Golgotha (place of a skull) . Whose skull??

[Tambora]

An Interesting take on Golgotha (Place of a Skull)

Matthew 27:33 ESV
And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull),​

One possibility as to why it was called "place of a skull" is because of a well known skull in Jewish history, namely Goliath's skull.

1 Samuel 17:51 & 54 ESV​

(51) Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.​

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(54) And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.​

Some have even suggested that Golgotha is a play on words, a pun, a compound word that clues us in as to whose specific skull was meant.
Golgotha
Goliath of Gath

 

[Josheb]

Why does the name have to specifically pertain to someone's skull?


Btw, Golgotha is about two miles from Jerusalem. David brought Goliath's head to Jerusalem from the valley of Elah near Socoh, but what is the evidence the skull was later taken two miles away out of Jerusalem? Furthermore, the word "Golgotha" is an English word, not the original Aramaic, which would be "gulgaltha," or the Hebrew "gulgoleth." In their generic meaning they all mean "head," not "skull." That Golgotha was called the place of the skull means they were assigning a specific denotative meaning to that location. Conversely, the Hebrew etymology of "Goliath" isn't known for sure but it could mean either "exile," or "captivity," (H1540) or "to uncover or reveal" (H155). In Assyrian-Babylonian the name means "destroyer," or "ravaging spirit" (which would be more consistent with the account of 1 Sam. 17). The point being: I'm not seeing the evidence to support Golgotha being named after Goliath's skull.

I am inclined to offer a simpler explanation. The location was called "gulgoleth," simply because either repeated diggings into the ground for the purpose of erecting hanging poles, or the erosion around the places where the vertical posts stood caused the place to look like a skull and the name has nothing to do with any individual's head or skull being buried there. In the first century, places for Roman crucifixion were often in graveyards or what were then called necropolises (places of/for the dead; graves or tombs). Sometimes crucifixes would be erected in places that were well-traveled as a show of Roman authority. It was the Jewish practice to bury or entomb their kin but animal and criminal corpses were burned (like in Gehenna). It is, therefore, not likely that gulgoleth was a place that was isolated but was a location within an area already designated for graves and tombs. Perhaps Goliath's head was taken out of Jerusalem and put in the graveyard where centuries later Roman criminals would be crucified but I think attributing the name to Goliath is a reach.