[Avodah] Likut Atzomos

[David Riceman]

Akiva Blum wrote:
> The Mishna in pesachim perek 8 mishna 8 mention someone who is melaket atzmos oviv, gathering bones, as tomeh. This also appears in perek 1 of moed katan. The Tiferes Yisroel in pesachim says that people would bury their dead in a temporary grave, and after the meat had rotted, the bones would be reinterned in their ancestral cemetery. Can anyone point to a source, and perhaps also an explanation for this practice?
>   
See Martin Goodman, "Rome and Jerusalem", p. 248.  It's well documented 
archaeologically and in literature.  Goodman says "there is no certain 
explanation."

David Riceman