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Potter's field

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For the album by 12 Stones see Potter's Field (album)

A potter's field is a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people.

1 Origin
2 New York City
3 See also
4 Popular culture
5 External links

[edit] Origin

Main article: Haceldama

The term comes from Matthew 27:7 in the New Testament of the Bible, in which Hebrew priests take 30 pieces of silver returned by a repentant Judas and "used the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners." It was not called "the potter's field" because a potter owned it, but rather because the land was unfit to grow crops, and therefore only used by potters to dig clay.

[edit] New York City

Washington Square Park and Bryant Park in New York City were originally potter's fields. The city's current facility of this type is on Hart Island.
Potter's Field also describes a small cove of the East River just below the Williamsburg Bridge on the Brooklyn side, where bodies that have been in the river from November through the winter season surface in April as the rising temperature causes them to decompose and rise to the surface. The fluid dynamics of the East River causes a collection of these bodies every year off the docks of Potter's Field.

[edit] See also

[edit] Popular culture

From Potter's Field is the name of a novel by Patricia Cornwell.
Potter's Field is the name of an album by the rock band 12 Stones.
On the title track to Johnny Cash's album American IV: The Man Comes Around, the lyrics include a reference to "the potter's ground" as a metaphor for dying without salvation.
"Potter's Field" is also the name of a song by heavy metal band Anthrax.
Hart Island (New York), the Potter's Field in New York City is featured in the film Don't Say a Word.
Tom Waits makes references to Potter's Field in several of his songs.
The Potter's Field is the name of one of the Brother Cadfael detective books by Ellis Peters.
Potter's Field is the name of a development by the greedy banker Potter in the Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life.
In the long-running MUD GemStone IV an area called the "Potter's Field" is the primary spawn area for zombies. The area's descriptions are, indeed, of a long-disused graveyard for the indigent and unknown.