The catacombs encircling Rome consist of passages or galleries tunneled through the relatively soft bedrock (tufa) of the region.
This type of inhumation burial, employed by Jews and Christians, was extremely practical in view of the increasing shortage of land around Rome and the rapid growth of the Jewish and Christian communities, especially the latter.
 The Jewish colony in Rome, considered the most ancient continuing Jewish community of the Diaspora in Europe, may date from the last third of the second century B.C.E. Its catacombs, however, cannot be definitely dated prior to the second century of our era. As many of the early Christians of Rome came from the Jewish community, it was inevitable that they would be influenced by Jewish burial customs. Christians could draw upon the model of the burial of Jesus in a rock-cut sepulchre sealed with a stone. However, other prototypes of subterranean burial chambers had been common throughout the Mediterranean from prehistoric times.
For the initial passageways, catacomb diggers may have at times utilized the abandoned spacious galleries called arenaria. These sandpits were created by quarriers of the volcanic earth, pozzolana, which was used for mortar by Roman builders. Hypogea and water conduits that had been hewn from the granular tufa were often utilized. If the terrain permitted, additional levels and corridors were excavated and floors lowered, as space for more burials was needed, until the catacomb included a vast, grid-like network of passageways.
The multi-leveled galleries of the Christian catacombs on occasion were dug as deeply as 20 to 22 meters into the soil. They are extensive and complex in contrast to the simpler galleries of |
the Jewish catacombs, and may have contained up to several thousand burials.
The most common type of grave was the loculus (a slot-like burial niche), which presented a special challenge to the expertise of the fossor (gravedigger). Carved in numerous tiers, these loculi could weaken the gallery walls if not properly planned. There were also burials in the floor. Affluent families had their own funerary chambers or cubicula, the walls of which could accommodate loculi, arcosolia (arched recesses over burials), and sarcophagi.
Generally the frescoes found in the catacombs appear in these chambers and in the arcosolia, which are more numerous in Christian and pagan than in Jewish catacombs.
A rare type of burial in the Roman catacombs is the kokh, a tunnel-like niche perpendicular to the catacomb gallery. The kokh possibly reflects a form of Near Eastern tombs, which may have been introduced originally from Alexandria.
In these deep subterranean passages, illumination was provided in various ways. Surface apertures known as lucernari or luminaria admitted light as well as air.
Seventh- and eighth-century itineraries written as guides for devout Christians have served as rich resources for modern investigators of the vast Christian reaches of Roma sotterranea. In the case of the pagan-Christian catacomb of the Via Latina, there had been no documentation (no shrines sanctified this private cemetery); and so its discovery was a fortuitous surprise. The unearthing of this veritable gallery of paintings as recently as 1955 reminds us that Rome, indeed, lies over a buried city, a large part of which remains yet to be uncovered. |
