Posted on 05/02/2006 10:16:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists repairing a Roman catacomb have discovered an unusual network of underground burial chambers containing the elegantly dressed corpses of more than 1,000 people...
The rooms appear to date back to the second century and are thought to be a place of early Christian burial. Because of the large number of bodies deposited over a relatively short period, experts believe a natural disaster or epidemic may have occurred at the time.
The corpses, dressed in fine clothes embroidered with gold thread, were carefully wrapped in sheets and covered in lime. Balsamic fragrances were also applied, according to Raffaella Giuliani, chief inspector of the Roman catacombs, who spoke with Vatican Radio May 1...
Giuliani said the burial chambers were found accidentally in 2003, when experts were repairing a cave-in located in the Catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, one of Rome's lesser-known catacombs that is closed to the public.
The archaeologists discovered a large room behind one of the painted walls of the catacombs, then a series of similar rooms.
"These were not galleries or cubicles, but big rooms completely full of skeletons. We had to work very carefully to excavate them without destroying them," Giuliani said.
"We were amazed at the high number of individual corpses found in these rooms," she said. The rooms appear to predate the catacombs, which were built in the third century.
Giuliani said the experts believe they were Christian burial places, in part because Christians of that time dedicated great care to burial. Early Christians buried rich and poor with great dignity, in expectation of the resurrection of the dead -- a fact that helps explain the presence in Rome of more than 50 miles of underground catacombs.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnews.com ...
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A lost Gore in '04 fundraising party?
Interesting! *bump*
Whomever they were, I'm sure they'll be voting Dhimmicratic in 2006.
I read a book many years ago, 'The Martyr of the Catacombs' I believe. Very interesting book about the catacombs, how they came to be, and what it was like to be down there during the Christian persecutions.
"Elegantly dressed corpses"?
Hmmm. Lucky stiffs...
All dressed up and no place to go.
The soil on which the city of Rome is built, as well as that of the surrounding district, is of volcanic origin; alluvial deposits are found only on the right bank of the Tiber, on the downward course of the stream, below the Vatican. Wherever the volcanic deposits occur three strata appear, one above the other: the uppermost is the so-called pozzolano, earth from which the Romans, by an admixture of lime, prepared their excellent cement; next is a stratum of tufa, made up half of earth and half of stone; the lowest stratum is composed of stone. From the earliest times the lowest layer was worked as a stone quarry, and, both in the lowest and uppermost strata, irregularly hewn galleries are discovered everywhere, as in the Capitoline Hill and in the suburbs of the city.
It was formerly believed that the early Christians used these galleries as places of burial for their dead. But all the catacombs are laid out in the middle stratum of tufa, from which no building-material was obtained. It is only necessary to compare the irregular galleries of the sand-pits and stone-quarries with the narrow straight passages and vertical walls of the catacombs in order to recognize the difference. In some cases an arenaria, or sand-pit, forms the starting-point for the laying out of a catacomb; in other spots the catacombs are connected by a gallery with the arenariae so that entrance could be gained into the Christian city of the dead, in times of persecution, without exciting notice. The catacombs are, therefore, entirely of Christian construction. As a rule a stairway leads below the surface to a depth of from thirty-three to forty-nine feet or even more; from this point diverge the galleries, which are from ten to thirteen feet in height, and seldom broader than would be necessary for two grave-diggers, one behind the other, to carry a bier. Side galleries branch off from the main galleries, intersecting other passages. From this level or story steps lead to lower levels where there is a second network of galleries; there are catacombs which have three or even four stories, as, for example, the Catacomb of St. Sebastian. The labyrinth of galleries is incalculable. It has been asserted that if placed in a straight line they would extend the length of Italy. Along the passages burial chambers (cubicula) open to the right and left, also hewn out of the tufa rock. In the side walls of the galleries horizontal tiers of graves rise from the floor to the ceiling; the number of graves in the Roman catacombs is estimated at two millions. The graves, or loculi, are cut out of the rock sides of the gallery, so that the length of the bodies can be judged from the length of the graves. When the body, wrapped in cloth, without a sarcophagus, was laid in the spot excavated for it, the excavation was closed by a marble slab or sometimes by large tiles set in mortar. For the wealthy and for martyrs there were also more imposing graves, known as arcosolia. An arcosolium was a space excavated in the wall above which a semicircular recess was hewn out, in which a sarcophagus was sometimes placed; in the excavation below, the body was laid and covered with a flat marble slab. It was not common to bury the dead beneath the floor of the passages or burial chambers. At the present day the majority of the graves are found open, the slabs which once sealed them having vanished; often nothing remains of the ashes and bones. The rock and broken material loosened by the constant digging in the innumerable passages were piled up in the sand-pits nearby, or brought to the surface in baskets, or were heaped up in the passages which were no longer visited because the families of the dead had passed away. In order to obtain light, and above all fresh air, shafts called luminaria, somewhat like chimneys, were cut through the soil to the surface of the ground. These luminaria, however, are seldom found before the fourth century, when the great numbers of the faithful who attended religious services in the catacombs on the feast days of the martyrs rendered such precautions for health a necessity. At this date also wider and easier stairways were made, leading from the surface of the ground into the depths below.
The early Christian name for these places of burial was koimeterion, coemeterium, place of rest. When, in the Middle Ages, the recollection of the catacombs passed away, the monks attached to the church of St. Sebastian on the Via Appia kept the coemeterium ad catacumbas on this road accessible for pilgrims. After the rediscovery and opening of the other coemeteria, the name belonging to this one coemeterium was applied to all. The catacombs awaken astonishment on account of the remarkable work of construction which, in the course of three hundred years, the piety of the early Christians and their love for the dead produced. In estimating the enormous sum of money required for the catacombs, it must also be taken into consideration that the early Christians, by voluntary contributions, supported the clergy, aided the poor, widows, and orphans, assisted those sent to prison or the mines on account of their faith, and bought from the executioners at a large price the bodies of the martyrs.
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Wouldn't this find of richly dressed bodies refute the long held notion that the early Christian religion appealed mainly to the poor and slaves in Rome??
Get ready to be told that St. Peter was never in Rome.
Thanks! I wonder if anyone will try to discover the nature of that plague through forensic methods?
1 Pe 5:13 She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings; and so does my son Mark.
The funny part about this is that the same people do not hesitate to identify Babylon as Rome (specifically the One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic Church) when performing their eschatological "exegesis."
Wish they'd get it straight.
Possibly, but not necessarily. Dressing a corpse was in some ways like vesting a priest: a symbolic and sacramental act. A single wealthy patron could have paid for burial clothing for 1,000 people of much more modest means, just as Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man, supplied the burial place and arrangements for Jesus.
While I agree with you that the burial clothes COULD have been paid for by a wealthy patron, Occam's Razor suggests that another explanation is much more likely.
Historian Philip Harland note the lack of Christian memorial momuments of the type that well-to-do people often had in the first 2 centuries of the Christian era, and also has this to say:
"..There is truth in [Celsus'] observation, about a century after Paul, that attachments through workshops of wool-workers, shoe-makers, and clothing-cleaners continued as a key resource for newcomers to some Christian groups (Origen, Cels. 3.55)."
http://www.philipharland.com/articlehandbook17.html
Harland also notes the role of wealthier members of the congregation as benfactors.
Read the old classic Fabiola (Lepanto Press) to get an idea of how both wealthy and poor were early Christians in the catacombs. Both lived and died for the hidden faith.
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