Akeldama

Akeldama (Aramaic Ḥaql Dema, meaning field of blood) was the name given to the potter's field purchased with the thirty pieces of silver returned by Judas Iscariot after his betrayal of Jesus (Acts 1:18–19; Matthew 27:3–10). The two accounts differ in detail: Matthew states that the chief priests purchased the field with the returned money to use as a burial place for foreigners; Acts says Judas himself purchased the field and died there with a gruesome fall. Both agree that the field was renamed the Field of Blood and that this fulfilled a prophetic word — Matthew citing Zechariah 11:12–13 via Jeremiah 32:6–9.

The traditional site is the southeast slope of the Hinnom Valley, at the junction of the Hinnom and Kidron valleys south of Jerusalem — an area associated with the potters' trade and with earlier religious history as the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna). A large building over an ancient charnel house at the site was used as a burial ground through medieval times. The cave-tomb beneath it has been excavated and is believed by some archaeologists to preserve the location of the original purchase.