Yeomans City of The Dead

City of the Dead
Author(s): Sarah Yeomans

Source: Archaeology, Vol. 61, No. 4 (July/August 2008), pp. 55-58, 60-62
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41780388
Accessed: 12-04-2016 14:50 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Archaeological Institute of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to Archaeology
This content downloaded from 193.198.215.13 on Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:50:40 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
City of the Dead
A journey through the catacombs of ancient Rome
by Sarah Yeomans
'Let them go down quick into hell . .' the city s ancient gates and into the has become a different experience
Only occasiona lly is light let in to countryside. The first few miles since the days of St. Jerome. Today,
mitigate the horror of the gloom , and leading out of Rome are flanked by the entrances to these underground
then not so much through a window as imposing walls that surround some cemeteries are gated and rigged
through a hole . You take each step with of the city's most prestigious homes with lights. I have come to journey
caution, as surrounded by deep night , and ancient churches. It is hard into the past, rather than connect
you recall the words of Virgil : ' The very to imagine that underneath these with the terrifying underworld. But
silence fills the soul with dread .' manicured gardens and well-kept at first, breathing the dank air and
- St. Jerome (fourth to estates lie hundreds of thousands of the scent of ancient stone in the
FIFTH CENTURY A.D.) subterranean burials. labyrinthine corridors, I can easily
Eventually I reach the mid-second imagine what so disturbed the poor
century catacombs of St. Callixtus, saint more than 1,600 years ago.
12 miles of galleries with niches Farther on, past the catacombs
Following
Following modern steps of bothsteps
modern ofinboth
Romans,
Romans, ancient ancient
theII hike
hike andandalong
foot- holding as many as half a million of St. Callixtus, I come to the
the Appian Way, through one of dead. Walking through such galleries catacombs of St. Sebastian, with
www.archaeology.org 55
Entrance to Vigna
Randanini, a rare example
of a Jewish catacomb
dating from the third to
the sixth century a.d.
because it is underlain
by tufa, a volcanic stone
that is soft when it is
first dug, but hardens
over time as it is exposed
to air.
Eventually, "catacomb"
came to refer to all
subterranean burial
structures, whether
Christian or Jewish (up
until the mid-second
century, pagans, for the
most part, cremated
their dead)* Christians
gradually stopped
using catacombs after
Christianity became the
state religion at the end
of the fourth century
a.d* Instead, they began
burying their dead in
or around the churches
more than six miles of galleries that being built then* By the 12th century,
also date from the second century many catacombs had been forgotten*
a*d* Some galleries have four distinct It wasn't until the efforts of Anto-
levels, one of which is thought to nio Bosio (1575-1629), who scoured
have been the hiding place for the church records and lives of the saints
remains of Sts* Peter and Paul in the for clues to where the catacombs
third century a*d* While these are the were located, that people once again
two most popular catacombs and the became aware of their importance*
ones most easily accessible to tourists, Eventually, Bosio explored and
there are about 70 such sites along the mapped about 30 subterranean galler-
principle roads leading out of the city; ies, and his life's work, published three
years after his death, was the massive
volume Roma Sotterranea *
comes from the Greek kata To build on Bosio's exploratory
The kymbas comeskymbas
word from whichwhich
"catacombs"literally
the literally Greekmeans work, the Pontifical Commission for
"by the hollows," and refers to the Sacred Archaeology was founded in
hollowed- out pits made by removing 1852* It oversaw the excavation and
stone in the quarries at St . Sebastian» upkeep of the Christian catacombs*
Most catacombs can be found Over the past 150 years, 40 additional
alongside or very close to the ancient catacombs have been discovered and
roads outside the city, in accordance the majority of known sites explored,
with a Roman law that the dead could excavated, mapped, and conserved*
not be buried inside the pomerium, "Because these were places of
the city's religious boundary* This veneration for early Christians since
countryside was ideal for constructing they contained the remains of martyrs
large galleries and burial niches and saints, many pilgrims like St*
56 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2008
Jerome came to Rome in the fourth
and fifth centuries," explains Gregory
DiPippo, an American theological CONTRARY beliefCONTRARY
aa poor,
poor, belief that
that disenfranchised Christians
TO Christians
disenfranchised werewere
THE COMMON
scholar and linguistic expert based in community, the finds from the
Rome whom I meet outside the small, catacombs show that some followers
largely unknown Jewish catacomb of of the burgeoning religion were
Vigna Randanini» Intelligent brown from the highest classes of Roman
eyes peer out from a face that seems society» Sifting through the dirt,
younger than his 40 years. He speaks archaeologists have found silver and
with a clipped New England accent gold jewelry, engraved gemstones, and
and the authority of someone who simpler objects from daily life, such as
has spent years studying theology lamps and vases» They also uncovered
and ancient languages at the impressive polychrome mosaics and
Augustinianum, a pontifical university frescoes, some of the only examples of
in Rome» "Fortunately for us many religious art that exist from the first
pilgrims itineraries were written three centuries of Christianity»
down and documented," he explains The catacombs were built by
to me/ Archaeologists have followed fossores, laborers who specialized
these itineraries to locate all major in cutting galleries and carving out
catacombs, and its safe to assume chambers and niches as space was
that they have all been located/ needed» Since catacombs stayed
However, even in the catacombs that within the boundaries of the property
have been extensively explored and under which they lay, the fossores
mapped, there likely exist galleries would sometimes dig second, third,
and perhaps entire levels that have yet or even fourth tiers of galleries» Many
to be discovered, as was the case for have remained relatively clear in the
an enigmatic group of mass burials intervening two millennia, but others
in the catacombs of Sts» Peter and are in a precarious condition, leaving
Marcellinus* (See www.archaeology. the Pontifical Commission with a
org for more on these discoveries») tremendous amount of dangerous
work exploring and documenting
A Latin inscription written phonetically them before it is too late» Some have
in Greek marks the grave of Marcella, the already collapsed»
daughter of Marcellus and Su[...].
Enter the modem fossori (the
Alberto Marcocci stands
inside a frescoed cubicula
(burial chamber) within
the Vigna Randanini
catacomb. Petronius the
scribe, who lived for
24 years, 4 months, and
15 days, was buried here.
Italian word from

the Latin fossores),
today s front line in
catacomb exploration*
Before a catacomb can
be studied, it might
have to be cleared of
tons of stone, dirt, and
debris. For the past
century and a half,
it has been the job
of the fossori of the
Pontifical Commission
to excavate and stabilize
the ancient galleries so
that archaeologists can
follow safely Rarely
do modern visitors to
the catacombs have an
inkling of what this
work is really like» For
the vast majority of us, the work of galleries,' * Marcocci tells me* "Those
the fossori is most evident in the of us who worked in this capacity
regularly spaced wall lights and expert rarely thought about the risk,
reinforcement that supports the however* The excitement of being
unstable and perilous vaults* the first into a chamber after almost
1,800 years made the fear of danger
seem quite far away - we simply
recorded the exact amount didn't think about it*' Nevertheless,
The of recorded timeofancient
time a persona theperson
exact Romanslived,
lived, amountdown
down often occasionally the instinct for self-
to days and, in some cases, even preservation did assert itself*
hours* In a similar fashion, Alberto He remembers being sent to the
Marcocci, a career fossore, remembers catacombs of the Giordani on the
exactly how long he worked for the Via Salaria to supervise the demoli-
Pontifical Commission - 41 years tion of a palazzo to ensure that the
and 42 days* Marcocci, an energetic catacombs below weren't damaged,
man in his 70s, has joined DiPippo and to be on hand in case a new
and me at the Vigna Randanini chamber was revealed* During the
catacomb to show us some of his demolition process, Marcocci was
handiwork* When he speaks, every being lowered down into the cata-
emphatic phrase is punctuated with combs when one of the walls began
extravagant arm gestures* And there to cave in and the chamber col-
are plenty of those as he describes his lapsed, almost burying the fossore*
career working in Romes cities of the "But you know what?" Marcocci
dead* "Excavating catacombs can be says, "I have always had the feeling
dangerous work, particularly when that we were being protected by the
entering into structurally unsound Christian martyrs, because during
Unfortunately, many who have come
my entire career working in the cata-
to the catacombs have left evidence of
combs, no one was ever killed ♦"
their visits in the form of graffiti. These
Officially retired, Marcocci now tourists from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and
employs his skills as a fossore at Vigna Fall River, Massachusetts, made their
marks in 1925.
Randanini, which is only accessible
to visitors with special permission
from the owners of the property, and cut into the walls of the galleries
is in desperate need of conservation* so that the bodies of the deceased
Although the catacomb is in better could be inserted with the head or
condition today than it was 30 years the feet pointing out, as opposed to
ago, largely thanks to Marcocci the Christian catacombs where the
and funding from the International bodies were placed inside the niches
Catacomb Society, the frescoes are (also called loculi ) with the side of
deteriorating from humidity Marcocci the body exposed* "We find these
himself has built the supporting types of internments in Jewish burial
masonry arches that now shore up sites in the Holy Land as well as
points in the catacomb that were in Egypt," says DiPippo* Like the loculi
danger of collapsing* niches, the kokim were sealed with
Used by the Jewish community inscription plates*
between the third and sixth centuries,
the Vigna Randanini catacomb was
excavated on more-or-less a single about the ancient Jewish
level and holds the burials of only More about community information thehere
community here ancient
comes
about 7,000 individuals, as opposed from the copious inscriptions that
to more than half-a-million buried cover the catacombs walls* Unlike
in some of Romes largest Christian official inscriptions on Rome's
catacombs* But scholars have ancient monuments, they have a
learned much from the catacomb, rough, almost homemade quality,
especially about the occupations and with crooked lines and disparate
religious practices of Romes Jewish letter types* The overall effect looks
community The Jewish catacombs like shaky handwriting* But despite
have many of the same structural their lack of artistic appeal, the
characteristics as Christian ones, but inscriptions reveal a great deal about
they also have kokim, burial niches the socioeconomic position of the
60 ARCHAEOLOGY - July/August 2008
people buried in the catacomb/'In
the inscriptions of Vigna Randanini,
we see evidence of a community
that is at least partially assimilated
at a linguistic level into the Roman
culture/' says DiPippo* "Greek phrases
are phonetically transcribed into
Latin, and there are inscriptions
in both languages with spelling
errors and grammatical mistakes *"
Interestingly several of these errors
occur in inscriptions that are
dedicated to scribes, professionals
who presumably would have mastered
the languages they were using. But
DiPippo explains/' We are dealing
with a group of people from a low
economic level of society; They dont
exhibit the level of literacy that we
have come to expect from the upper
classes of Roman society"
As we go through the unlit galleries
of Vigna Randanini, DiPippo often
has to duck his head to get his six-
foot- two -inch frame through some
of the low passageways* Walking
along in the cold, damp tunnel,
we try to ignore what seem to be
excessively large spiders scurrying
above our heads, and instead aim
our flashlights at some of the marble
and terracotta plaques that line the
walls of the ancient galleries* Ahead
of us, unconcerned by the oversized
arachnids, Marcocci is waving his
flashlight enthusiastically, pointing
out some of his favorite inscriptions*
The inscriptions also reveal the lives
and sentiments of individual members
of the community* A poignant one
reads simply:
The baby Marosa

who lived for four years
This inscription is accompanied by

a crudely inscribed image of a shophar,
a special type of horn used on Yom
Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atone-
ment* "The presence of this image,"
says DiPippo, "indicates that this
child was from a Levitical family, the
priestly class of Jewish people*" This
same inscription also has an inscribed
image of a palm frond - a symbol
found in the Christian catacombs, Tomb marker of the "well-deserving"
Castricius the scribe given by his wife Julia
representing victory over death»
Farther along the corridor,
another inscription - embellished
with an ivy leaf, a symbol of grief, and I emerge from the cool
and a cornucopia, an allusion to the As and dampness Marcocci,
dampness I emerge of theofDiPippo,
the fromcatacomb,
catacomb, the
abundance that the deceased will the light and heat of the Roman
partake of in Heaven - reads: summer day seem particularly
strong. Just over the hill, the bees on
Sirica the mother [made this] for Aster, the estates property hum pleasantly,
her well deserving daughter and the smell of blooming jasmine
wafts over as we shed our jackets
Just a few corridors down, an and hard hats. The bright world of
inscribed plaque with a carved image the living is a sharp contrast to that
of a set of scrolls notes: of the ancient dead, and yet the
catacombs did not seem to me to be
Castricius the scribe. Julia the world of dread and gloom
the wife [made this] for experienced by St, Jerome, Armed
her well-deserving husband with artificial lights, reliable maps,
and a knowledgeable guide, the
When I ask Marcocci about the modern visitor can focus on the
inscriptions in the catacomb under experience of entering such an
his care, he grins/They' re all nice," he unusual world. However, as I begin
says, with a wide flourish of his arm* my journey back toward Rome,
"Everyone says nice things about the I think about how the catacombs
dead. She was well- deserving, he was highlight the universality of what
blameless, etc» Its the same today it is to be human, the need to
No one ever goes to a funeral and mourn and remember lost loved
hears someone say of the deceased, ones, and the need to be
'He was a real jerk/ Yet," he continues, remembered ourselves, ■
"it is touching to see the devotion
with which the living remember the Sarah Yeomans is a journalist and
dead. It demonstrates the common archaeologist based in Rome and
characteristics shared by all human Washington, D.C. She is abo a certi-
beings, both past and present ," fied speleologist for the city of Rome.

Yeomans City of The Dead

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Yeomans City of The Dead

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

City of the Dead

Author(s): Sarah Yeomans

56 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2008

Italian word from

58 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2008

60 ARCHAEOLOGY - July/August 2008

The baby Marosa

This inscription is accompanied by

62 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2008

You might also like