver pieces which Judas had ?cast down ... into the sanctuary? and ?bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.? Doubtless it was a supposed connection between this potter's field and the potter's house (Jer_18:2) and the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (Jer_19:2) which influenced the selection of the present site which, like the Aramaic הקלדּמא, h-q-l-d-m-' (Dalman), is today known as מ, haḳḳ-ed-dumm, ?field of blood.?
Tradition, which appears to go back to the 4th century, points to a level platform on, and some distance up, the southern slope of the Wady er Rababi (Valley of Hinnom) just before it joins the Kidron Valley. Upon this spot there is a very remarkable ruin (78 ft. x 57 ft.) which for many centuries was used as a charnel house. The earth here was reputed to have the property of quickly consuming dead bodies. So great was its reputation that vast quantities of it are said to have been transported in 1215 ad to the Campo Santo at Pisa. When this building was standing entire, the bodies were lowered into it through five openings in the roof and then left to disintegrate, so that a few years ago there were very many feet of bones all over the floor. These have now been removed. A little Southeast of this ruin is a new Greek monastery erected in recent years over the remains of a large number of cave tombs; many of the bones from ?Akeldama? are now buried here.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.