Why three skulls at Calvary? While I do find the 'Calvaary' etymology attractive, I think there may be a better explanation. There is a very old belief that Adam and Eve were buried on the ground that became Calvary. I do not know the origin of the story but the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church traces it as far back as Origen (alas, no specific reference given). I would think there might be something on this in one of these sources: the Bibliotheca Sanctorum, one of the many patristic era Lives of Adam and Eve (see M.R. James edition or that of James H. Charlesworth, DACL (recommended in ODCC), or even the Encyclopedia Judaica.

The ODCC entry on Adam includes: "Acc. to a Jewish tradition, taken up by St. Jerome and long accepted in the W., he [Adam] was buried at Hebron. This supposition gradually gave way to another, first found in Origen and widespread, esp. in the E., which places his tomb on Calvary, so that at the Crucifixion the Blood of the Second Adam was pured out over the head of the First."

 

Maureen A. Tilley
Visiting Professor of Theology
Fordham University